The Importance of Learning Through Play

A Blog by Pamela Snell, FS1 Teacher at Dubai Heights Academy

Play is an important part of how young children learn and develop. It helps young children to learn and develop their physical, social, emotional and intellectual skills through doing and talking. It has even been suggested that this is the initial stage as to how young children learn to think. Play allows a child to socialise and engage with others, whilst engaging in the learning process.

Play can be broken down into different areas:

• Attunement Play – can help to build awareness and promote happiness
• Body Play and Movement – play expressed through movement
• Object Play – showing a curiosity for and playing with objects
• Social Play – communication between others
• Imaginative and Pretend Play – key to developing innovation and creativity
• Storytelling-Narrative Play – how children make sense of the world
• Creative Play – important to process and develop new ideas, and to shape and re-shape their ideas in a forever changing world.

Play begins from an early age and all children engage in play. Young children learn extensively through pretend play and they can in fact distinguish the difference between what is real and pretend. Pretend play is a child’s way of understanding other people and the world around them.

As children grow older the kind of play they engage in changes to reflect what they are learning about, allowing them to develop, grow and learn in many different ways. Play allows children to explore in a way they best enjoy, therefore gaining the maximum learning experience.

Whilst at home you can be involved in your child’s play. Encourage role play opportunities, this could be as simple as helping at home, ask questions, provide props or objects to encourage your child to expand their learning experiences.