Play-based learning – How does it work? | Expert Says

 

Although play is an essential and enjoyable part of childhood, learning is also necessary during these crucial years of development. Play-based learning cleverly leverages on this and encourages learning while a child is at play during the most malleable period of a child’s mind.

There are 2 forms of play-based learning approach: child-initiated and guided play. Child-initiated play allows children to explore the world around them freely and independently. Under these circumstances, it alllows children to gradually build up their confidence and social skills. However, free play alone is not sufficient to consolidate academic learning.

On the other hand, there is guided play to facilitate a child’s academic learning. In this case, parents take on an active role of a guide, creating a nurturing and safe environment suitable for their child to engage with.

 

Play-based vs traditional academic learning

In general, play-based learning is child-centric and focuses on holistic development. Parents or educators tend to take on the role of a facilitator while children take the lead in their learning through play. Meanwhile, traditional academic learning emphasises on the development of cognitive abilities through routine, structured activities and frameworks.

Here is an example to put things in perspective — imagine a lesson on animals. In play-based learning, there is usually involvement of an age-appropriate animal that is of interest or which the child adores. Parents or educators will have open-ended discussions and conversations about the animal with the child, while the children feeds or pats it. In contrast, traditional classroom academic teaching has specific topics that are set in a structured curriculum. For example, using a textbook, educators or parents will teach and discuss with the children about a general animal’s habitat, anatomy, life cycle etc.

 

What are the benefits of play-based learning?

Cognitive abilities

Play-based learning is valuable for strengthening many areas of development, such as cognitive abilities. Taking charge of their own play stimulates a child’s curiosity and drive for exploration, developing their motivation to learn.

Focus, concentration and critical thinking

This enables children to engage in a flexible, higher-order level of critical thinking that is deemed as an important skill in the 21st century. On top of that, they also gradually develop a myriad of other skills including problem solving, literacy and language skills.

Socio-emotional skills

Development of social-emotional skills happen when children learn to understand emotions of their own and others. Moreover, children learn to show empathy and establish positive relationships with people around them as they learn to work with others and conflict resolution.

Through certain forms of play, such as “pretend” play, children also learn to recognise the differences between themselves and others. In turn, this facilitates their learning of perspective-taking as children take on different roles and characters during make-believe play.

Confidence, motivation and physical development

Children learn to accept that others might think differently from themselves and explore the possible impacts of their actions in the real world. Furthermore, such play fosters the process of establishing a sense of self, which steers children towards becoming confident and motivated learners.

Play-based learning also builds a child’s gross and fine motor skills. For instance, children can develop their muscle mass and body coordination through activities like running, jumping and swinging during an outdoor play.

 

How parents can implement play-based learning?

There are 5 key elements that constitute play-based learning:

1. Voluntary

   The child decides on the duration, which toy and type of play. Parents may initiate and facilitate the play. However, the child should direct the play, where he/she is able to freely choose what they want depending on their interest or what they are curious about.

2. Pleasurable

   The activity/play should be enjoyable for the child. This is essential to keep the child interested and allow them to stay engaged in the activity. Despite occasional bumps and frustrations along the way, the overall feeling children should have while playing is joy and pleasure.

3. Meaningful & interactive

   Encourage children to interact with other individuals and explore the environment around them. This allows them to make meaningful connections between objects, people, events and the environment.

4. Process-oriented

   This implies that the focus should be on the process of the play rather than on the end-goal. In fact, there is no need to fix a rigid goal — play should be unstructured.

5. Imaginary

   Play can be make-believe and often involves “pretend play”. Imaginary play gives children the opportunity to explore different scenarios as well as the possible implications of their actions through their behaviours and actions within that scenario. This allows them to discover new challenges, find solutions to these challenges which will result in a deepened understanding about the world around them.

Ultimately, the goal is to allow children to freely learn through play based on things that intrigue them. Play activities incorporated during this approach can be as simple as outdoor play at the beach or as intricate as using a science kit to conduct simple age-appropriate science experiments.

Additional tips to implement play-based learning

These additional tips may be helpful to parents when implementing play-based learning approach:

1. Monitoring screen time

   As more young children become active users of digital devices, we strongly encourage parents to keep track of the amount of time that their child spends on these devices. It is important to find a good balance between the amount of screen time and time spent on other activities, such as outdoor play, which can in turn hone their self-discipline and time-management skills. Also, switch off background electronic noise and digital devices to eliminate distractions as the child completes the activity/task at hand.

2. Running commentaries & asking questions

   Provide running commentaries during play by giving a continuous description of what the child is doing, feeling and looking at in the moment. For example, “Wow, I can see that you have stacked up many blocks of Lego bricks! It is getting really tall!”. The commentary, however, should be age-appropriate and tailored to the child’s level of proficiency in speech.

   Running commentary is one of the easiest ways to promote your child’s learning of language, tone and facial expressions which in turn promotes their social-emotional skills. Furthermore, research shows that when adults pay such attention to their play, children tend to stay attentive to the activity for a longer period of time. Parents can further facilitate play by asking questions based on the child’s actions, and offer open-ended suggestions so as to stimulate the child’s mind and allow them to achieve their learning goals.

3. Providing a positive learning environment

   While children is in charge of their own actions and decisions during play, we advise parents to take on an active mentoring role. Parents can do so by preparing the environment in a certain way. For example, provide certain types of toys and respond sensitively to children’s actions, such as running commentaries. By providing such a positive environment, children will begin to feel more confident and validated, which will hone them into capable and resilient individuals.

A word from Thrive Psychology

Here at Thrive Psychology clinic, we are committed to help all children and adolescents thrive! As such, we offer a variety of services and interactive workshops which seek to inculcate and develop the important and necessary skills in our children and youth. Our goal is to get an accurate read on your child’s experiences so that we can create an individualised intervention plan that targets their unique needs. If you would like to find out more about our services or workshops, do contact us and we would be more than happy to assist you!

 

References

1. Bergen, D. (2018, February). Play-based learning : Cognitive Development in Play-Based Learning. Encyclopedia on Early Childhood Development. Retrieved from https://www.child encyclopedia.com/play-based-learning/according-experts/cognitive-development-play-based-learning
2. Danniels, E., & Pyle, A. (2018). Defining Play-based Learning. Encyclopedia on Early
   Childhood Development.
3. Taylor, M. E., & Boyer, W. (2019). Play-Based Learning: Evidence-Based Research to Improve Children’s Learning Experiences in the Kindergarten Classroom. Early Childhood Education Journal, 48(2), 127–133
4. United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) . (2018, October). Learning through play.
   Retrieved from UNICEF: https://www.unicef.org/sites/default/files/2018-12/UNICEF-Lego-Foundation-Learning-through-Play.pdf
5. Vogel, M. (2020, May 20). What is play-based learning? Retrieved from Wonderschool Resources Hub: https://www.wonderschool.com/p/parent-resources/what-is-play-based-learning/
6. Weisberg, D., & Zosh, J. (2018). Play-based learning: How Guided Play Promotes Early Childhood Learning. Retrieved from Encyclopedia on Early Childhood Development.: https://www.child-encyclopedia.com/play-based-learning/according-experts/how-guided-play-promotes-early-childhood-learning
7. White, R. E. (2012). The Power of Play : A Research Summary on Play and Learning. Retrieved from Minnesota Children’s Museum: https://www.childrensmuseums.org/images/MCMResearchSummary.pdf

 

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• academic learning
• learning milestones
• parenting tips
• play-based learning