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Early Child Development and Care

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Exploring Young Children's Literacy Development Through Play

Olivia N. Saracho a a Department of Curriculum & Instruction, University of Maryland, Maryland 20742, USA Online Publication Date: 01 January 2001 To cite this Article: Saracho, Olivia N. (2001) 'Exploring Young Children's Literacy Development Through Play', Early Child Development and Care, 167:1, 103 - 114 To link to this article: DOI: 10.1080/0300443011670109 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0300443011670109

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Early Child Development and Care, 2001, Vol. 167, pp. 103-114

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Exploring Young Children's Literacy Development Through Play

OLIVIA N. SARACHO University of Maryland, Department of Curriculum & Instruction, College Park, Maryland 20742,USA
(Received 28 December 2000)

An exploratory study was conducted to determine the effects of literacy-enriched play centers and the emergent literacy behaviors of five-year-old kindergarten children. This study focused on play activities that promote reading and writing that can be integrated in play centers in the early childhood curriculum. Qualitative analysis of the data indicated that a language or literacy component can be integrated in the play activities of kindergarten children. Play activities were used to promote the inventing symbols and messages in children's writing. The teachers in the kindergarten classrooms created a literate environment to promote the children's literacy development. Key words: Literacy development, young children, play

INTRODUCTION

Young children's literacy development has become a major concern to researchers, educators, and practitioners. Since preprimary children differ physically, emotionally, socially, and intellectually from other age groups, they need a reading program that reflects their characteristics and understanding of concepts and relationships through active experiences and exploration (Eheart & Leavitt, 1985). Such a reading program can develop literacy-oriented behaviors and facilitate initial reading instruction (Saracho, 1987), which can take place in play environments that promote children's literacy development (Neuman & Roskos, 1992). During play the focus is on the natural contexts and environments that can enhance literacy development for the implicit practice of reading, writing, speaking, listening, and knowing. Process, product, and content are fused and the purposeful use of language is stressed over skill acquisition (Saracho, 1993b) in a play environment.
LITERACY AND PLAY

Early childhood programs need to motivate young children to become active learners by providing them with play experiences that enable them to develop and 103

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accumulate their own knowledge. When young children join their peers in dramatic play, they assume and act out a role, usually in relation to their classmates who are playing other roles. Such informal dramatic play situations usually represent the children's life experiences. This form of play assists children to discover and understand the real world. In cognitive play, children create objects and roles. Although they may use an object as a symbol, they know the original identity and purpose of the object (Saracho, 1993a). Young children ease into writing in much the same manner. They use a writing tool to imitate the writing of adults they have observed in their environment (Saracho, 1993b). Play can be used as a curricular tool in emergent literacy. According to Vygotsky (1978), play assumes a major role in literacy development. Play environments stimulate the development of literacy behaviors in young children. Over the last decade, play has been used as a rich contextual setting for observing emerging literacy behaviors (Galda, Pellegrini & Cox, 1989;Jacob, 1984; Rowe, 1989; Schrader, 1989). Changes in the structural features of the play environment that are literacy based may have important consequences for children's emerging concepts of literacy (Morrow, 1992; Neuman & Roskos, 1992), which relates to the general aim of this study. The premise is that play can be used as a curricular tool to support and influence young children's literacy development. When children engage in literacyrelated play experiences, they select and use abilities that are essential for social literacy learning. In fact, play may be an important resource for children to explore their developing conceptions of the functions and features of print in the preschool years. In investigating this assumption, the potential effects of literacy-enriched play centers, an exploratory study was conducted to analyze the play behaviors of fiveyear-old kindergarten children. The following research questions guided the study: 1. How are play centers enriched to promote literacy development? 2. What play activities are related to literacy learning in the play centers? A. What types of language manipulation occur during these play activities? B. How can these play activities be enhanced to make them more literacy enriched? 3. How do kindergarten children use a literacy-enriched play environment to explore the meaning of literacy?

