Imagine discovering that the key to unlocking the interwoven secrets of play, literacy, and even resilience can be found in the whimsical stories of young children—the ones they seem to conjure out of thin air as they transform snack crackers into hungry tigers and twigs into telephones. Guided by professor emerita of Early Education and Child Development Dr. Stephanie Goloway, this workshop invites you to explore how the magic in those flights of fancy builds the foundations for language, literacy, imagination, and more.

Sometimes referred to as representational thinking, a child’s growing ability to construct and play with symbols is one of the core developmental tasks of early childhood. Yet too often, we overlook the power of children’s make-believe as we focus on more concrete milestones on our developmental checklists. Dr. Goloway will help you examine the theory and neuroscience behind the development of representational thinking and reflect on how it emerges in young children’s play. You’ll connect the dots between storytelling, symbolic thinking, make-believe play, and emergent literacy.

Throughout the session, you’ll explore a variety of ways to wave the “magic wand” of storytelling in your setting—sharing folk and fairy tales, narrating creative movement experiences, and using quick anecdotes to scaffold transitions and routines. You’ll discover how, with each story you tell, you can nurture children’s capacity to transform their experiences into the wondrous web that underpins their play, reading, writing, problem-solving, and interactions with others.

The best part: the wild sense, curiosity, joy, and stories of young children will be truly honored and celebrated as you help them spin narratives and weave meaning into their world.

Participants will:

1. Define representational thinking in the context of early childhood development.

2. Explain the role of representational thinking and the use of symbols in emergent literacy and make-believe play.

3. Identify ways oral storytelling supports the development of representational thinking, literacy, and make-believe play.

4. Investigate how to incorporate different kinds of storytelling into any early childhood setting and schedule.

5. Examine the added benefits of telling folk and fairy tales to support representational thinking, emergent literacy, play, and resilience.