A 4-year-old child looks at a book with parents as an interventionist observes him tracing each word from left to right and reciting familiar phrases. Which literacy skill is this best showing?

• A. Tyler demonstrates understanding of letter recognition.
• B. Tyler demonstrates understanding of print concepts.
• C. Tyler demonstrates understanding of phonemic awareness.
• D. Tyler demonstrates understanding of morphological awareness.

Answer: (B)

Understanding how print works in books is being demonstrated here. When a child traces each word from left to right while looking at a book and recites familiar phrases, they’re showing awareness of the way text is organized and how we move through it. This reflects knowledge of print concepts, including the idea that reading proceeds in a left-to-right direction and that words are units of meaning arranged in lines. Using the book as a scaffold to recite familiar phrases also shows that print carries language and meaning for this child.

This isn’t primarily about identifying individual letters, which would be letter recognition; nor is it about hearing and manipulating sounds, which would be phonemic awareness; nor about understanding word parts like prefixes or suffixes, which would be morphological awareness. The behavior here centers on how the text itself is organized and navigated, which is the essence of print concepts.