What is Print Motivation?

Print motivation is an interest in and enjoyment of books. Researchers suggest that children who are more fluent and positive about reading came from parent-child pairs who viewed reading as fun and encouraged questions and humour while reading. Children who learn that reading can be fun despite its challenges may be more motivated to persist in their efforts in learning to read.

Family influence carries a lot of weight in literacy. A study of parents reading with toddlers found that when the interaction with the parent in negative, it carries over to the activity of reading. Children will avoid reading because of the negative experiences they associate with it (Bus et al., 1997). This tells us that it is important to promote a fun, positive, and stress-free environment when sharing books with our children.

A child with print motivation enjoys being read to, plays with books, pretends to write, asks to be read to, and enjoys visiting the local library.