Importance of Play in Early Childhood Development & Preschool

Play in preschool is more than just having fun! It’s all about mixing fun and education in a way that your kids would never know they are learning. But what is play? What is learning through play? What is the importance of play in preschool? Keep reading.

What is Play & Learning Through Play?

Put in simple terms, play is an activity where engagement and fun are the end goal. It can be different for everyone. For example, an adult might think of play as an organised sport that they enjoy doing or watching, like their favourite game. For toddlers, it can be simply rolling around or crawling on the floor and for older kids, play can be entering a make-believe world where they are whatever they believe they can be.

So, how does it promote learning and what is learning through play?

Learning through play is an educational concept that stresses the importance of play in a child’s development. Here, play is used as a way to develop skills in kids and acquire knowledge while discovering their environment.

What is the Importance of Play in Child Development?

Play is more than just a fun activity for kids. It promotes development and shapes their minds, bodies, and emotions. When children play, they’re not just having a good time; they’re actively learning. Through play, they explore the world around them, discover who they are, and build the foundation for essential life skills. Here’s why play is important in children’s development:

• Helps them develop critical abilities like organising, planning, and working with others.
• Teaches them how to solve problems, navigate emotions, and communicate.
• Builds resilience and confidence, all while fostering creativity and curiosity.

The beauty of play lies in its versatility. It’s a natural, safe space for children to practice and master skills in areas like math, language, science, and even social interactions. For example, their encounter with math begins with counting during hide and seek. You can even see them analysing while they play building blocks.

The fun part about the importance of children’s play in their development is that learning happens in a fun manner. They will not realise it but they are unlocking their potential while having fun.

What are the Benefits of Play?

There are several advantages of play when it comes to your child’s development, such as:

1. Improves Intelligence

The importance of play in child development lies in the fact that they are stimulating their brain into performing an action that will require them to learn a new skill. While it serves to be a great source of entertainment for kids, play also encourages the development of intelligence in your child, and here’s how:

• • Cognitive Development: While kids discover new games like puzzles, they are encouraging themselves to think critically and strategically to find solutions, encouraging problem-solving. Further, storytelling encourages them to turn the wheel of imagination and innovate new stories and ideas, stimulating their brains.
  • Social and Emotional Intelligence: When your child plays in groups, they are encouraged to communicate with their peers, develop their social skills, and learn language. Games such as role-play encourage them to tap into their emotional side and get into a character, understanding other’s perspectives.
  • Physical Intelligence: Physical activities like running, jumping, or playing sports improve fine motor skills and gross motor skills. While activities like building blocks or navigating obstacle courses develop spatial reasoning and awareness.
  • Language Development: Storytelling not only taps into your child’s imaginative side but also helps them develop their language skills by being introduced to new words. They even learn to articulate their thoughts and emotions better through communicative play.
  • Adaptability: While playing with their peers, kids learn that losing is a part of life and it teaches them perseverance and adaptability. It even allows kids to assess risks and make decisions, building their confidence and decision-making skills.

2. Enhances Attention Span

Learning through play comes with another benefit of increased attention span in a child. This happens by engaging them in activities that naturally promote focus, problem-solving, and sustained effort. Here’s how:

• • Deep Engagement: Play is enjoyable and self-driven, which keeps kids immersed in an activity for longer periods. Whether they’re solving a puzzle or building a tower, the fun aspect keeps them focused. During play, children often enter a “flow state,” where they are fully absorbed in the task, strengthening their ability to concentrate.
  • Working Memory: If you encourage your child to play memory games, it can improve their working memory as it requires them to recall details and maintain their focus. Repeated play of certain games helps kids recognise patterns and sequences, strengthening cognitive focus.
  • Practice and Habit Formation: Through repeated exposure to play, children practice sustaining attention, which gradually improves their ability to concentrate on other tasks.