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METHOD Sample

The sample consisted of five classrooms of kindergarten children. The teachers in these kindergarten classrooms had a Bachelor's Degree and state certification in early childhood education. Most of the children had similar demographic and socioeconomic backgrounds. This was the first time most of the children had

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attended a formal school setting. Therefore, the teachers spent most of the time helping children adapt to the school environment by providing language development experiences and teaching them how to follow directions.
Intervention

An intervention was conducted during an eight-week period in which the play centers were enriched with literacy-oriented materials and interactions. Based on earlier research (e.g., Morrow, 1992; Neuman & Roskos, 1989, 1990, 1992), the physical environments in the classrooms were modified to influence the children's play behaviors more broadly (Johnson, Christie & Yawkey, 1999; Morrow, 1989, 1992) taking into consideration the common purposes of reading and writing that were appropriate for preschool children. The settings were designed to enable children to use written language for their own purposes, because studies suggest that literacy-enriched play centers can make a difference in children's literacy behaviors (Morrow, 1992; Neuman & Roskos, 1989, 1990, 1992). Children in each class had the opportunity to select among various activities in different centers during play time. Five classroom environments were provided with enriched printed materials and literacy tools. Sociodramatic play areas were established, complete with a variety of clothes and props appropriate to particular settings (such as kitchen, beauty shop, police department, fire department, bakery). A variety of manipulatives and games (such as parquetry pattern blocks, picture dominoes, geoboards, picture bingo/ lotto, sequence cards, and building blocks) were available in play centers and the activities for these materials in the play centers were introduced in relation to the children's literacy development.
Research Materials

The children's play behaviors in the literacy-enriched play centers were videotaped after the intervention. A set of videotapes was made of die play of five-year-old children enrolled in five kindergarten classrooms. The videotaped observations were transcribed and analyzed to determine specific ways in which the play settings promoted the kindergarten children's literacy behaviors.
Data Analysis

The systematic observations in the videotapes were formally analyzed. Systematic observations of the children's engagement with literacy were extracted for the analysis. The focus was a qualitative analysis to describe the children's literacy behaviors in a play setting. Data analysis began with a strong theoretical base from previous research (e.g., Morrow, 1989,1992; Neuman & Roskos, 1989,1990,1992). An attempt was made to discover and elaborate those processes that might relate to the children's play and literacy behaviors. During formal analysis, relationship

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patterns for play and literacy were identified by viewing the videotapes and reading the transcriptions from the videotapes several times. This included die coding of episodes that could be placed in both play and literacy categories. Categories emerged from the materials as they were being analyzed. These categories were organized into themes. The themes became the basis for the analysis. All the classrooms were included in the identification of the episodes.
RESULTS

The play behaviors of five-year-old kindergarten children contributed to their literacy development. The play activities that are available in a kindergarten classroom may be classified according to the language or literacy component inherent in that activity. These activities are influenced by the classroom environment and the play experiences.
Structure of the Classroom Environment

While the major focus of this study was to observe what occurred in the literacyenriched play centers within the classrooms, the structure of the classroom environment contributed to the effectiveness of the centers. To illustrate the importance of the classroom environment and other teacher-centered effects, the following paragraph describes the daily routines that are observed in the classrooms. The classroom is spacious and neat. The walls, boards, and bulletin boards are covered with interesting and neatly displayed learning materials and children's work. The classroom environment and interactions between the teacher and children seem to motivate the children to engage in literacy learning. The classroom environment also includes learning play centers that are enriched with literacy activities. Clearly labeled the play centers are placed about the room and are ready for children to use them.
Literacy-Enriched Play Centers

The environment incorporated play learning centers that promoted the children's literacy development in (1) Literacy Play Centers such as those labeled language, library, and writing centers and (2) Literacy-Enriched Play Discipline Centers such as those labeled mathematics, block, manipulative, and dramatic play centers. Both types of centers included literacy play experiences. Literacy-play experiences were considered when they contributed to the development of any mode of communication. The results focused on literacy and play experiences that fostered their speaking, listening, reading, and writing development. The play activities were adapted to the varying levels of children's listening, language, writing, and literacy development. The children were observed in a variety of literacy experiences that provided them with opportunities to develop and use literacy behaviors. Some representative

