A play-based approach


Watch the video below for an introduction to play-based learning:


Why play is important in the early years

Young children learn most effectively through playful activity. Play is a joyful, meaningful and active engagement that:
  • has a positive impact on brain development
  • provides opportunities to try out different ways of achieving a task or solving a problem
  • enables children to undertake tasks and tackle problems without fear of failure
  • improves social and emotional development, including self-regulation (For example, a study has shown that the ability of 4- and 6-year olds to focus their attention and resist distraction is greatly enhanced when they are pretending to be a superhero).
Pretend play can also significantly improve language development and cognitive development including significant improvements in working memory. Play supports children’s mental health and feelings of autonomy, competence and self-worth.

Each of these benefits enhances children’s learning and development, as well as all aspects of their academic and emotional well-being.

Play is not merely recreational and the opposite of work. While there are cultural variations in the content of children’s play, the fundamental nature of playful activity is the same among young children across the world. At the same time, play has diverse social contexts. Children play with other children, with adults or alone, and play in each of these contexts can be initiated by the individual, by another child or by you, a parent or a carer. Each of these different social contexts affords different and equally valuable benefits to playful activity.

As children achieve at their highest levels during play, it also provides you with ideal opportunities to assess children’s abilities in any aspect of their development.

A useful way for you to assess the quality of play in your setting is to take photographs of the activities you provide and to ask your children to sort these into ‘play’ and ‘not play’ boxes. You could also ask the children to photograph or name their favourite areas or resources for play and create a chart to record the evidence. Analysing children’s perspectives in this way can be a useful tool in ensuring that the full benefits of playful learning are being provided and enjoyed.


Types of play

There are five broad types of play:

  • physical play
  • playing with objects 
  • pretend play
  • symbolic play
  • games with rules

Each of these, and all their possible combinations, create important learning opportunities and should be provided within your setting. Watch the video below to find out more about these different types of play:


Your role in play

You have an important role in establishing an environment which encourages children to be playful. Such environments are non-judgemental places where children’s ideas are always respected, and where friendly humour, rather than stern words, are used to deflate social difficulties and thoughtless behaviour.

Your role during play will vary according to the type of play:




Find out more about how you can support physical play in this video: