What is Play-based Learning in Early Years?

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Some people think that play-based learning is a gamified lesson or school activity. That is why I investigated to list the elements that make play-based learning effective in the early years.

Play-based learning refers to the child-centered pedagogical approach of using play to promote a child’s development and learning in a voluntary and pleasurable manner. This approach falls into two types: 1) free play and 2) guided play.

Ideally, in play-based learning (PBL), children take control of their learning process. They choose the time, the activity, the duration, and the manner to enjoy the experience that matches their cognitive, physical, and social-emotional skills. So, how can adults support this kind of learning? Let’s check.

Origin of Play-based Learning

Although there are debates on what constitutes play in play-based learning, it refers to relaxed, uninterrupted, and unrestrained time to engage in experiences that provoke the learner’s curiosity or fancy.

This shift in early childhood education (ECE) started in early 2000. Among the countries that transitioned its early childhood curricula into play-based learning are Canada, Sweden, China, United Arab Emirates, and New Zealand.

Such transition prevents the adverse emphasis on school readiness. The research claimed that there is decreasing support for play in early childhood education programs because they prioritized structured activities and testing. As a result, it negatively affected children’s motivation to learn, attention span, and behavior.

For instance, Moore explored this phenomenon by adopting teacher-facilitated play to improve the early literacy skills of kindergarten in an urban school. Her study proved the effectiveness of play-based learning in targeting phonemic awareness skills of children in kindergarten.

In brief, children will have plenty of play opportunities to learn naturally on their own at home and school through play-based learning.

5 Elements of Play-Based Learning

Children (from infancy to 5 years old) can enjoy play-based learning in solitary, creative, imaginative, and cooperative modes. Such modes can be considered as play-based learning if it consists of the following elements:

Choice: Children determine the type, length, and rules of play. Everything is self-initiated.
Fun: It refers to the emotional aspect of the game wherein children experience enjoyment or dissatisfaction. For the most part, the experience is pleasurable.

Process-oriented: Children immerse themselves in the process without a fixed learning goal. Instead, they cherish what they can discover along the way.
Imagination: Children conduct play as “play pretend.”
Open-ended: Children have ample time to explore on their own and acquire learning they find fascinating.

2 Types of Play-based Learning

In a play-based learning classroom, all the traditional subjects like math, science, reading, and social studies are learned through play with or without objects, either alone or with other children. The two types of play-based learning are 1) free play and 2) guided play.

Free Play

Free play is child-initiated play. It encourages self-directed learning. Children are fully engaged in free play when they have choices, challenges, and large blocks of time to solve something by themselves.

Free play is voluntary and purposeless. Children spend time in an enjoyable activity without a goal in mind. There are no rules or plans to direct their steps.

Research has shown that it is beneficial for the development of

social competence– ability to engage in meaningful interactions with others
Self-regulation – ability to understand and manage own behavior and reactions

Guided Play

Miller and Smith explained that in guided play, the involvement of adults depends on the form of play.

If it is outdoor play, adults play a supervisory role.
For indoor play, teachers act as facilitators of learning. Teachers set up stations and materials where children decide how and when to explore these items to learn more.

Guided play is beneficial in acquiring academic skills because adults prepare an environment that inspires children to explore and discover.

One of the structured activities that guided play uses is transforming the classroom into a community center. A child may pick up fruits and vegetables for farming or wear a fireman’s uniform. Others may tend to a cash register machine in a make-belief grocery store.

Teachers play along and mimic as closely possible actual conversations to encourage children to respond to situations sociably.

Teachers are less active in a play-based classroom. However, their function is crucial in ensuring a safe and conducive play environment for children.

