ABSTRACT
In this new era of early literacy basics, it is going to take more than design studies to show that play can result in children engaging in activities that are likely to promote early literacy. Research is needed to show that play experiences or curricula that have a strong play component are at least as effective, if not more so, than alternative means of instruction. Previous research on literacy-enriched play environments has tended to be unidirectional, focusing on the effects of the environment and teacher scaffolding on children's play and literacy behavior. One-shot, short-term programs do not appear to be sufficient. Teachers need long-term, sustained professional development with opportunities to apply strategies in their own classrooms. Early literacy learning in a new media age, in fact, may spur a resurgence of social play in early education because its demands for complex, abstract thinking are closely related to those needed for negotiating multimodal texts.
