**4. Role of play in promoting overall development and learning among young children-unpacking play: concept of emergent literacy**

Emergent literacy is a term used to describe early reading and writing development among young children. It refers to children acquiring some language, reading and writing skills before formally entering the primary school. It includes listening, speaking, reading, writing and thinking. Literacy development does not begin upon entering a formal primary school, but it begins early in life and is an ongoing process. Emergent literacy is influenced in the context of home, with family members and peers. It is also viewed as the reading and writing behaviour that precedes and eventually develops into conventional literacy. It is thus, important to understand the sequence of changes and development that occur in young children.

The sequence of changes that occur in children's physical, motor, language, cognitive and socio-emotional skills are referred to as growth and development among children. These changes occur from birth and continue till the children reach adolescence stage. Children's holistic growth and overall development is often observed through their enhanced skills in the five domains of development mentioned above. Cognitive abilities include abilities of children to learn and problem solving, while socio-emotional abilities involve skills of interacting with others and mastering selfcontrol. Language abilities include understanding and use of language for communicating with others. Physical skills include fine motor skills and gross motor skills.

Play has a major influence in developing the abilities and skills of children. It is argued, however, that free-flow play is at the centre of humanity across all parts of the world and within ancient civilizations [16].

According to popular beliefs, play is a concrete, manipulative, fun, hands-on, and creative activity. Play provides open-ended, self-discovery and theme-based teaching for children's learning and development. Varied play activities and opportunities lead to better physical, language, cognitive and socio-emotional skills among young children. As children engage in play activities, they tend to use language skills to communicate among each other, develop strategies to play and win, learn social skills to cooperate and share among friends. Thus, group play activities are especially relevant for enhancing overall development of children. Individual play activities are also equally important for overall development of young children.

All aspects of development and learning are thus influenced by play. Children are intrinsically motivated to engage in play activities even when they are very young. A 3-month old child loves to look at familiar face and smiles on recognizing the mother and enjoys participating in vocal exchange with the mother. An 8 month old child eagerly looks forward to playful exchanges with an older sibling and takes interests in games like peak-a-boo or hiding of objects. As children grow, their play grows in complexity and becomes more cognitively and socially demanding. Through play children learn to explore and discover, use their understanding to play imaginatively, express their emotions and inner feelings.

Play also helps young children in development of abstract thought by understanding the use of symbols as forms of representation. Play is also a beautiful medium for young children to understand and develop a sense of who they are, learn social skills of sharing, turn-taking and negotiation and deal with conflict with friends and family and learn to negotiate and solve problems. Play also helps children to cope with emotional loss and come to terms with any traumatic experiences.

A few important features of play that describe in more detail how children behave, and learn while playing have also been outlined. Children use the

**59**

*Play as a Mechanism of Promoting Emergent Literacy among Young Children: The Indian Context*

first-hand experiences from life in their play [17]. They make up the rules as they play and make play props. Children choose to participate in play on their own; they cannot be made to play. Children also rehearse the future in their role-play and pretend play. Children play alone sometimes, or they may play with adults or other

Children playing get deeply involved while playing and it is often difficult to distract them from their deep learning. Children try out their earlier learning, skills and competencies when they play. Also children at play coordinate their ideas, feelings and make sense of their relationships with their family, friends and

Based on the experiences as an early childhood educator and conducting observations in pre-primary and primary classrooms, the following play and learning activities were observed as helpful in developing and promoting emergent literacy

• Activities which encourage children to speak in the classrooms like show-n-tell,

• Theme based, short-term, coordinated planning of play activities. The curriculum and activities to be conducted need to be planned keeping in mind theme-based planning and provide children with opportunities or experiences

• Efforts to integrate language and literacy activities during free play of children.

• Opportunities for listening to music or musical instruments in all classrooms. Planned musical classes for children should be included in the curriculum.

• Fun activities that help children experiment with reading and writing need to be planned and organized. These also help children to experiment with differ-

• Reading a variety of story books also helps children to become aware of differ-

• Writing has a communicative purpose; thus writing can be more meaningful when children write letters to their grandparents or friends make a list, make

• Children need to be encouraged to participate in discussions and sharing their

• Teachers also need to provide opportunities to learn from peers. Creating learning corners, providing access to a variety of books and other literacy objects helps children in expressing themselves, thinking and sharing with their friends. Thus, more opportunities for collaborative learning can be provided by providing the appropriate classroom materials and planning such

In addition, traditional play activities in the Indian context are also useful in

Children need to be exposed to different musical instruments.

