[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-591454-105":59,"doc-detail-591454-en":122},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":115,"head_meta":117,"extra_data":119,"updated_unix":121},105,"en","gaining-ground-in-understanding-the-play-literacy-relationship","Gaining Ground in Understanding the Play-Literacy Relationship","","Critical appraisal of approximately seventeen play-literacy studies evaluates evidence quality, study design strength, and practice value, aiming to clarify whether and how play supports early literacy development. The analysis organizes findings into three major domains within the play-literacy relationship and highlights stronger evidence showing effects on literacy skills while noting research gaps about each domain’s relevance for early literacy policy and practice. A recommendation extends critical appraisal to build higher-level evidence for instructional use.",{"@graph":69,"@context":114},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/gaining-ground-in-understanding-the-play-literacy-relationship/591454/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/gaining-ground-in-understanding-the-play-literacy-relationship/591454.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"supergirl","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-09","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":81},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"Why are play and literacy difficult to define for empirical research?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"Both are large, complex constructs that vary across developmental periods and across sociocultural and historical contexts.","Answer","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":116,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":118,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":120,"site_id":62},591454,1792210340,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":123},{"doc_id":120,"user_id":124,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":125,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":126,"file_id":127,"file_url":128,"file_type":129,"file_size":130,"view_count":81,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":131,"language":132,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":133,"faqs":134,"seo_title":135,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":136,"read_time":36,"preview_page_count":4},962088121634,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_9964176cb1d06d4a9deccf72a44ae3dc","Gaining Ground in Understanding the Play-Literacy Relationship  \ns  \nKathleen A. Roskos  \nJames F. Christie  \nMany in the field of early literacy development and learning believe strongly that play and literacy share common ground, but they have found the idea difficult to prove. While some primary research indicates a positive relationship, the impact of play seems to occur at different levels of development, which complicates how researchers view its influence on early literacy policy and practice. The authors use a critical-appraisal process, more common in the medical field, to describe the best available evidence from a corpus of play-literacy studies. Appraising some seventeen studies and their levels of evidence, strength of design, and “worth to practice”findings, they arrive at a description of three major domains in the play-literacy relationship. They assert that the better evidence in each domain shows the effects of play on literacy skills while revealing the research yet needed to demonstrate the relevance of each domain for early literacy. They recommend the further use of the critical-appraisal process in the play-literacy field to build a body of highlevel evidence that will have a major impact on early literacy practice. Keywords: critical-appraisal process; early literacy; play-literacy relationship; pretend play  \nConsider the following exchange between Jeremy and his friend Ashley as it unfolds during playtime in a preschool classroom. Four-year-old Jeremy manipulates small dinosaur figures taken from a case of them. He says to his friend Ashley, who is the same age,“I’m playin’ with these. Don’t close the case up. It has the words.” Ashley asks,“Can I play too?” Jeremy replies,“Only take one. OK? Look right here (pointing to the words on the storage case). This says ‘stego’ with this one.”  \nLayered in the everyday, thousands of fleeting exchanges like this occur between children the world over (often out of the earshot of adults) . Yet the significance of these play-literacy connections for young children’s literacy development and learning remains a mystery. Is such play central to the foundations of literacy in young children? Is it supportive? Or is it nonessential—a takeit-or-leave-it happenstance? Might it prime children’s minds for the learn-to-  \n82  \nAmerican Journal of Play, volume 6, number 1 © The Strong  \nContact Kathleen Roskos [at Roskos@jcu.edu](at Roskos@jcu.edu)  \nread process, laying the foundations for print knowledge, word consciousness, storybook reading, and a motivation to read. Or perhaps not? These are good research questions that need answers, because, if play has a role in establishing early literacy foundations, it should be available to children and plentiful in the early literacy learning environment.  \nTheory  \nTheories of child development based on the work of Jean Piaget hold that pretend play presents opportunities for practicing representational skills that support abstract reasoning, but it does not, in and of itself, advance these skills (Case 1987; Case and Khanna1981; Fischer and Immordino-Yang 2002) . From this perspective, pretend play and literacy share some mental processes (e.g., representing event knowledge and scripts and using problem-solving strategies and rules). More exercise in one, however, does not lead to changes in the other. More pretend play, for instance, does not lead to an increase in reading-readiness skills, and more early literacy does not yield more complex pretend play (as far as we know) . Pretend play, therefore, is not a “leading” activity, one necessary to developing emergent literacy skills. Play is literally a “following” activity that provides opportunities to practice and consolidate early literacy skills already learned (e.g., emergent writing) .  \nLev S.Vygotsky (1966) makes a different claim, namely that pretend play, per se, is transformative and unique in the preschool developmental period. It is a transitional stage during which “thoug","cbCaikAbl9R8OQOt","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaikAbl9R8OQOt","pdf",248340,16,"English","# Gaining Ground in Understanding the Play-Literacy Relationship\n## Critical-appraisal of play-literacy studies\n## Example exchange during preschool play\n## Theoretical perspectives on pretend play and literacy\n## Constructs and definitions in empirical research","[{\"question\":\"Why are play and literacy difficult to define for empirical research?\",\"answer\":\"Both are large, complex constructs that vary across developmental periods and across sociocultural and historical contexts.\"}]","Gaining Ground in Understanding the Play-Literacy Relationship | PDF",1792072464]