- Play's potential in Early Literacy Development

Play in the preschool years has the potential to provide young children with a highly engaging and meaningful context for learning essential early literacy concepts and skills. The potential exists because theoretically, dramatic play and literacy share higher order, cognitive processes such as imaging, categorizing and problem solving. 1,2,3 Research interest in a play-literacy connection appeared as early as 1974, 4 but surged during the 1990s – most likely inspired by new insights into the foundations of literacy before schooling.5,6 Play, as a developmentally-appropriate activity, meshed perfectly with emergent literacy, a new insight on literacy development, and the play-literacy connection became one of the most heavily-researched areas of early literacy learning and instruction in the late 20th century.