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literacy-play experiences observed during the course of the study are discussed in relation to the play learning centers. Before the children engage in the literacy-enriched centers, the teacher provides a planning period. The teacher explains what is at each play center for that day. The children are dismissed to go to an activity with the teacher's aide and then to the play center of their choice. They go to cubbies labeled with their names to get individually-labeled boxes of pencils and crayons. They moved quickly, politely, and purposefully to places at the tables at which the teacher aide had placed the first activity. As each child finishes his or her project, the child goes to a play center at which to work. Once they had selected the schema and props for their play in that area, the teacher interacts with the children in the play centers.

LITERACY PLAY CENTERS

Teachers provided play centers that focused on language and literacy development such as pretend reading, learning the letters of the alphabet, and writing stories. Literacy play centers included language, library and writing centers.
Language Center

At the language center, the teachers include a variety of activities such as language rhythm, sequence games, and story writing.
Language Rhythm

In the language center a group of children were sitting in a semicircle around a chart that had the letters of the alphabet. One child assumed the role of the teacher and pointed to the letters of the alphabet on a chart. As the child pointed to each letter, the rest of the children responded by calling out the name of the letter to the tune of the "A B C Song." The tune provided practice with the rhythm of the language. Later, another group of children played a chant game with gestures and words. This was another opportunity to internalize the rhythm of the language.
Sequence Games

The language center had sequence games such as playing dominoes and matching games. In the sequence game the children matched pairs of related objects such as bat and ball. This was a self-correcting activity since the pairs were constructed like puzzle pieces and only the appropriate pair of pictures could be connected. However, the teacher used this game as an opportunity to carry on a discussion with the players.
Story Writing

Writing stories provided children with an opportunity to sequence events. The young writers in one classroom were observed using pictures to write their stories.

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The papers were divided into quadrants and in each quadrant the children drew pictures in sequence from scenes of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Once the children finished their drawings, they told the story and the teacher recorded their story on the child's paper.
Library Center

Library centers held many types of reading materials such as easy story books that the children have previously heard, picture books, and books and stories children had written themselves. One girl shared a comfortable chair with two friends, read the story of the Three Bears with much animation and expression, and turned the pages as she pretended to read. She seemed to be reading the story, but upon closer observation it was noted that she was reading her own version of the story. Another activity in the library center involved a listening activity. For this type of activity the library center provided a variety of storybooks that included a tape for children to listen to the story as they looked at the book. As the children listened to this commercially-prepared tape, they looked at the companion printed books and turned the pages as directed by the recording. This literacy experience allowed the children to have an opportunity to follow a story portrayed on tape using the pictures and print in the book as well as listening to a tape that read the story. This center also included a variety of children's books with a carpet for children to sit and listen to a story. Children listened to stories that were read by the teacher in this area. The teacher would read a story while simultaneously query the children about the story.

LITERACY-ENRICHED PLAY DISCIPLINE CENTERS

The teachers attempted to have spontaneous play in the learning centers in their classroom. Two criteria for children's play is that it should be (1) spontaneous and voluntary and (2) willingly selected by the players (Spodek & Saracho, 1998). Spontaneous play can also be found in manipulative, physical, dramatic, and block play. Literacy play experiences were also provided in learning centers that did not focus on literacy development such as in the mathematics, block, and dramatic play centers.
Mathematics Center

Five children were in the mathematics center that was next to the reading center. A girl had a 36 inch ruler and pointed to numbers on a Counting Chart hanging from a metal frame as two other children called out the name of the numeral. The children counted from one to a hundred and then they counted backwards (100 to 0). Some children rocked back and forth as they read the numbers.

