On this page, we consider when to begin moving a child into print. We look first at what research findings and observations by practitioners suggest about readiness, then at how to tell if a particular child is ready.
But before we begin, I want to caution against trying to hurry a child’s rate of development. For our purpose here isn’t to push a child into the stage of readiness for working with print. It’s to be alert for when they’re ready and provide a rich experience once they arrive.
For as with all living things, children have an inner timetable. But arriving at a new stage of development slowly or quickly is necessarily an indication of intelligence or capacity.
Is the rosebud that blooms first, the most beautiful and longest lasting rose?
Trying to hurry a child along before they’re ready may do more harm than good. But we can and should positively affect how thoroughly a child develops once they have reach a particular stage. And we can give them full, rich experiences that serve as a foundation, as they’re building up to it.
Child Development Studies & “Sensitive Periods” for Skill Development
Findings from studies of child development at Harvard, illustrated here, show the approximate age a child develops various functions. These findings have some important implications for parents and practitioners.
First, they lend credence to Montessori’s theory that as their brain develops, a child goes through what she called their “sensitive period” for learning a particular skill.
Findings also show that these periods of heightened sensitivity are limited. That is, this “ripeness” for developing a particular skill only lasts for a time, then it decreases. This would explain why a very young child absorbs a second language effortlessly. While someone older finds it more difficult and must work at it in a more overt/mechanical way.
Be Alert for the Sensitive Periods for Print and for Higher Cognitive Functions
So, these findings suggest we should be alert for these sensitive periods and “strike while the iron is hot.”
That goes not only for moving a young child into print. It also suggests providing experiences for the older child to develop their higher-level thinking skills.
Findings also suggest we are not helping a child by rushing them into certain skills before they’re ready — or delaying their exposure beyond their sensitive period for them.
Thinking of the young child, the overlap of language and higher cognitive skills suggests that children are ready for print earlier than many people realize.
This would also confirm Montessori’s findings about the timing of children’s readiness for print, as well as what I’ve seen from my own work. So, we look next at anecdotal findings from those two sources.
Sensitive Period/Readiness for Print
As a medical doctor, Montessori believed that when a child’s brain is developing a particular function, they are drawn to work with whatever they can find to help develop it. So, she designed special materials for the various skills and had her directresses/teachers carefully demonstrate to the children how to use them.
But a directress was not to tell the children when to use the materials. Instead, they left them out on shelving for the child to select when they became interested in them. Doing this, she found children gravitated toward the writing materials at around age four. At that age, they began composing words, using a “moveable alphabet” of individual letters. In my own work, I’ve found evidence children are ready for print even earlier than that — if we show them how their own Key Words look, in print.
Observations From Experimenting with Key Words
A Key Word is the one or two words that represent something very interesting to the child. It might be something they love, fear, or are just fascinated with. When writing a child’s Key Word on a card and giving it to them to play with, I’ve found children as young as 2½ will recognize it from then on. (I haven’t tried it at an earlier age.)
In fact, even a child that young can soon have a collection of several Key Words they immediately recognize, from then on.
So, children definitely have the ability to recognize print and an early age. So this leaves me wondering what Montessori would have made of the concept of Key Words. For obviously she was a woman of extraordinary openness to new ideas. For she developed what was at the time — and still is — a vastly different approach to learning that what’s traditionally done.
But the lives of the two women did not overlap. For Sylvia Ashton-Warner, who developed the concept of Key Words, didn’t publish her book, Teacher, until 1963. And Montessori died in 1952.
Key Words Help Us Gain Greater Insight into a Child’s Sensitive Period for Print
That the lives of these two groundbreaking educators didn’t overlap is very unfortunate. For I believe Montessori would have been interested in experimenting with Key Words. And starting a child out with Key Words in a Montessori classroom, we would be able to match a child’s interests to their level of development more closely than any approach to reading I’m aware of being implemented now. (If you know of one, please leave that information in Comments.)
Again, in Montessori’s case, interest indicates heightened readiness in the brain for the development of a particular skill. In Ashton-Warner’s case, interest in Key Words meant ease of learning because Key Words are a connection to strong emotions and “mind pictures.” So, putting the two together by giving the child experience with Key Words just at the right time, the adult has a powerful strategy for introducing print and the child has a powerful learning opportunity.
So had Montessori had this strategy to experiment with, I think her approach to print would have been different from just using a moveable alphabet. In any case, influenced by the teachings of both those educators, I have used Key Words within an active classroom setting over the decades in working with preschoolers and children in the primary grades. And I’ve found children to be very interested in their own words in print much earlier than most people think. So we look next and how to find out when a child’s sensitive period for print is beginning.
How To Recognize a Child’s Readiness for Key Words
Scribbling is an obvious sign of readiness. A child who has made a drawing, scribbled beside a mark in it, and tells you the mark is a dog, and the scribble says “dog,” they’ve reached their sensitive period for print. In fact, they not only understand what it’s for — they’re trying to figure it out on their own how to use it.
But not all children will be in a print-rich environment where they have repeatedly seen someone writing. (Or maybe they have, but just haven’t noticed it?)
Yet their brain may have already developed to that point. So, if you suspect a child is ready, but they aren’t yet scribbling, you can test for readiness, using Key Words. For how, see Testing for Readiness to Work with Print.
More About Working with Key Words
Some seeing introducing Key Words to a young child may have questions about it. See a few possible questions and responses here. For more about why Key Words are so beneficial, see the section of the menu: Why Writing First?