This study explored the impact of preschools with a language and literacy focus on the development of early literacy. The aims of the study were to: (1) compare the emergent literacy development of children who attended a preschool with a language and literacy focus with that of a comparable group of children who did not attend such a preschool; (2) examine changes in preschoolers' conceptual understanding of print; and (3) examine changes in preschoolers' prereading skills. Subjects were 32 low-income Hawaiian children attending two preschools with a language and literacy focus and 16 children from a different preschool. A set of early literacy tasks, including tasks reflecting concepts about print and tasks measuring prereading skills, were administered. Results showed that participants performed significantly better on all tasks involving traditional prereading skills than did children from the preschool that was not oriented towards literacy. Findings on the development of concepts about print, however, showed that the preschool experience had a measurable effect only on the task gauging children's understanding of the functions of print. The data suggest that exposure to preschool accelerates the development of prereading skills and sophisticated aspects of emergent literacy. However, beginning print awareness derives from ordinary daily experiences. (SH)