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Block Center
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Spontaneous play in the block area encouraged problem solving and cooperative behaviors, which are essential behaviors in the children's literacy development. The following episodes illustrate how spontaneous play occurred in three different situations. Situation 1: A group of boys constructed a building. While they were playing with a set of scrap lumber building blocks, the teacher inquired what they were building. "A house," was one boy's reply. "A house?" the teacher asked. "Yes!" came the response. The remainder of the building session proceeded with little conversation as the boys worked at times cooperatively and at times independently on their joint construction. In this situation, children were developing vocabulary concepts and acquiring the ability to engage in discussion with others. Situation 2: In another situation, a group of boys were observed using triangular blocks as automobiles. At the block area one child pretended to be parking a car, one child was holding a roof and another child watched. All children moved as to check the interior of the "garage". They had a drop cloth spread out on the floor. The drop cloth had pictures of streets and logos of traffic signals for children to follow directions when playing with transportation toys. The children drove their cars around the streets and "read" the information on the drop cloth and responded to it, such as stopping their cars at the intersections before resuming the driving of their cars. Children's literacy behaviors were developed when they followed oral and written directions such as when the children read and followed the directions on the signs. Such literacy behaviors are part of functional reading in our society. Situation 3: When children were allowed to select their play activity, the same objects could take on very different associations. For example, two activities shared table space. A boy was sitting at a table with a plate in front of him. Four children (three girls and one boy) with picture cards were sitting on a rug. Two children were at a board. One boy was drawing a house. He then drew a triangle for the roof, small door, and a dot for the doorknob. Three girls were sorting cards that had pictures. A girl was holding the picture card and picked the cards one at a time from the pile on the floor in front of her.

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Dramatic Play Center

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The dramatic play center included housekeeping or other role playing activities that encouraged the children to act out past experiences or different roles. Teachers provided children with appropriate props to augment stories and activities that enhanced the children's vocabularies in their literacy learning. Children were provided with appropriate props to reproduce the social interactions and previous experiences or schemata they had observed in specific settings.
Manipulative Center

The manipulative center had a variety of activities such as games, geoboards, and picture dominoes.
Games

Six children at die game center sat at a table in that play area. They had a small board with 30 squares with pictures. One of the children was holding the box in the middle of the table with the left hand. One child, at the opposite end of the table, had an 11" x 17" paper that was divided into five columns, and four rows. The letters B, I, N, G, and O were printed at the top of each column. Below BINGO were the four rows totaling 20 squares. Each square had a picture with an inscription for the name of the picture. The children were playing Bingo. A stack of cards was on the table. A child selected a card with a picture and announced the name of the picture. The children searched for the picture of this card in their 20 squares. Those children who had that picture in one of the 20 squares, used a botde cap to mark the corresponding picture on their Bingo card. "Vase which begins with the letter V," shouted the announcer. The game continued where the announcer called out the name of the object and the children at the table marked the picture that corresponded to the picture on the cards. Language was developed in this literacy game as children's vocabulary words were repeated through die game. This game was one children were able to play with minimal teacher intervention. Of the many variadons of Bingo and Lotto available for educational purposes, one variation observed in this study required that a child choose a card widi a picture and the associated written word. Matching the sound of the letter and written word is the foundation to phonics where children learn the way words begin with the different sounds and to associate the names of the letters with their sounds.
Geoboards

Exploration of the geometric shapes of letters occurred in a teacher-directed activity using geoboards and provided a concrete and kinesthetic activity for interacting with letters. The children used rubber bands to recreate on the pins of boards, the large block letters the teacher had written on individual sheets of paper. Each child worked on a different letter and the sheets were passed among the students. To encourage connections with the sounds die letters represented, the teacher asked

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the children to name words starting with the initial sound of each letter as it was created on the geoboard.
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Picture Dominoes

Dominoes come in many forms, the set used by the children during one observation had colorful pictures of dinosaurs. As a reading activity, the game helped the children make generalizations as they learned the rules of the game. For a given set of sequence possibilities, the children had to determine if one of their dominoes matched that of one of the dominoes at either end of the domino chain on the table. The completed layout stretched out across the table, and the children sometimes wanted to play a domino in an unconventional manner but were reminded of the rules by the teacher.

