Let's Play in the Library

In a recent ALSC blog post, the ever-amazing Tess Prendergast addresses ways that dramatic play in the library enhances literacy and learning for our youngest patrons.

Tess writes: "Because you work with children, you see them at play in different ways all the time. At any given moment in the children’s library, you might see them putting on a puppet show, building with blocks, pretending to go on a bear hunt, or playing with an interactive app. Play is an integral part of childhood, and children experience play as intrinsically rewarding and intensely enjoyable. We also know that play in all its forms fosters children’s language, literacy, and cognition. It also provides rich developmental opportunities across all domains. Play is so important to the lives of children, it is enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child Article 31 which states that all children have the right “to engage in play and recreational activities appropriate to the age of the child and to participate freely in cultural life and the arts.”

She goes on to suggest way to incorporate play in library spaces and early literacy programming - and provides the research to back up her examples.

To read the post, please click here. [Supporting Dramatic Play in the Library. Prendergast, Tess. ALSC blog. November 18, 2023.]