Emergency Literacy in Children's play: A case of games played by children in two compounds in Kitwe
type: CreativeWork
description: The study was carried out to find out what type of skills, knowledge and attitudes found in children’s play or games can be characterised as foundations of reading, writing (literacy)and numeracy or those that aid their development.The sample included 30 children (16 girls and 14 boys) and their parents. Purposive sampling was used in selecting the subjects and participants of the research. The snowballing technique whereby one mother led the researcher to the next was used to select mothers who had preschoolers. Parents of the children were identified first before commencing observations because permission had to be sought from them. The number of parents was 25 because out of the total sample of 30 children, there was a set of twins and four sets of siblings. The children were aged between one and six years old. The study employed qualitative data collection and analysis procedures. These were used to identify the games played by preschoolers in the study area as well as establish what type of skills, knowledge and attitudes found in children's play and games could be characterised as foundations literacy and numeracy or those that aid their development.The findings indicated that preschoolers in the targeted compounds engaged in both exploratory and rule-governed play depending on how the game was played or what behaviour the players engaged in while playing. Children's play in the targeted area was also consistent with Davidson (1996:283)'s classification; sensory, play with motion, rough and tumble, language play, dramatic and modelling, constructive, games and rituals and competitive play. The age and gender of the children as well as the culture and social economic status (SES) of their parents determined the kind of games that the children played.The acquisition and use of language skills were found in almost all the games while the other components were scantly distributed in many of the games that were observed. Most games contained more of emergent numera…
abstract: The study was carried out to find out what type of skills, knowledge and attitudes found in children’s play or games can be characterised as foundations of reading, writing (literacy)and numeracy or those that aid their development.The sample included 30 children (16 girls and 14 boys) and their parents. Purposive sampling was used in selecting the subjects and participants of the research. The snowballing technique whereby one mother led the researcher to the next was used to select mothers who had preschoolers. Parents of the children were identified first before commencing observations because permission had to be sought from them. The number of parents was 25 because out of the total sample of 30 children, there was a set of twins and four sets of siblings. The children were aged between one and six years old. The study employed qualitative data collection and analysis procedures. These were used to identify the games played by preschoolers in the study area as well as establish what type of skills, knowledge and attitudes found in children's play and games could be characterised as foundations literacy and numeracy or those that aid their development.The findings indicated that preschoolers in the targeted compounds engaged in both exploratory and rule-governed play depending on how the game was played or what behaviour the players engaged in while playing. Children's play in the targeted area was also consistent with Davidson (1996:283)'s classification; sensory, play with motion, rough and tumble, language play, dramatic and modelling, constructive, games and rituals and competitive play. The age and gender of the children as well as the culture and social economic status (SES) of their parents determined the kind of games that the children played.The acquisition and use of language skills were found in almost all the games while the other components were scantly distributed in many of the games that were observed. Most games contained more of emergent numera…
author: Kasonde, Estella
language: en
keywords: Play, Language Acquisition, Language Arts
date published: 2013-11-15
date modified: 2026-07-27T22:06:45Z
provider: University of Zimbabwe
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Zimbabwe