A measure of emerging print knowledge in young children

Abstract

There is a need for more comprehensive assessments of young children's emerging print knowledge. Traditional letter and numeral identification assessments score children's responses as either correct or incorrect and this approach can underestimate what children know. The present study tested an assessment scale that scored three- and four-year-old children's (N = 69; M age = 49.17 months) responses along a continuum from no letter and numeral name knowledge, to using a mix of non-conventional and conventional names, through to full mastery. Compared to traditional scoring, the new scale was more comprehensive because it included more elements of each child's emerging knowledge of letter and numeral identification and was more sensitive to individual differences among children. The emergent print identification scale can be used to inform learning and teaching in the early years classroom and be used in early literacy research.

Keywords:

• emergent literacy
• print identification
• letters
• numerals
• early literacy assessment

Notes on contributors

Michelle M. Neumann is a post-doctoral research fellow at the Griffith Institute for Educational Research. Her research interests include early childhood development, emergent literacy, environmental print, multisensory learning, and parent-child interactions.

David L. Neumann is an associate professor in the School of Applied Psychology, Griffith University. His research interests are attention and learning with a particular focus on statistics education and human performance.