Developing Literacy through Play - Literature review Example

Developing Literacy through Play affiliation Developing Literacy through Play Children usually have a very limited attention span and they are easily be distracted by other small things that excite them. Through consistent interactions with the environment, a child is able to learn many things. When a child is growing up, he/she is able to interact with most people from family members, their siblings, teachers and their classmates and all this interactions happen through play. The child can be shy to interact with other people or the parent may not be exposing the child to more social interactions that can hinder language development. Language and literacy go hand in hand right from the start of a child’s life (Tsao, 2008). It develops together with how the child is able to communicate or talk. Literacy is just a way of understanding the other person for you to communicate back. Developing the literacy skills especially in children is through understanding the spoken language first. When children communicate with other people, it helps them develop their language skill that further improves how they communicate for the whole of their lives. This will go a long way into enhancing the knowledge, learning and growth of the child in the consecutive years to come. Through play, children are able to understand how the language works and be able to interrelate with other people (Luongo-Orlando, 2010). In time, the children are able to translate the spoken language into written language that makes learning in school easy for the child. Through play, a child is able to learn so much, more than what adults can be able teach. It helps the child to discover the world and become familiar with what surrounds them. Play is natural and essential to the life of a child. This study is therefore very important because it will help us understand how play in children is of vital importance in the development of literacy skills (Miller, 2013). When a child grows, he/she develops in many ways either by changing physically, mentally or socially. At the same time, a child’s literacy skills develop depending on how they interact with the surrounding environment. The fact remains that not all children advance faster. Some will grow their literacy skills very fast while others will still be slow but all this depends on how the child interacts with other people (Tsao, 2008). When the child is still young, his/her brain is still at early stay very eager to learn and gain new knowledge. The brain at this time can discover new things but all this depends on what you put in it. The first experiences during childhood will determine how a person develops. During this early age, a child will begin to have an interest with playing with other children. A development process begins with the child playing alone then becoming interested in playing with others and with time, the child learns how to work with others together and in a respectful manner. Facts have shown that when a child is more involved with the surrounding environment, he/she is able to remember more. The environment creates learning and that is why children should be involved more through play to facilitate the development of their literacy skills. The only way children can learn the best is through repetition. Play is a way children are able to direct their ideas. Each time they play, they are able to recall their past plays and recreate innovative meanings in their play. The children are able to regularly use a language, decide conditions of make-believe, they manage to correct each other and from all this they learn about new experiences and ideas not seen before (Sutherland & Friedman, 2012). These social interactions go a very long way to improve the literacy skills of the child. In a world where literacy is not necessary for everyone, it is important to start the practical development early and play is the best way to start developing the child’s communication skills (Walker & Gopnik, 2013). Every time a child is playing even when playing silently, he/she is gaining some useful knowledge that he/she will use later during development. Children will watch your mouth as you talk or even your facial expressions during arguments to determine your reactions. They observe how their siblings and peers play that they later use in their own plays including the language context. Children are always curious of how we talk and they are interested of what we talk. The child usually tries to understand the words used and the sentences used. At first, the words might have no meaning to them, but as they imitate the words while playing with other children, they continue to under them more (Tsao, 2008). As time goes by, the child is able to make the connection in the use of the words and he/she can be able to create and use language for a purpose. The child will now use the newly acquired words to express his/her needs and share information. Therefore, play has many benefits towards the language development of a child. Play will help in the thinking process of a child and help nurture his/her problem solving capabilities. Through modeling the life of their family, the child can create a story about the roles of the family members. This strengthens their language skills as the child uses words to imitate the various family experiences (Sutherland & Friedman, 2012). The interaction with other peers allows the child to be in a group. This equips the kid with the skills of negotiations, solving a problem, sharing with other people and working in a group. Play prepares a child for school in order for them to be able to adapt to the school environment. It boosts the child’s eagerness to learn and understand any subject offered in the school. It will also improve the child’s storytelling skills because it will be easier to articulate words and construct sentences easily. During playtime, the child is able to use the basic social and