Research Resource: Salient Print Features

By Emmaline Ellis

Contemporary picturebooks often contain “salient print features,” visually captivating and interesting ways of displaying print in both the main body text and the illustrations. Some examples of salient print features include speech bubbles, words representing sounds, or changes in font color and size. We know that when adults read books with these features to children, they reference the book’s print (words and letters) with higher frequencies when compared to books that do not contain these interesting print features. These references are important, as explicit references to print are proven to support young children’s print knowledge, a crucial early literacy domain for later reading success. Furthermore, salient print features are multimodal, for they combine the visual aspects of print (words and letters) and aspects associated with design and image (e.g., color, font, direction). For example, when a character’s speech words inside of a speech bubble are red and LARGE to convey the emotion of anger. These features offer unique yet underexplored opportunities to connect and enhance print and comprehension learning. 

This blogpost presents findings from a research study that explored how salient print features were utilized by nine preschool teachers who were video-recorded reading aloud a set of 12 books that varied in their amount and types of these features. The study found that teachers overall referenced the print more frequently in books that contain the visually appealing features, and they most frequently referenced two specific features, Visible Speech and Environmental Print. Qualitative analyses of teachers’ references found that teachers utilized their talk about these features in ways that relate to code-based early literacy skills (i.e., print knowledge) and story comprehension, two domains of learning that are typically thought of as dichotomous. The goal of this blogpost is to encourage teachers to consider the unique opportunities salient print features offer to connect and enhance print and comprehension learning, with suggestions on how to utilize these features in their own classrooms.

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Instructional Implications
Researchers Zucker, Ward and Justice (2009) created a list of nine salient print features common in children’s picturebooks (see Table 1), four of which occur in a book’s illustrations (Labels, Environmental Print, Visible Sound, and Visible Speech), and five of which occur in the body of a book’s narrative text (Font Style, Formatting, Font Size, Orientation, and Font Color). This table can be used as a reference point for teachers interested in examining their classroom books and read aloud texts for their inclusion of salient print features.

The teachers in this study had a higher average frequency of print references while reading books that contain salient print features (M = 5.79) than while reading books that did not have these features (M = 1.28). This finding supports prior research that suggests these print features prime teachers (and students) to notice and talk about the print, a necessary interaction for early print knowledge development. It is important to note that teachers made these references after I asked them to read the books provided “as they normally would”--I never once indicated my interest in print features or print referencing. Therefore, salient print features are a potentially underutilized resource that naturally increase the amount of discussion about print. Looking at the data for specific features, teachers most frequently referenced Visible Speech and Environmental Print, salient features that appear in a book’s illustrations. Practicing teachers interested in increasing their students’ exposure to discussion about print may therefore want to incorporate books with these two features into their classroom read alouds and lesson plans as a means of naturally increasing their print references. ​

Furthermore, qualitative analyses from my study suggest that these features offer rare opportunities to forward both print learning and story comprehension. Consider the page (Image 1) from the book Snappsy the Alligator is My Best Friend Forever…Probably (written by Julie Falatko, illustrated by Tim J. Miller, 2017), one of the books utilized in this study’s textset. With a high number of salient print features (136 total) this book is a great option for teachers who want to increase their amount of “print talk” with their students. On this particular page we see the two types of salient print features most frequently referenced by the teachers in my study: Visible Speech in the two speech bubbles emanating from the main characters, and Environmental Print on the t-shirts being held up by the characters that have their respective names printed on them. Multiple teachers in the study made verbal references to the names, such as “It says ‘Snappsy’ and ‘Bert.’” On the surface, these references may seem like a simple print reference. Digging a little deeper, however, these references actually relate to a complex narrative structure utilized by this book. In Snappsy, the reader (and, coincidentally, Snappsy the Alligator) does not find out Bert’s name until it is printed on the t-shirt and Snappsy asks, “Who’s Bert?”.​

Image 1. Visible Speech and Environmental Print from Snappsy the Alligator is My Best Friend Forever…Probably (written by Julie Falatko, illustrated by Tim J. Miller, 2017).

Multiple teachers utilized this instance of Environmental Print as an opportunity to clarify or introduce the name of the story’s narrator and second most important character. While such references may seem basic in nature, they are indicative of complex attempts to support students’ recall of character names, a comprehension-related learning target often included in early childhood standards.    
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Just like the teachers in my study, I encourage practicing educators to consider the ways in which their references about print features can embody a fascinating duality between print knowledge learning targets and complex connections to story comprehension related to events and characters. Due to this study’s findings that teachers naturally utilize such references, this recommendation is not burdensome or adding extra tasks to teachers’ already full plate. Rather, it is a call for teachers to reflect on the ways in which they are already referencing print and utilize their own professional experience and wisdom to make the most of their references by reaching two seemingly dichotomous but related instructional goals through purposeful text selection and targeted talk.

How to start? Utilizing Table 1, examine the books in your classroom library or favorite read aloud texts. Do they contain any of the nine print salient features listed in the table? Does your current read aloud text contain speech bubbles, Environmental Print, or other salient print features? How might you point these visually interesting features out to your students? If the salient print features relate to the story’s plot or characters, like the Environmental Print on the t-shirts in Snappsy, can you reference the print in a way that bridges an aspect of story comprehension for your young readers? See more practical ideas to increase complex print referencing in the CLA Take 5: Ponder and Plan text feature. ​

Conclusion
Due to their inclusion in recently published children’s books, salient print features are likely a pre-existing feature in early childhood and elementary read aloud texts that can easily be incorporated into existing book-related discussion. Adults' references to these interesting print features can simultaneously support children’s development of critical print-related early literacy skills and relate to aspects of story comprehension. By strategically and purposefully selecting print salient books like Snappsy for classroom reading activities, adults can embed a relatively easy yet proven way to heighten children’s attention to and interest in print into their daily classroom routines. ​

Referenced Children’s Literature: 
Falatko, J. (2017). Snappsy the Alligator and His Best Friend Forever! (Probably) (T. Miller, Illus.). Viking Books for Young Readers.

Referenced Research: 
Zucker, T.A., Ward, A.E., & Justice, L.M. (2009). Print referencing during read-alouds: A technique for increasing emergent readers’ print knowledge. The Reading Teacher, 63(1), 62–72. https://doi.org/10.1598/RT.63.1.6

Emmaline Ellis, PhD, is an assistant professor at West Chester University in West Chester, PA. She can be reached at [email protected].

Invitation to Contribute

As we head into a summer hiatus on the blog, we hope that you will take a moment to review the Read This/Teach This blog post by Jennifer Slagus and this Research Resource blog post by Emmaline Ellis. 

After looking at these new blog post formats, we would like to invite you to contribute a blog post in one of these formats during the 2025-2026 academic year. 

If you are interested in contributing a Read This/Teach This post about a book that you plan to use in your classroom next year, please reach out to Liz Nelson ([email protected]). Send a 2-3 sentence proposal that includes the book you plan to feature by July 1, 2025.

If you presented at the 2025 CLA Research Conference or have completed some research in children's literature, please consider creating a post to highlight how teachers can put your research into practice. If you are interested in contributing a Research Resource post, please reach out to Emmaline Ellis ([email protected]). Send a 2-3 sentence proposal of your blog post by July 1, 2025​.