Logos: Signs of the Times Help Beginning Readers
By Dr. Shelley B. Wepner

To read Maryann Manning's related article "A World of Words" click here

The "when" and "how" of beginning reading instruction has been subject to endless debates throughout the decades. Materials and methods have been volleyed back and forth to reflect currently applauded ideas. On the sidelines of these tugs of war have been the children who have learned to read despite the swinging pendulum of instructional ideas. They learned because the need arose and they had the confidence to do so. And, ironically, it probably did not simply happen after crossing the mythical threshold to first grade; it probably was happening throughout these children's preschool years as part of their desire to extract meaning from the environment.

The printed environment. It was not until I traveled along local highways with my pair of two-and-a-half year olds that I truly understood what it meant for preschoolers to extract meaning from the printed environment. My children were doing what Goodman and Altwerger (1981) found other preschoolers to do; they were using adorned print – in particular, commercial logos – to help them identify local restaurants, gas stations, department stores and supermarkets. They were using the colorful and distinctive symbols within highly contextualized signs to help them recognize familiar places and later, familiar names in unfamiliar places.

Recognizing the potential attraction of logo identification among preschoolers, and believing that many young children can learn to read in the right environment, I wondered whether logos could be deliberately used to facilitate beginning reading instruction. I relied on the premise that learning to read, at any developmental level, should be more natural than contrived, and that it arises more from a desire to acquire meaningful information than a push to learn skills.

What follows is a documented chronology of events over a seven-month period of time to indicate how logos can be used as tools for early reading instruction.

Building a logo vocabulary. It started in July 1982 when my children (then 28 months old) began to use logos to identify their favorite – and only – eating places, McDonald's, Burger King and Roy Rogers. After my husband* and I were convinced of their logo prowess, albeit limited, we began to help them identify other common logos that appeared both in our neighborhood and elsewhere, such as gas stations (Sunoco, Amoco, Exxon, Texaco); supermarkets (A & P, Shop Rite, Grand Union, Foodtown); large stores (Bambergers, Bradlees, Sears, Toys R Us); restaurants (Ground Round, Red Lobster, Denny's) and beverages (Pepsi, Coca-Cola). By December 1982, they were able to recognize these logos on different roads and in different formats (e.g., the Exxon logo on a truck as opposed to a gas station sign, etc.).

In August 1982, my children were also beginning to recognize their names. I responded by introducing them to the written forms of other important people in their lives (Daddy, Mommy, Mom Mom, Pop Pop, aunts and uncles). Their heavy use of initial consonants and configuration clues helped them to quickly recognize these words in any contextual setting.

Given their confidence and interest in both logos and names, I tried to connect these ideas simply and meaningfully into simple rebus-like sentences. These sentences, housed in a composition book, consisted of three things: a name, the verb "loves" and a cut-out logo. Such sentences as "Leslie loves McDonald's," "Meredith loves Burger King" and "Daddy loves Roy Rogers" comprised the first part of this logo reader. Subsequently, more word substitutes, more logos and more complex sentences structures were included (e.g., "Mommy and Daddy love Sanka at McDonald's." "We go to Arco, the gas station."). Each child also was given her own personalized "Roy Rogers" book to reinforce her efforts. These books (as a result of loss, mutilation and related two-yearold phenomena) have been changed a few times, which minimized overdependence on memory for word order or sentences.

Presently, my daughters are interested in including new names and logos in their books; they also are recognizing such unadorned words as "and," "likes," "lives" and "books" in different contexts.

An action plan. This interest in print, facilitated by their playful interaction with logos, could be acquired by other preschoolers, with the following
suggestions:

1. Establish an interest in and ability to recognize logos. This can be done while traveling, shopping or reading. If little or no interest is shown, wait until the child shows more interest.
2. Reinforce this interest. Whenever possible, ask the child to recognize the logos by playfully asking, "What does that say?"
3. Begin to collect logos. Ask gas attendants, store owners and restaurant hosts to give you any paper scraps with their logos. Save logos from store flyers sent to your home. Take them from food and beverage products. Most importantly, involve the child with your logo collection. Children love to know that these signs are being collected for them.
4. Whenever you see a new logo for which the child is ready, introduce it by saying, "That says 'Arco' – it's another gas station." Do this every time you pass the same place. Eventually the child will start saying, "That says 'Arco.'" (In all likelihood, you will not be able to go anywhere without the child telling you the name of every identified place you pass – even in between cries and fights!
5. Secure or make a little book. Staple (preferred for easy removal) or paste logos into the book. Put the child's name on the cover. Include only those logos known to the child.
6. When you feel the child is ready, introduce simple sentences in rebus-like fashion or have the child tell you sentences to write for logos in the book. Write them and have the child read them back. Do this for each logo. Sentences could read, "Bill drinks Pepsi," "Grandpa drinks 7-Up," "Grandma drinks Coca-Cola."
7. Periodically, pull logos out of the book and change the order so the child is not depending on memory but rather recognizing print.

While this reading-with-logos strategy is not a guarantee for early admission to an Ivy League college, it will, at the very least, help preschoolers to bridge the gap between the symbolic and colorful world of logos, and the unadorned yet communicative world of print. Since preschoolers intrinsically respond to logos and environmental print, they can be guided into taking their awareness one step further to the more meaningful world of print. Let's use our resources to turn a logo-laden environment into an arena for print appreciation. We can then help our potentially literate preschoolers discover ways in which their logo awareness can be extended to pages of once mysterious words.

To read Maryann Manning's related article "A World of Words" click here

Dr. Shelley B. Wepner is an Assistant Professor of Education at William Paterson College, Wayne, NJ.