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.82363*

individual recitations, group recitations.

that integrate language and literacy activities.

children.

culture.

among young children:

ent writing materials.

birthday invites and so on.

activities in the curriculum for the children.

promoting emergent literacy among young children.

ent writing styles.

views.

#### *Play as a Mechanism of Promoting Emergent Literacy among Young Children: The Indian Context DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.82363*

first-hand experiences from life in their play [17]. They make up the rules as they play and make play props. Children choose to participate in play on their own; they cannot be made to play. Children also rehearse the future in their role-play and pretend play. Children play alone sometimes, or they may play with adults or other children.

Children playing get deeply involved while playing and it is often difficult to distract them from their deep learning. Children try out their earlier learning, skills and competencies when they play. Also children at play coordinate their ideas, feelings and make sense of their relationships with their family, friends and culture.

Based on the experiences as an early childhood educator and conducting observations in pre-primary and primary classrooms, the following play and learning activities were observed as helpful in developing and promoting emergent literacy among young children:


In addition, traditional play activities in the Indian context are also useful in promoting emergent literacy among young children.

*Early Childhood Education*

**4. Role of play in promoting overall development and learning among young children-unpacking play: concept of emergent literacy**

the sequence of changes and development that occur in young children.

the world and within ancient civilizations [16].

imaginatively, express their emotions and inner feelings.

Emergent literacy is a term used to describe early reading and writing development among young children. It refers to children acquiring some language, reading and writing skills before formally entering the primary school. It includes listening, speaking, reading, writing and thinking. Literacy development does not begin upon entering a formal primary school, but it begins early in life and is an ongoing process. Emergent literacy is influenced in the context of home, with family members and peers. It is also viewed as the reading and writing behaviour that precedes and eventually develops into conventional literacy. It is thus, important to understand

The sequence of changes that occur in children's physical, motor, language, cognitive and socio-emotional skills are referred to as growth and development among children. These changes occur from birth and continue till the children reach adolescence stage. Children's holistic growth and overall development is often observed through their enhanced skills in the five domains of development mentioned above. Cognitive abilities include abilities of children to learn and problem solving, while socio-emotional abilities involve skills of interacting with others and mastering selfcontrol. Language abilities include understanding and use of language for communicating with others. Physical skills include fine motor skills and gross motor skills. Play has a major influence in developing the abilities and skills of children. It is argued, however, that free-flow play is at the centre of humanity across all parts of

According to popular beliefs, play is a concrete, manipulative, fun, hands-on, and creative activity. Play provides open-ended, self-discovery and theme-based teaching for children's learning and development. Varied play activities and opportunities lead to better physical, language, cognitive and socio-emotional skills among young children. As children engage in play activities, they tend to use language skills to communicate among each other, develop strategies to play and win, learn social skills to cooperate and share among friends. Thus, group play activities are especially relevant for enhancing overall development of children. Individual play activities are also equally important for overall development of

All aspects of development and learning are thus influenced by play. Children are intrinsically motivated to engage in play activities even when they are very young. A 3-month old child loves to look at familiar face and smiles on recognizing the mother and enjoys participating in vocal exchange with the mother. An 8 month old child eagerly looks forward to playful exchanges with an older sibling and takes interests in games like peak-a-boo or hiding of objects. As children grow, their play grows in complexity and becomes more cognitively and socially demanding. Through play children learn to explore and discover, use their understanding to play

Play also helps young children in development of abstract thought by understanding the use of symbols as forms of representation. Play is also a beautiful medium for young children to understand and develop a sense of who they are, learn social skills of sharing, turn-taking and negotiation and deal with conflict with friends and family and learn to negotiate and solve problems. Play also helps children to cope with emotional loss and come to terms with any traumatic

A few important features of play that describe in more detail how children

behave, and learn while playing have also been outlined. Children use the

**58**

experiences.

young children.
