The present paper explores the connections between theory and research in language development and aesthetic education and their implications for early childhood classroom practice. The present paper posits that arts experiences make a unique and vital contribution to the child's development of language and literacy, as well as to the sense of self as an active and engaged learner. Emphasizing the significance of personal agency in shaping and motivating language and literacy development, the paper highlights some critical features that link aesthetic experience and engagement with the arts to models of learning and teaching. The relationship between these features and the child's early development of language and literacy, and the special contribution of aesthetic experience to these processes, are considered. Exemplars from classrooms that have effectively incorporated aesthetic experiences with visual arts, poetry and storytelling as integral to language and literacy learning are presented.