Language Play and Children's Literacy celebrates the contribution of language play to children's understanding of how language can be used for play and impact. It reveals how language play is used for many different purposes, and includes an invaluable resource bank of activities for teachers and parents.

Dominant assumptions about place tend to be defined in relation to urban communities. To assume a singular construction of urban places misrepresents the experiences, perspectives, and identities of urban children, making their identities become invisible to researchers, educators, and curriculum developers. Sharing a wide range of perspectives, Role of Place and Play in Young Children’s Language and Literacy sheds light on language and literacy learning in play-based early childhood settings where place plays an important role in teaching and learning. Drawing on geographic contexts, including northern rural and Indigenous communities, and giving voice to educational leaders in Indigenous professional learning contexts, as well as speech-language pathologists, this book joins forces with literacy and early childhood education researchers to create an interdisciplinary collage of theory, research, and practice. Bringing play and place together, a concept Shelley Stagg Peterson and Nicola Friedrich call playce-based learning, this book provides new and compelling ways to think about equity and educational opportunity in the language and literacy development of young children, and offers spaces for them to construct their own identities in positive ways.

This volume brings together studies, research syntheses, and critical commentaries that examine play-literacy relationships from cognitive, ecological, and cultural perspectives. The cognitive view focuses on mental processes that appear to link play and literacy activities; the ecological stance examines opportunities to engage in literacy-related play in specific environments; and the social-cultural position stresses the interface between the literacy and play cultures of home, community, and the school. Examining play from these diverse perspectives provides a multidimensional view that deepens understanding and opens up new avenues for research and educational practice. Each set of chapters is followed by a critical review by a distinguished play scholar. These commentaries' focus is to hold research on play and literacy up to scrutiny in terms of scientific significance, methodology, and utility for practice. A Foreword by Margaret Meek situates these studies in the context of current trends in literacy learning and instruction. Earlier studies on the role of play in early literacy acquisition provided considerable information about the types of reading and writing activities that children engage in during play and how this literacy play is affected by variables such as props, peers, and adults. However, they did not deal extensively, as this book does, with the functional significance of play in the literacy development of individual children. This volume pushes the study of play and literacy into new areas. It is indispensable reading for researchers and graduate students in the fields of early childhood education and early literacy development.

This book provides pre-service and practising teachers with an integrated approach to language and literacy learning in early childhood. Written by leading academics in the field, it explores how children learn to talk, play using language, become literate and make meaning - from birth through to the pre-school years. Emphasising the importance of imagination and the arts in language learning, this book addresses a wide range of contemporary issues, highlights the impact of diverse socioeconomic, language and cultural backgrounds on young children's language and literacy development, and shows how early childhood teachers can effectively partner with parents and caregivers to help children learn through and about language. Case studies, interviews, reflective questions, clear links to the Early Years Learning Framework and the Australian Curriculum, and a rich array of practical and creative activities for use in early childhood environments help students connect theory and current research to practice.

This book overviews the sociolinguistic and psychological approaches to studying play and literacy. It offers research studies that relate different aspects of play to emergent reading and writing behaviors. The use of certain language structures, storybook reenactments, literacy activities during play, and notions of reality and pretense are considered. It also presents applied research on how manipulation of play environments, teacher involvement in play, and play training can promote literacy growth.

Children are already learning at birth, and they develop and learn at a rapid pace in their early years. This provides a critical foundation for lifelong progress, and the adults who provide for the care and the education of young children bear a great responsibility for their health, development, and learning. Despite the fact that they share the same objective - to nurture young children and secure their future success - the various practitioners who contribute to the care and the education of children from birth through age 8 are not acknowledged as a workforce unified by the common knowledge and competencies needed to do their jobs well. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 explores the science of child development, particularly looking at implications for the professionals who work with children. This report examines the current capacities and practices of the workforce, the settings in which they work, the policies and infrastructure that set qualifications and provide professional learning, and the government agencies and other funders who support and oversee these systems. This book then makes recommendations to improve the quality of professional practice and the practice environment for care and education professionals. These detailed recommendations create a blueprint for action that builds on a unifying foundation of child development and early learning, shared knowledge and competencies for care and education professionals, and principles for effective professional learning. Young children thrive and learn best when they have secure, positive relationships with adults who are knowledgeable about how to support their development and learning and are responsive to their individual progress. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 offers guidance on system changes to improve the quality of professional practice, specific actions to improve professional learning systems and workforce development, and research to continue to build the knowledge base in ways that will directly advance and inform future actions. The recommendations of this book provide an opportunity to improve the quality of the care and the education that children receive, and ultimately improve outcomes for children.