The World is a Book: The Importance of Environmental Print in Children's Early Literacy Development

What is environmental print?

Environmental print is the print we see all around us, indoors and outdoors, that is meant to give us information.  It is found in all sorts of different forms – signs, signals, symbols, labels, logos – and can include words or pictures or both.

Examples of print found outdoors in our communities:

• Signs along our roads and highways – street names, speed limits, STOP, Yield, One-Way, Do Not Enter, (No) Parking, Crosswalks, Bus Stops, etc.
• Signs for road work or construction - Work Zone, Detour Ahead, etc.
• Signs in parks or along trails- Stay off Grass, No Dogs, Pick up after your Dog, No Trespassing, Private Property, etc.
• For-sale or rent signs on front lawns
• Names on storefronts and buildings – hospitals, libraries, museums, hotels, diners, restaurants, bakeries, cafes, boutiques and box stores, etc.
• Advertisements - billboards, bus shelters, buses, taxi cabs, etc.
• On vehicles and transportation – police, fire, ambulance, trucks, freight trains, etc. 

Examples of print found indoors in public places and in our homes:

• Food packaging – cereal boxes, condiments, labels on cans, etc.
• Signs directing us to places or things in indoor public spaces - Exit, Restroom, Stairs, Elevator, etc.
• Information in shops, grocery aisles, restaurants, clinics, offices – Express Checkout, Fitting Room, Waiting Room, Please Take a Number, etc.
• Bulletin boards, menus
• Clothing labels, logos, and messages

During the Covid-19 pandemic, we have new signs telling us to wear a mask and social distance (stay 6 feet apart from someone else).  Signs and arrows show us where to stand and how to walk safely through stores and buildings.

Why is it important for your child to be aware of environmental print?

Each time you point out and talk about the print you and your child see all around you -- indoors and outdoors -- every day, you are teaching her that print carries a message and that the messages can come in many different styles or formats – not only in words but also in pictures or symbols.

Books are a wonderful way to introduce the concept and encourage your child’s interest in the print all around her.  Road Work Ahead, by Anastasia Suen (illustrated by Jannie Ho), and Truck Stop, by Anne Rockwell (illustrated by Melissa Iwai), are filled with excellent examples of the type of outdoor print your child is likely to encounter while out walking or driving with you.  These selections from Dolly Parton's Imagination Library and BEGIN WITH BOOKS are sure to become among your child’s favorites. 

Continue to promote her literacy development and extend the learning by pointing out the actual, or similar, type of print she sees in her day-to-day activities and excursions.  Talk about what the signs, labels, packaging, etc., means and why they are used.  You can ask questions like:

• What do you think it says? How do you know?
• Why do you think the sign is so big?
• How did looking at the sign help us?
• Who do you think put the sign there? Why?
• Why do you think they put a picture by the words on the sign?
• Why is there a picture of a bowl of cereal on the box? What do you think these words (on the cereal box, milk carton, etc.) say?
• Why do you think the pedestrian crossing lights flash?

These questions are great conversation starters as she’ll need lots of help from you to answer them.

Here are some other activities you might like to try:

• Take a walk in your neighborhood and look for different kinds of signs.  Make a game of it.  For example, let’s look for signs that start with a particular letter, color or picture.  If your child is a little older, you could even turn this into a driving game as long as your attention stays on the road and your hands on the wheel!

• After reading a story like Caterina and the Lemonade Stand, by Erin Eitter Kono, think of a situation in the story where someone might have made a sign to help them say or do something.  Talk about what might go on the sign and let her use her imagination.   She is learning that signs carry messages, and that’s all that counts.  Depending on the age of your child, she might need some help - will she use words or draw pictures? (Younger children might copy familiar letters or older children might sound them out to spell them).  Is more than one sign needed?

• Help your child make her own book of signs.  Walk around the neighborhood with your child taking pictures of the different kinds of signs she points out.  She can pose by some of them too.  Later, look at the pictures with her and let her choose some to print out and use to make a book.  Together you can make up a story to go with the pictures.  Choose the pictures you will use, a title and some simple text for the picture (e.g., “This sign says House for Sale.  I saw it on my street.”; “This sign says Food Lion.  I go there with my mom to buy food.”

 -- Caron Bell, PhD, Early Childhood Development, and beginwithbooks.org volunteer

Note: The books featured in this blog are all selections from Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.  BEGIN WITH BOOKS is a licensed affiliate of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.