interaction skills to interact with the other children and make friends. It is evident that all of the compound knowledge in a child’s life is through play. Paintings enable children to identify that the images are significant and have some meaning (Luongo-Orlando, 2010). Children always experience something new through play with literacy being among the things. The language the children use during play mostly resembles to what they use when they begin to read and write. A child’s life involves continuous interaction with members of the family, other children and teachers. The child uses the interaction skills from one group to another in order to adapt. Families are the most involved group when it comes to literacy learning in children. They always support their children to be more literate at a young age. The bedtime stories might seem irrelevant and boring to the parent, but to the child, it is the beginning of a long journey to literacy development (Miller, 2013). The nature of the home environment the child lives in is a determinant of the social interaction and the literacy development. The family is not the only major entity that improves a child’s social interaction and literacy. A study done at a childcare facility proved that children interacted with each other at the center and most of them made friends very easily (Tsao, 2008). This was enough prove that although family influence was important, other social interactions can be important in the growth of literacy among the children. Children begin social interaction at an early age to help them interact with adults and other children. It helps them become compassionate, have empathy and respect their older peers. The social interaction helps children to exercise their language and skills in problem solving. Most of the children who become more involved in the social interactions are the ones who have developed most of their language skills (Luongo-Orlando, 2010). Children are responsible for the growth of their social interaction skills and mostly, the interactions develop naturally. A child’s interaction methods shifts from being dependent on the adults to satisfying and managing their own interactions with other people. From these experiences, a child is able to share and cooperate with other children, view things from a different perspective and be able to resolve any conflicts and comprises with their peers. Children need to be actively involved in practical scenarios instead of only sitting and just listening. Experiences from the surrounding environment everyday help the children to learn best about it. Therefore, children should be involved in activities like painting, solving puzzles to expand their knowledge, playing simple games to enrich their knowledge and checking out different storybooks. You can be surprised at how fact the child can learn from all this activities and experiences. Teachers always try to find new ways of helping children to develop their literacy skills in a creative setting. It involves integrating literacy-related objects to fit into a play setting of the child surroundings (Sutherland & Friedman, 2012). One such way is by using the socio-dramatic play. These may involve an activity like the children being encouraged to build a police station and even act as police. These activities help create literacy related objects that achieve the real life goals. These activities in the classroom helps children enjoy the learning experience and at the same time develop their literacy skills. Teachers should always have the idea of coming up with a learning environment where children have the freedom of constructing their own meaning and practicing the usage of literacy skills (Sutherland & Friedman, 2013). The use of learning centers for children has recently incorporated the idea of play in their activities to engross the children more in active learning experiences. Teachers usually create groups for the children to help them socialize with each other and support the development of the language. Children tend to feel safe and comfortable around each and they support each other in any activity. All this still proves the strong connection between play and literacy. Currently, most schools are implementing play as a learning tool for the young children. This has proved to be the right tool in a setting where there are children with different languages. Play helps to connect all the children regardless of their differences in languages or backgrounds. It is safe to say that play is a universal development tool for a child’s growth and is responsible for all the aspects of growth in children. Children are more likely to be involved and interested in literacy materials during play as long as the teacher direct them on how to use the materials appropriately (Tsao, 2008). Any activity involving play provides many ways for a child to learn about the different skills and ideas. Children usually feel comfortable and relaxed when they learning in an environment that keeps them happy. Teachers usually try to spice up the play by introducing literacy props like books, signs around the classroom in order to help the child become more aware in literacy-related activities like reading and writing (Miller, 2013). This helps them to teach the children on literacy and mathematics skills through play. The learning process of a child depends on the play materials provided to them, the equipment and role models who guide them through. It is important for the teacher to understand the role of play to the development and learning of a child’s abilities. The continuous involvement of a child in the learning process of both reading and writing by using play has a very big impact for the literacy development. Teachers provide print materials that the child integrates into their play. Research has proved that drawing, symbolic play and writing are very important in developing the process of written language in children (Walker & Gopnik, 2013). Play