Application of educational play activities in developing preliteracy skills

Literacy is a process “in which an individual becomes qualified to read and write varioustexts, as well as to use them to his/her advantage in everyday life.” (Zrimšek, 2003: 7.) This is a complex process and its fundamental phase is the mastery of initial literacy. The term includes all steps from preparation of reading and writing to systematic discussion and consolidation of letters while simultaneously developing and practising the reading and writing techniques (there). Preparation for literacy starts already in kindergarten and includes an initiation into the reading function by reading picture books in the company of an adult. With this children learn to develop speech, analyse words by splitting them into sounds, articulate pronunciation of words and sounds, develop graphomotor skills, ability to orientate (how to orientate on oneself, in space, on paper) and listening skills (i.e. Golli, 1996). The development of literacy with preschool children usually occurs spontaneously through some everyday events (i.e. L. Miller, 1996, summarized after Grginič, 2008). It is most suitable to develop the emerging literacy while developing appropriate skills and knowledges of emerging literacy and at the same time also forming an environment that would be beneficial for the development of those skills. Besides that, it is important to motivate children to read and write at an early age (the importance of adults functioning as a role models and adult contact with children is especially emphasised), to cultivate a rich press environment; that means an environment in which a child can become acquainted with various written materials. It is also important to organise as well as encourage games, the goal of which is to read, write or use written language (i.e. Pečjak 2003). The purpose of my research was to execute didactic games that develop preliteracy abilities and test them on preschool children. By carrying out didactic games, I intended to motivate children and achieve a change in their knowledge and preliteracy abilities. I enriched the development of pre-reading and pre-writing skills and abilities with didactic games in an attempt to influence their knowledge and abilities. I used action research as a means of my investigation. The purpose of this was my desire to bring concrete changes into current practice. I gathered information prior to and following the didactic exercises. I have been gathering the materials for two months. I worked intensely with children once or twice a week for thirty minutes. Before games, I tested their knowledge. The test functioned as a diagnosis, because of my interest to learn about the shortcomings in their understanding. The same test was carried out also after the research was finished. By testing their knowledge, I monitored their progress on specific areas of preliteracy abilities. I also performed an observation of children while carrying out didactic games in order to discover their interest in reading and writing