It has been claimed that when readers interrupt stories during read-alouds to point out aspects of print, children make better gains in print awareness, and eventually read better. I question these claims and as well as the usefulness of interrupting stories in this way. Short-term gains are not evident for all aspects of print awareness; comparisons also make gains, and children exposed to print universally acquire print
awareness. Also, long-term gains are small and have not been proven demonstrated for real reading for meaning. Finally, interrupting stories to reference print runs the risk of taking the focus away from the story, and disrupting the pleasure and positive impact of read-alouds, which could have negative consequences for literacy development
