Sound start study: The print knowledge of preschool children with speech sound disorders before and after intervention targetting speech and pre-literacy abilities

Print knowledge refers to children's knowledge about book and print organisation, print meaning,letters and words (Sawyer et al., 2014). Print knowledge is important because of its relationship to early literacy. Previous research has suggested that pre-schoolers with speech sound disorders (SSD) are at risk of later literacy difficulties. This risk has been associated with speech production and phonological awareness difficulties. Relatively little is known about their print knowledge. If we are to better address these children's risk of literacy difficulties, we need to examine the range of foundation abilities that support literacy acquisition. This need was addressed as part of the Sound Start Study. Specifically, the print knowledge of 1, 2, 3, 4- and 5-year-old children with SSD was assessed before and after receiving a computer-based intervention targeting speech and pre-literacy skills. The intervention was administered by preschool staff over 9 weeks. Using a clustered randomized control trial design, preschool centres were randomly assigned to either an intervention or control group. To assess print knowledge we used the Preschool Word and Print Awareness Assessment (Justice & Ezell, 2001), and examined the children's knowledge of letter names and sounds. At baseline, the children had limited knowledge about print concepts (e.g., directionality, print function) and letters with the majority of children having no knowledge of letter sounds. All children were reassessed 1-week and 3-months post-intervention. Comparisons of print knowledge in children who received the intervention with those receiving standard care will be reported and implications discussed.