Combination of picturebooks and toys for development of children’s literacy: advantages and limitations in the context of play-based pedagogy

Abstract

Educators and parents are constantly searching for new ways to develop children's literacy. Playing in a rich environment enables even the youngest children to explore literacy and develop their literacy skills. With the rapid development of technologies in book publishing, picturebooks are becoming an increasingly common element of such an environment. This article analyses how a picturebook can be used in the context of play-based pedagogy and linguistic diversity. The results of the study on reading a picturebook with children under 9 years of age are presented (N68). The research data demonstrated that reading a picturebook with a toy helped to raise interest and retain the attention of preschool children and primary school pupils, stimulated their linguistic activity, and helped to better understand the book; yet in some situations it had a negative effect on teacher-child interaction, distracted from the written work, and hindered the possibilities to develop active reading skills offered by the picturebook. Reading a picturebook with a toy could be seen as a means of individualising education when working with pre-schoolers or children with learning difficulties. The research shows that reading with a toy can both foster the interaction between the teacher and the learner and hinder it; so, the integrity of all the elements of the educational situation is important: the learner's capabilities, peculiarities of the picturebook and the toy, as well as the teacher's skillfulness.