Pyle, A., Wickstrom, H., Gross, O., & Kraszewski, E. (2024). Supporting literacy development in kindergarten through teacher-facilitated play. Journal of Early Childhood Research, 22(3), 428–441. https://doi.org/10.1177/1476718X231221363
Play-based learning is essential for supporting children’s learning during the early years. In fact, playful pedagogy is mandated as part of the current Ontario kindergarten curriculum. While it may sound simple to teach language and literacy skills in play, educators have expressed challenges related to (lack of) knowledge and confidence in knowing how and when to teach goals during play in a balanced way. The current study seeks to understand how different types of play may support different types of literacy skills.
This study involved observing 30 kindergarten classrooms in Ontario. Observations were coded for the type of play observed and literacy skills targeted during play.
Play was defined as:
- Free play – Child-directed play with minimal educator involvement
- Teacher-direct play – Teacher-led activities with direct instruction and explicit steps that children follow
- Guided play – Educators create a context to focus on specific learning goals, while children direct play. Guided play is a combination of free play and teacher-directed play
Literacy skills were defined as:
- Alphabetics – Alphabet knowledge and decoding skills
- Fluency – Reading with speed and accuracy
- Comprehension – Understanding text and vocabulary
- Text conventions – Playing with books; book handling
- Writing – Games with writing
- Oral language – Form (e.g., structure, grammar) and use (non-literal language) of language as well as storytelling skills
Results found that different types of play lend themselves well to targeting different types of literacy skills. Free play was the most common type of play in Ontario kindergarten classrooms. Free play targeted skills like text conventions and oral language. Teacher-directed play was the second most common form of play, targeting alphabetics, fluency, and writing skills. While guided play was the least common, all literacy skills were targeted during guided play. The authors advocate for enhancing guided play practice to support literacy skills in a more comprehensive way.
We are also interested in the potential of guided play to support the full spectrum of oral language skills including grammar, vocabulary, sentence structure and length, and verbal reasoning. Another consideration is that talk during play may be good for good talkers, but those with weak oral language skills (English language learners, developmental language disorders) would require intentional instruction.