Examples of How to Use Print Referencing Cues During Shared Reading in Speech Therapy

Hi friends!

Ready to bring print referencing to life in your sessions?

In this follow-up to my introductory post on print referencing, we’re diving into real examples you can use during shared book reading to build print awareness with ease.

Print referencing is a simple yet powerful way to boost emergent literacy skills—without needing a separate curriculum or extra prep.

If you're already using books for literacy-based therapy or narrative language intervention, this is a natural way to incorporate cues that support early reading skills.

Below, you’ll find a variety examples of all five types of print referencing cues.

You'll also notice the cues cover all three areas of print awareness (i.e. written language): print concepts, concept of a word, and alphabet knowledge.

Pick and choose what works best for your students and their needs!

Before you start reading

Pick up the book and bring your students' awareness to how a book should be held.

Purposely hold it upside down and ask, "Is this how we read a book?"

If your students aren't ready for that, you can say, "Oops! The book is upside down. I can't read it like that. Let's turn it the correct way."

Then you can bring attention to the front and back of the book: "This is the front of the book. It's called the cover. This is where we start."

You can also add: "The cover of the book tells us the title of the story, the name of the person that wrote the book, and the name of the person that drew the pictures."

Point out the title and say, "Here is the title of the story." Then as you track your finger under the word(s), say, "The title is: Dragons Love Tacos."

Repeat these non-verbal and verbal print referencing cues with the author and/or illustrator's name.

print concepts

Open the book and ask students where you should start reading. You can ask, "Do you remember where we start reading on the page?" or "Where would you start if you were reading the story to me?"

For students who need modeling, you can try, "We start by reading the words here at the top of the page and then we move to the side." (if you're reading in English)

As you read, you can point to or track the words on the pages and point out paragraphs, sentences, and/or words.

You could say something like, "This sentence says 'Dragons listen to me'. I know the sentence has ended because I see a period. A period tells me the sentence has ended."

If your book has page numbers you can point them out and relate them to where in the story you're at: "We're on page 2. That's a small number. We're still in the beginning of the book."

concept of a word (with some print concepts sprinkled in)

Point out certain sentences or words, especially if they are repeating words or emphasized in some way.

For example, in the picture below you can point to the sentence that is capitalized and larger than the rest of the text on the page and say something like:

➡️ This sentence says 'DO NOT LET THOSE DRAGONS EAT THOSE TACOS!!!' Why do you think this sentence is written so largely?

➡️ This sentence is written in capital letters to show that it is really important the boy doesn't let the dragons eat the tacos.

➡️ Ooh do you think something bad will happen if they eat the tacos?

You could also point to the words "crunch" since they repeat:

➡️ This word says 'crunch.' What do you think this word says? (point to the other words that say "crunch").

➡️ What do these words mean?

➡️ These words tell us the dragons are taking many bites of the crunchy tacos.

In the picture below from the story "Be You," you could say:

➡️ This word colored pink says 'forward'. Why do you think it's a different color than the rest of the words?

➡️ These words have big/capital letters. That means they're important.

In the picture below from "Today I will Fly" (Elephant and Piggy series), you could point out the word bubbles, their colors, and talk about how they relate to the characters:

➡️ These are talking bubbles. That means this is what the characters are saying. Let's see if we can find more talking bubbles on the next page!

➡️ This word bubble is pink. It says 'fly, fly, fly, fly.' Who do you think said those words?

➡️ Piggy said the words in this bubble. We know Piggy said them because the talking bubble is pink like Piggy and it points to Piggy.

➡️ This talking bubble is gray. It says 'You need help.'

➡️ Who do you think said 'you need help'? How do you know?

You can also talk explicitly about individual word as its own unit:

➡️ This word says fly. How many times did Piggy say fly? Let's count!

➡️ Let's count how many words the elephant said.

In the picture below from the story "Strictly No Elephants," you can point out the words in the illustration:

➡️ (Point to the sign on the door) This word says strictly. This word says no. This word says elephants.

➡️ One, two, three. There are three words on this sign. Together they say Strictly No Elephants. What does that mean?

➡️ Strictly no elephants means elephants are not allowed inside the house

➡️ What if someone can't read yet? Will they still understand what the sign means? How? (answer: the drawing)

In the picture below from the story "How to Catch a Monster" you can draw attention to the word "roar":

➡️ He's practicing his roar. Can you show me where it says roar?

➡️ Why is the word 'roar' red? How do you think the author wants us to read the word? (answer: loudly)

Alphabet Knowledge

If you'd like to incorporate some alphabet knowledge, which is great for articulation students, you can point to their target sound in a word.

For example, if you're working on /k/ in the medial position, you can say "I see your sound in this word. This word says taco. Do you see the letter that makes your sound?"

Once you've identified the letter, name it and then you can trace it with your finger.

You can also find other words in the story that make a /k/ sound but is spelled with different letters: "ck" in lock, "k" in look

More ideas for alphabet knowledge:

• Mention how the letters are little or big (capitalized) - "The author's name starts with a big 'S.' The 's' is big because it spells a person's name."

• Find other words on the page with that letter - "The word 'dragon' starts with the letter 'd.' Let's see if we can find more d's on this page."

• Connect a letter in the text with a letter in the student's name

• If they're in kindergarten and their teacher is teaching a letter of the week, then find the letter in your story every now and again and ask "Do you know what letter this is? It's the letter of the week in your classroom!"

I hope that helps! If you have even more great ideas, please let me know in a comment below!

Happy reading! 💛

References

Justice, L.M. & Ezell, H. K. (2004). Print Referencing: An Emergent Literacy Enhancement Strategy and its Clinical Applications. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools. https://doi.org/10.1044/0161-1461(2004/018)

Viscose, C. (2020). Interactive Book Activities to Build Preliteracy Skills in Preschoolers. The ASHA LeaderLive