Abstract:

The relationship between symbolic play, reading and writing is an area where the play, the language and the reader/writer’s behaviors emerge, converge and interact (Roskos et Christie, 2011). Note here the established relationship between play environment and early reading/writing abilities (Christie and Roskos 2009, Giasson, 2011; Neuman & Roskos, 1992; Pellegrini and Galda, 2000) or the established relationship between the social interaction trough play which conveys the value of writing and the development of the written language among children ( Guo and al., 2012; Lynch, 2011, Roskos and Christie, 2013). In research, it also appears that there is an established relationship between symbolic play and child’s motivation for reading and writing. Gerde and al., 2015, Roskos and Christie, 2011,2013). Roscos and Christie (2013) mention, however, that many authors assume that play, reading and writing would share the same basis, but the idea seems hard to prove. The literature review also reveals that the specific relationship between children’s abilities in using different symbolic play schemes and those related to the different components of the emergence of writing are not documented. Our research question is therefore: What links exist between children’s abilities to use symbolic play schemes (the substitution; the role behavior; the common scenario) and the abilities related to three components of the emergent literacy (the functional aspect of writing, the conventional aspect of writing and the sound sensitivity)?

The objective of this research is to determine the relationships, possibly existing, between children’s abilities to use symbolic play schemes and those related to three components of the emergent literacy.

In a quasi-experimental study, 334 five-year-old children, from different socio-economic environments attending a public preschool class in Quebec, were assessed to an abilities test related to emergent literacy. The abilities related to symbolic play were assessed by teachers through observation. Data from these tests are subjected to a correlational analysis. Two groups of dependent variables are studied. Group 1: abilities related to symbolic play schemes: abilities to use substitution; abilities to build role behavior and abilities to develop a scenario. Group 2: abilities related to emergent literacy: abilities related to functional aspect of writing; abilities related to conventional aspect of writing; abilities related to sound sensitivity. Two independent variables will be considered: socio-economic environment and gender. The first results show that there is a correlation moderate positive between the reading/writing abilities global score and symbolic play ability global score. The correlations between the different scales are of different values (low or moderate) and differ in groups according to the age and the sex.

Keywords:

Children’s symbolic play, emergent literacy, children’s abilities.