Their advice: As you read a book to your child, be sure to occasionally point out some things about the print on the page.
• Point at words and letters as you say them.
• Show how certain words, like names, start with capital letters.
• Demonstrate how you read from left to right and from top to bottom.
Children whose teachers used those techniques during story time had more advanced reading skills one or two years later compared with children whose teachers didn't use them.
Parents as well as teachers can make use of the findings, the study's authors suggested.
Shayne Piasta, an OSU professor and co-author, said in a release that the approach not only helps with word recognition and spelling but also seems to improve reading comprehension down the road.
"By showing them what a letter is and what a letter means, and what a word is and what a word means, we're helping them to crack the code of language and understand how to read," she said.