PRAESA - Early childhood literacy research, materials and training

The Project for the Study of Alternative Education in South Africa (PRAESA) is a non-governmental organisation focussed on multilingual early childhood language and literacy development. Our work in language and literacy approaches, curricula, training, materials development and research has meaning-making, stories and imagination as its compass point. PRAESA’s aim is to ensure that young children from all language, class and cultural backgrounds have appropriate opportunities to become imaginative and critical readers and writers.

About Storyplay

Storyplay is an approach to early literacy teaching that focuses on enabling meaningful and imaginative literacy learning in young children.

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Storyplay in Action

These videos capture moments that illustrate productive story and play-related interactions between children and adults. Young children learn many essential early literacy lessons with appropriate opportunities to explore print in the company of the people around them.

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Curriculum orientation

Blogs

Anton Lucien’s first story

Nadia describes a literacy event, in which he comes to dictate his very first story, which she writes down for him. Such small stories, are what drive language and literacy development and learning, though in the busy-ness of home and school life, their significance can be underestimated, or ignored…

Feeling at home with literacy

In this video, shot on location in a Cape Town primary school and elsewhere in the city, the viewer spends time with a little girl, Zia who is just starting to read and write. Zia finds literacy stimuli all around her and in some unexpected places, guided by her mother and teachers who use all of the languages present in the classroom as a resource, instead of an obstacle.

Multilingual story-sharing

Listen to and follow the delightfully animated story of Kimi’s Cat. Adults and children can join in and read words in any of the 11 South African official language versions. There is also a story-sharing demonstration in English that can be used with teachers and parents to discuss ways of sharing storybooks with young children.

More story-based resources…