LITERACY BEHAVIORS

In all of the learning play centers that were observed in the study, the children's literacy behaviors became evident. Some of these literacy behaviors are presented in Table 1.
DISCUSSION

This study focused on emergent literacy activities in which children have opportunities to create spoken and written language in a classroom environment that emphasizes literacy enriched play centers. Emergent literacy using a literacy environment involves numerous opportunities for children to practice reading, writing, speaking, and listening from symbolic play activities to communicating in an endless variety of forms and media. The teachers in diese kindergarten classrooms created an atmosphere that affected the children's literacy and writing levels. They did this by providing a literate environment that included literacy-enriched play centers. In this study teachers acquired knowledge about linguistic, cognitive, and social processes in literacy and play development. This knowledge can help them design similar activities in their classrooms in the future. The results of this study contribute to such evidence and has many implications for children's literacy development. Research on reading and writing in early childhood education programs can contribute to our knowledge of how all children become more literate. Teachers need to analyze their selection of appropriate activities and materials to promote the children's literacy development within a classroom. Kindergarten classrooms need to have a variety of literacy activities to meet the needs and interests of young children as they acquire and refine their emerging literacy skills. Kindergarten children have a strong desire in learning to write and read. Researchers have shown that for young children writing and reading includes pictures as well as words as they emerge into literacy. Children learn about print through

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Table 1 Components of Literacy Behaviors in the Children's Play

Play Activities
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Literacy Behaviors

Spontaneous Play

1. reading the names of the streets 2. reading pictures and logos of traffic symbols 3. following directions 1. engaging in symbolic play when they use the large toy as part of the airplane experience. 2. interacting among the children to develop their vocabulary 3. using their schema to engage in pretend play. 4. using their prior knowledge to form their experiences. 5. using appropriate sequence of events. 6. writing the ingredients to bake a cake. 7. counting and using currency. 1. using their prior knowledge from previous experiences 2. using language 3. using stories that can be written at a later time 1. reading numbers 2. following directions 1. developing language through role playing 2. creating stories based on past experiences 1. associating a picture card with the word written in English 2. increasing the vocabulary of both readers and prereaders 1. reading the alphabet letters from a chart 2. learning the letters of the alphabet 1. interacting with letters 2. working on a different letter 3. connecting the sounds of the letters represented with the initial sound of each letter as it was created on the geoboard 1. reading pictures

Spontaneous Play

Block Play

Mathematics Dramatic Play Bingo and Lotto Games

Language Rhythm Geoboards

Picture Dominoes

2. making generalizations about rules in a game 3. matching similarities in dominoes

Sequence Games 1. learning sequence 2. matching pairs of related objects such as bat and ball 3. carrying on a discussion about the game
1. writing stories 2. learning how to sequence 3. writing picture stories 4. reading their dictated stories

Story Writing

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Table 1 Components of Literacy Behaviors in the Children's Play

Play Activities
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Literacy Behaviors

Library Center

1. looking and reading many types of reading materials: easy story books that the children have previously heard, picture books, and even the books and stories that the children had written diemselves 2. creating their own stories 3. pretending to read 4. listening to books 5. following a story portrayed on tape 6. learning left to right progression 7. learning sequence in a story 8. doing picture reading

activities in their social world (Spodek & Saracho, 1998). This type of learning can be learned through children's play in the different literacy-enriched play centers. Many play centers can be organized to promote language and literacy. Usually, these are enrichment centers for learning and communicating. With very young children play centers can also include activities for literacy development. Early childhood programs offer several play centers such as writing center, role-playing center, and library center. Each learning center promotes important communicative functions in the children's emerging literacy behaviors.
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