exists in many different forms but in relation to literacy development, teachers in the implementation of literacy in classrooms prefer dramatic play. Teachers are an important part of a child’s literacy development and they help and encourage the children grow their social interaction. Teachers help organize and put together various group activities to involve the children more in-group work activities and help them show respect for each other. Classrooms have special designated areas where children play and socialize with each other. Many teachers now encourage children to know more about each other by assigning them in pairs. This helps those kids who have trouble socializing with other children and it gives them the opportunity to be part of the play with their peers. Teachers set up various materials around the classroom to boost social play among the children. The material could include paintbrushes, crayons, puzzles, toys (Miller, 2013). The classroom should be setup in a way to promote direct interactions. For example, the teacher can put the tables at the middle of the room so that the children can surround the table instead of using one side of the table. Teachers should always be actively involved in the social interactions of the children. Children need attention at all times and if the teacher shows the excitement in their social development, the child will be eager to learn more on literacy skills. However, the implementation of play into the classrooms has not been an easy task. Most of the institutions have not yet considered play as part of the curriculum and most of them consider it as a waste of time and resources. Most of the play activities require the teacher to be actively involved in order to be able to guide the children at every step of the way. Nonetheless, in such cases, you find that a classroom only has one teacher who cannot be able to manage all the activities by herself. Sometimes, the school is not always supportive in terms of the resources. The teacher sometimes has to spend his/her own money is buying the necessary materials and props. Seminars and workshops provide the teacher with the additional knowledge of improving the child’s literacy skills. The school may refuse to provide the money for the extra training, which means that the child misses the opportunity for the additional knowledge. Play is a fun and creative activity that provides the basis for the learning and development of children (Luongo-Orlando, 2010). Any type of activity that contributes to the literacy skills of a child is play. Teachers normally use some sort of games in the classroom to motivate the children in concentrating in the learning process in a fun way. Play is just an easy and straightforward way of understanding a child’s behavior and social interactions. Integrating play into a child’s life will go a long way into being an important part of his/her life. The way a child interacts socially during childhood will help determine how the child will fair in the development of the literacy skills. According to Tsao (2008), play is an important vehicle for a child’s social, emotional and cognitive development as well as a reflection of their development. The purpose of a teacher is to discover the potential and abilities of the children by involving them in various playful activities. Teachers always achieve the best outcomes when they focus their teaching activities through play. Children in such classroom are able to develop their literacy skills to another level and they develop better language and social skills that they use to adjust their behaviors both physically and cognitively (Tsao, 2008). For classrooms that do not involve play in their various activities, children have been reluctant to show interest in both reading and writing. The classrooms experience all sort of problems because the children being to lose interest. It is for this reason why play is a very important tool in ensuring the development of the learning and literacy skills of a child. Play is very crucial for the development of a child’s literacy skills. It is a social phenomenon that children really appreciate and enjoy. The development of literacy skills is something natural and is encouraged through social interaction. This research study has really looked into the benefits of encouraging play in the development of language in children but implementation in the classroom has been a real struggle. This is because of the outdated curriculum and lack of knowledge of how play really develops literacy skills. However, the world is changing and the educators are beginning to understand the importance of play to a child’s development. The future is really heading there where classrooms will allow social interactions among the children to promote literacy learning. A study mirroring the use of playful social interactions in contract to those that do not shows a remarkable change because of using play in developing literacy skills for a school setting. References Luongo-Orlando, K. (2010). The Cornerstones to Early Literacy:Childhood experiences that promote learning in reading,writing and oral language. Ontario: Pembroke Publishers. Miller, C. P. (2013). Before they read:Teaching language and literacy development through conversations, interactive read-aloud and listening games. Florida: Maupin House Publishing Inc. Sutherland, S., & Friedman, O. (2012). Preschoolers acquire general knowledge by sharing in pretense. Child Dev. 83(3): 1064-71. Sutherland, S., & Friedman, O. (2013). Just pretending can be really learning:children use pretend play as a source for acquiring generic knowledge. Dev Psychol, 49(9):1660-8. Tsao, Y. L. (2008). Using guided play to enhance childrens conversation,creativity and competence in literacy. Education, 123(3): 515-520. Walker, C., & Gopnik, A. (2013). Pretense and possibilty--a theoritical proposal about the effects of pretend play on development. Psychol Bull, 139(1): 40-4. Read More