One of the five domains for educational readiness is approaches to play and learning. Play and play-based learning are considered essential elements of early childhood education. Understanding why play is absolutely crucial to educational readiness and the cornerstone on which early literacy develops is necessary to protect and ensure plentiful opportunities for it.
Play supports children’s development across all developmental domains (Ramani, 2012; Bongiorno, 2019) and is a singular opportunity to develop a brain ready for academic learning (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2018). A child engaged in play is accessing, utilizing, and developing the skills necessary for all academic learning. Play is so powerful that it can be a targeted area of intervention to close gaps for children ages 3–6 (Parker & Thomsen, 2019).
Because play is the vehicle through which children learn how to learn, the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) embedded it within its position statement on developmentally appropriate practices (2020). Play is where children develop curiosity, problem-solving, attention, and persistence, as well as other learning behaviors closely tied to school success. Without question, early literacy experiences such as learning sounds and the letters that represent them are important, but it is also important for children to apply that knowledge meaningfully, and play develops every skill necessary to do so.