An Empirical Study of Print Awareness and Foundational Concept Development in Early Childhood

Authors

  • Anastasia Mouratoglou

    Department of Early Childhood Education and Care, International Hellenic University, 57400 Thessaloniki, Greece
  • Isaak Papadopoulos

    Department of Early Childhood Education and Care, International Hellenic University, 57400 Thessaloniki, Greece

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30564/jiep.v8i1.11391
Received: 25 March 2025 | Revised: 29 May 2025 | Accepted: 7 June 2025 | Published Online: 14 June 2025

Abstract

This study investigates the relationship between print awareness and the development of early mathematical concepts in preschool-aged children, emphasizing the pedagogical potential of fairy tales as an integrated instructional tool. Grounded in emergent literacy and early numeracy theory, the research examines how interactive storytelling, specifically, the reading of The Three Little Pigs, can be used to assess foundational skills such as letter and word recognition, text navigation, counting, ordering, classification, and basic arithmetic. A semi-structured interview methodology was employed with a sample of 50 children aged 4 to 5 years from a kindergarten in Edessa, Greece. Data were collected through a specially designed questionnaire embedded within the storytelling session. Descriptive and inferential statistical analyses revealed that while children demonstrated moderate proficiency in counting and symbol recognition, significant gaps were observed in book handling, number recitation, and computation processes. No statistically significant gender differences were identified. The findings underscore the need for targeted, developmentally appropriate interventions that bridge literacy and numeracy domains in early education. The study advocates for the strategic use of story-based learning to support dual-domain skill acquisition and highlights key practices, such as interactive dialogue, visual aids, and mathematically enriched narratives, that can enhance early learning outcomes.

Keywords:

Print Awareness; Emergent Literacy; Early Childhood Education; Early Numeracy; Mathematical Concepts; Symbolic Representation

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How to Cite

Mouratoglou, A., & Papadopoulos, I. (2025). An Empirical Study of Print Awareness and Foundational Concept Development in Early Childhood . Journal of International Education and Practice, 8(1), 49–63. https://doi.org/10.30564/jiep.v8i1.11391

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Vol. 8 , Iss. 1 (June 2025)

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ARTICLE

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Copyright © 2025 Anastasia Mouratoglou, Isaak Papadopoulos

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This is an open access article under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) License.