In short, in a guided play, teachers are expected to:

Prep the environment for play

Respond to children’s questions to support their metacognition (the process of thinking about one’s thought process or learning)
Document children’s progress

Benefits of Play-Based Learning in Early Years

In general, the benefits of play-based learning include:

developmental skills (social-emotional skills)
academic skills (literacy, numeracy, language acquisition, and problem-solving skills)

Between child-directed play and teacher-supported play, the former has more potential for developing 1) an intrinsic desire to learn, 2) a positive attitude towards learning, 3) self-worth, and 4) valuable life skills.

Intrinsic Desire to Learn

Play enables children to gain motivation to learn no matter how difficult the experience may be. They start with materials that catch their interest and imagination. Then, they explore challenges as they immerse themselves further in play.

Positive Attitude Towards Learning

Play encourages children to discover new learning as they engage in the same form of play consecutively. Such repetition lets them unearth details that prompt them to experiment independently or seek an adult’s understanding.

Self-Worth

Because of play, children can develop self-awareness on what they can do and what they prefer to do. As a result, they can build their strengths and increase their self-confidence.

Valuable Life Skills

Children in the early years are concrete thinkers. Play provides them opportunities to interact and manipulate the objects around them which makes learning genuine.

Specifically, for toddlers (children aged 1-2 years old), play helps them to:

nurture their imagination and creativity

recognize emotions
develop language and social skills

On the other hand, preschoolers (children aged 3-5 years old) learn through play the following:

Expressing their ideas and asking questions
Critical thinking in solving problems
Social skills like waiting for their turn and cooperating with playmates

Distinguishing living things from non-living things and caring for them

Preschool children develop strong cognitive connections between concepts because they learn using authentic materials and trial and error.

On the other hand, various research has shown the impact of guided play or teacher-supported play in the classroom. Some of these results are:

Edith Cowan University proposed that dramatic play inspires children to construct characters orally and build coherent storylines.
McGinn quoted the research of Han et al., which stated that there was an increase in vocabulary achievement over time when teachers added play to EIVP (Explicit Instructional Vocabulary Protocol). Children use the words they learned in the intervention when they act out stories and create language-rich scenarios.
Veiga, Neto, and Reiffe shared that children develop social competence skills when given ample time and environmental support for free play.

Play-based Learning Activities at Home

When children play at home, they own their space and time. They have the freedom to make sense of the materials in front of them or whatever they find captivating in their surroundings.

Parents are considered the first teachers of children. Therefore, exploring play at home depends on the attention and influence parents give to their children. Parents may demonstrate how things work but if children would like to experiment, let them.

Ideally, play-based activities must be encouraged at least twice a day, preferably in the morning and after an afternoon nap.

Usually, toddlers are stimulated by:

Sorting activities
Start by asking children to separate objects by color

May use colorful Legos, stones, rice, crayons, playing cards, and more
Do household chores like sorting laundry, silverware, and grocery
Sensory play

Involves hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting, touching, or moving
Sample activities are:
Create sensory bins that are reasonable, easy to use, and store

Adults need to show how to use sensory bins for safety and keep the mess under control
Adults may introduce taste tests where children are blindfolded as they guess the fruit, condiments, and other edible food.
Use jumping toys or set up a simple obstacle course

Freeze miniature toys on the fridge to experiment on sensations (ice melting as they play frozen toys on their hands)
Allow children to play while bathing (place toys on small pool or tub)

On the other hand, preschoolers enjoy

Experimenting on shadows created by their hands or bodies
Creating something like cars, houses, or animals using play dough, woodblocks, or Legos
Making musical instruments like a guitar out of rubber bands and an empty box, or maracas using beans in bags

Setting up tents using blankets
Solving puzzles
Stacking cups, cans, and boxes

Playing dress-up
Enjoying music and dance time
Doing experiments that involve water, sand, and clay

Helping in the kitchen (Baking and bread kneading help stimulate the kids’ senses)
Play along with activities like grocery store play, caring for a baby doll, or hospital patient role play

Overall, allowing children to enjoy playing at home prepares them for more structured learning at school.

