The examination of the variables affecting the print awareness skills of six-year-old children attending kindergarten

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the relationships between child gender, maternal education, writing readiness skills, and print awareness skills. A total of three hundred and sixteen six-year-old children, comprising one hundred and eighty-three girls and one hundred and thirty-three boys, were assessed for their writing readiness skills and print awareness skills. Spearman correlation coefficients were calculated to examine the potential relationships among child gender, maternal education, writing readiness skills, and print awareness skills. Additionally, a regression analysis was conducted to assess the predictive strength of these variables on print awareness skills, with child gender and maternal education treated as dummy variables. The results of the regression analysis revealed that these three variables accounted for approximately nine percent of the variance in print awareness skills. The implications of these findings were discussed in terms of understanding the interconnectedness of child gender, maternal education, writing readiness skills, and print awareness skills in promoting emergent literacy development. These findings hold significance for practitioners as they aim to determine the predictive power of writing readiness skills and provide appropriate support for children in relation to these skills.