Program in Action

How Play Supports Literacy Development

Preschools provide programs for children who are three to five years old and have not entered kindergarten. Many children attend preschool beginning at age two. Forty-one states invest in preschool education in either public school programs or Head Start programs. Currently in the United States there are about 725,000 three- to five-year-old children in some kind of preschool program.

Today there is high public interest in promoting literacy development at an early age in order to ensure reading success once a child enters elementary school. Early childhood educators recognize the importance of play in early literacy development.

• Read the Program in Action "How Play Supports Literacy Development." L. M. Morrow describes play settings that promote literacy development as settings that are familiar to children.
• Read the official position statement of the International Reading Association and the National Association for the Education of Young Children on learning to read and write on the website below. Pay particular attention to "Statement of the Position" and "Recommended Teaching Practices" (pp. 8–11) and the "Continuum of Children's Development in Early Reading and Writing" (pp. 15–16).

Learning to Read and Write
http://www.naeyc.org/about/positions/pdf/PSREAD98.PDF