How to Incorporate Play in the Classroom

Play-based learning starts with making toys, manipulatives, and other educational materials available anytime. The key is to set up play areas that draw in children’s curiosity or natural desire to learn.

Here are some examples:

Set up the dramatic play area

Dramatic play provides children better understanding of the physical world. It opens a discussion where they translate actual learning into their imaginary world.

To set up a dramatic play area, here are some suggestions:

Assign a specific area that provides enough space for multiple play themes and props
Choose a play theme. Some examples are:

Play kitchen/ market/grocery store
Dress up
Puppets

Furnish chosen space with furniture, playsets, dramatic props, materials, toys, and other kits that complement the theme.

Create a reading nook

Reading nooks are good for stimulating children’s interest in print and awareness of various reading materials. Its accessibility can help children explore vocabulary, letter knowledge, phonological awareness, and narrative skills.

Here are some steps to organize a reading space in your classroom:

Install two wall shelves at child height so that they can reach and return the books independently.
Place at least 5-7 books on each bookshelf.
Make sure that the books face forward.

Replace books as children’s interests vary.

Don’t forget to set classroom time to model reading a book (from holding the book gently, turning the page, returning it to the shelf, and more). Then, let children choose their reading materials to enjoy during play breaks.

Assign an arts and crafts station

Play requires creativity. However, it doesn’t put much emphasis on the finished product. Hence, children should be encouraged to express their ideas and feelings by using a variety of supplies and materials.

Here are some suggestions on how to put up an arts and crafts station:

Designate space near the sink so that handwashing and cleaning up are more convenient.
Select appropriate and sturdy furniture like easy-to-clean tables, drying rack, room dividers, and bulletin board. Consider furniture for storage of artwork and art solutions.

Display supplies with labels.
Protect children from the splatter of paint, glitter, glue, and more by using aprons and splash mats.

Here are some suggested materials to fill this station:

Paper (Construction paper, white paper, grid paper, etc.)
Crayons, markers, pencils, and brushes
Clay, dough, and other modeling materials

Craft materials (felt paper, stencils, glitter, yarn, stencils, buttons, beads, etc.)
Glue, tape, and other types of adhesives
Paint and paint materials (watercolor, paint pots, sponges)

Stampers and Stamp pads (character or emotions designs)
Scissors (with curves and waves)

Put up a laboratory space

Play involves science by setting up materials for:

Sorting and classifying (naming species or animals using toys, using magnets and sensory bins)
Weighing and measuring (children can explore comparing weights by using a variety of materials on a balance scale; for measuring supplies, teachers may get inspiration from pri n table games)
Active experimentation (children try out what they learned)

Invite Children to the Playground

Use playground as an extension of the classroom where children enjoy free play using hula-hoops, balls, slides, swings, bars, and more.

Barriers to Play-based Learning

Pyle et al. studied the gap between the policy and practice of adopting play-based learning in schools. The following are some of the barriers that impede the success of PBL in the classroom.

Misconceptions about the Value of Play

For the most part, people misinterpreted play as lazy teaching and a distraction to learning. Fung and Cheng expressed that such a lack of knowledge causes misunderstandings between parents and educators.

The Different Roles of Teachers in Play-based Learning

Teachers are juggling curricular demands, parental expectations, and the needs of children.

Teachers raised their concerns about:

Their limited knowledge about play-based learning

lack of play training opportunities
Inability to integrate and monitor the quality of play curricula in preschool classes with big class sizes
Time which is not enough to engage in play-based activities

Learning centers and schools are understaffed

Assessment in Play-based learning

There is a need to have a pedagogical balance between academic standards and a child’s curiosity in an environment that provides natural developmental outcomes.

Conclusion

Play does not take time away from authentic learning. It is essential in laying the foundation for academic concepts and valuable life skills.

Play-based learning provides children an open-ended opportunity to learn while playing. Whether children engage in free play or guided play, the time spent for discovery and exploration activates children’s intrinsic desire to become life-long learners.

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