Joy Before Literacy: Why Play, Singing, and Laughter Are the Keys to Children's Reading Success
Keywords:
arly reading; early childhood education; joyful learning; play; psycholinguistics; singing.Abstract
Early reading success is commonly viewed as the outcome of systematic reading instruction, whereas the role of joyful learning experiences as a prerequisite for literacy development has received comparatively limited attention. This study aims to analyze how play, singing, and laughter establish psycholinguistic conditions that support children's early reading success. A qualitative case study was conducted at TK Ummul Quro Pamekasan, Indonesia. Data were collected through classroom observations, in-depth interviews, and document analysis and were analyzed using the interactive model of Miles, Huberman, and Saldaña, including data condensation, data display, and conclusion drawing and verification. The findings reveal that play enhances children's attention and learning engagement, singing strengthens phonological awareness, vocabulary acquisition, and verbal memory, while laughter promotes emotional security and confidence during reading activities. The integration of these three activities establishes psycholinguistic conditions that support reading readiness through the interaction of cognitive, linguistic, emotional, and social dimensions. This study proposes the Joy Before Literacy framework, which conceptualizes joyful learning as a psycholinguistic prerequisite for early literacy development and offers practical implications for designing more holistic and developmentally appropriate early reading instruction.
References
Anderson, A., & Shattuck, J. (2012). Design-based research: A decade of progress in education research? Educational Researcher, 41(1), 16–25. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X11428813
Bus, A. G., & van IJzendoorn, M. H. (1999). Phonological awareness and early reading: A meta-analysis of experimental training studies. Journal of Educational Psychology, 91(3), 403–414.
Cabell, S. Q., Zucker, T. A., DeCoster, J., & Justice, L. M. (2019). Impact of teacher–child conversations on preschool language and literacy development. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 48, 14–29.
Degé, F., & Schwarzer, G. (2011). The effect of a music program on phonological awareness in preschoolers. Frontiers in Psychology, 2, Article 124. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00124
Fredrickson, B. L. (2001). The role of positive emotions in positive psychology: The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. American Psychologist, 56(3), 218–226.
Goswami, U. (2001). Early phonological development and the acquisition of literacy. In S. B. Neuman & D. K. Dickinson (Eds.), Handbook of Early Literacy Research (pp. 111–125). Guilford Press.
Justice, L. M., Jiang, H., & Strasser, K. (2018). Linguistic environment of preschool classrooms: Implications for children's language and literacy development. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 42, 79–92.
Kempert, S., Götz, R., Blatter, K., Tibken, C., Artelt, C., Schneider, W., & Stanat, P. (2016). Training early literacy related skills: To which degree does a musical training contribute to phonological awareness development? Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 1803. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01803
Neuman, S. B., & Roskos, K. (1991). Peers as literacy informants: A description of young children's literacy conversations in play. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 6(2), 233–248.
Nicolopoulou, A. (2010). The alarming disappearance of play from early childhood education. Human Development, 53(1), 1–4.
Shalev, L., & Share, D. L. (2021). Cognitive foundations of early literacy development. Reading and Writing, 34(5), 1145–1167.
Whitehurst, G. J., & Lonigan, C. J. (1998). Child development and emergent literacy. Child Development, 69(3), 848–872.
Wood, E. (2014). Free choice and free play in early childhood education: Troubling the discourse. International Journal of Early Years Education, 22(1), 4–18.
Zosh, J. M., Hopkins, E. J., Jensen, H., Liu, C., Neale, D., Hirsh-Pasek, K., Solis, S. L., & Whitebread, D. (2017). Learning through play: A review of the evidence. LEGO Foundation.
Zucker, T. A., Cabell, S. Q., Justice, L. M., Pentimonti, J. M., & Kaderavek, J. N. (2013). The role of frequent, interactive shared reading in the development of language and literacy skills in preschool children. Early Childhood Education Journal, 41(4), 295–305.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Retno Intan Kuswari (Author)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Tanfidziya is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
.
