Play and Language: The Roots of Literacy – Carol Westby

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Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from Dr. Westby!

Language, cognitive and social-emotional learning skills are all essential for literacy development and academic success. Research shows that play is the universal activity that blends cognitive, social, emotional, linguistic and motor components. Observing children’s play provides information about their knowledge, views of the world and mastered skills.

Join Dr. Westby as you learn about the vital relationship between the dimensions of play, social-emotional functioning, language and literacy. Learn firsthand, how to effectively use the Westby Play Scale—a tool that offers a way to evaluate all young children’s (birth-5 years) symbolic play skills. Supported by 40 years of evidence-based research and organized by developmental level, this tool will breakdown the milestones children should be achieving with their play and language. You will also learn play practices and play strategies to improve language, cognitive and social-emotional skills, including:

• Higher-level thinking, problem-solving and creativity
• Advancing language skills and text comprehension
• Awareness of temporal, cause-effect and social relationships
• Motivation, self-regulation and empathy
• Interpreting and responding appropriately to the needs, desires, and roles of others

• Determine how play deficits cause intellectual, social, emotional and physical harm to children.
• Articulate the development and interrelationships of cognition, play, language, socialemotional skills and literacy.
• Assess a child’s play development and language skills using the Westby Play Scale.
• Recommend appropriate activities and strategies to develop young children’s language/ social-emotional/play skills at each level.
• Employ play to promote the cognitive, language, social-emotional and self-regulation skills that underlie children’s effective social interactions and literacy comprehension.
• Establish how play can facilitate self-regulation, empathy and the foundations for reading comprehension.

• Foundations of Cognitive-Play-Literacy Relationship: Frameworks for Assessment and Intervention
  • Dynamic systems theory: integrating nature and nurture theories
  • The World Health Organization’s International Classification of Functioning
  • A performance competence framework for assessment and intervention
• Social-Emotional/Cognitive Precursors to Play: Birth-17 months
  • Neurotypical and atypical patterns of social-emotional development
  • Environmental influences on social-emotional development and play
  • Temperamental variations in children
  • Presymbolic play
• Development of Pretend Play Dimensions (17 months – 5 years): Relationship of Play Dimensions to Language and Literacy
  • Theory of Mind Dimension (understanding thoughts and feelings of self and others)
  • Decontextualization Dimension (reduced use of props in play)
  • Thematic Dimension (from familiar to novel pretend themes)
  • Organization Dimension (sequencing and planning of play)
• Interventions to Promote Playing to Learn
  • Setting goals for playful learning
  • Promote literate-style language through play
  • Develop phonological awareness skills through playful practices
  • Promote thematic pretend play to develop foundations for language and literacy