3. Reduces Stress

Call it a natural stress reliever in kids, the importance of play lies in the fact that kids can manage their emotions by reducing stress, releasing tension, and feeling like they have everything in their control. Here’s how play reduces stress:

• • Emotional Release: Play allows kids to express feelings like frustration, anger, or anxiety safely and constructively. For instance, activities like moulding clay or other craft-related activities can help release tension. While they play, they sometimes laugh and sometimes cry, helping them release endorphins and reduce stress hormones like cortisol.
  • Mindfulness: During play, children focus entirely on the activity, which distracts them from worries and fosters a state of mindfulness. Quiet play, like colouring, playing with sensory toys, or building blocks, naturally calms the mind and body.
  • Sense of Control: Kids can set their own rules and environment when playing. This gives them a sense of control and they feel less helpless. Another advantage of play is that it involves challenges and helps kids feel capable and empowered to handle stressors in real life.
  • Sense of Joy: Play is inherently fun, creating pure joy that counteracts feelings of stress. Further, completing a task or mastering a new skill during play enhances self-esteem and lowers anxiety.

4. Strengthens Relationships with Parents, Peers, and Caretakers

Engaging in play is a cornerstone of childhood, offering kids a delightful way to connect emotionally with their caregivers and friends. When parents join in these playful moments, it sends a powerful message to their children: “You are cherished.” This shared joy not only deepens the parent-child bond but also opens up avenues for better communication, as parents gain insight into their child’s world.

Moreover, when children engage in rough-and-tumble play with their peers, it’s often a sign of budding friendships and a method for strengthening social ties. A study from 2000, titled “Friendship Formation and Boys’ Rough and Tumble Play: Implications for Teacher Education Programs,” highlights this aspect.

5. Prepares Them for Academics

Another advantage of play for kids in early childhood is that it prepares them for academics in their later stages of life. It works by nurturing skills that are required for academic excellence. They develop key executive functions such as memory, social interaction, and language abilities. These skills lay the groundwork for pre-reading capabilities, which are vital for literacy.

Purposeful play, in particular, has been shown to boost school readiness, as highlighted in a 2011 study titled “Purposeful Play Leads to School Readiness” by Jaesook L. Gilbert and colleagues, published in Dimensions of Early Childhood.

What are the Types of Play?

There are different types of play and here are some of them:

1. Physical Play

Physical play is a type of play that encourages bodily movements and helps kids develop physical fitness, motor skills, strength, and coordination. It includes active movements such as crawling, climbing, jumping, and running. The games in physical play include both outdoor and indoor activities where kids can learn how to develop their emotional, social, and physical skills.

This type of play includes games such as hide and seek, hopscotch, musical chairs, jump rope, and more.

2. Pretend Play

In this type of play, children use their imagination to create roles, scenarios, and situations that mimic the real-world situation. This helps them build their imagination and creativity. It even supports emotional development as they interact with their peers or toys with whom they recreate real-world scenarios, building their communication.

Pretend play includes games where kids act as doctors, teachers, caregivers, and more.

3. Toys and Object Play

Toys and object play in kids is where they use everyday objects or toys to learn, explore, and engage with their environment. It involves sorting, manipulating, stacking, or using objects in various ways to understand how they work and what they can do.

For example, children might build structures with blocks, pretend an object is something else, or explore the textures and shapes of different items.

4. Guided Play

This type of play is done with the guidance of a teacher, parent, or caregiver. Here they guide the child by giving some form of structure, support, or direction for playing but also allowing the child to lead and explore on their own. It involves the adult offering suggestions or materials that enhance the child’s learning and creativity without taking control of the play.

For example, a teacher might provide building blocks and ask open-ended questions like, “What can you build with these?” or “How do you think we can make it taller?” Through guided play, the child has the freedom to experiment, solve the problem, and explore.

5. Free Play

As opposed to guided play, free play is a type of play where the child chooses what they want to do, how they want to do it, and with whom they want to engage, without structured guidance or rules from adults. Here, they are encouraged to use their imagination and explore the situations in the environment they have.

The activities in this type of play include drawing, building blocks, pretend play games, playing dress-up, and more.

6. Constructive Play

Constructive play is a type of play where children use materials or objects to build, create, or assemble something. It involves active problem-solving, planning, and experimenting with how things fit together or how they can be used in different ways.

Activities in this type of play include puzzles, building blocks, creating structures from Lego, and more.

Learning Through Play with KLAY School!

At KLAY Preschool, we believe that learning through experience and play offers far more benefits than traditional rote memorisation or endless worksheets. Our curriculum is built around active learning, where children are encouraged to ask questions, think critically, and explore new ideas. This approach sparks their curiosity and helps them engage deeply with the world around them while absorbing new knowledge.

We take pride in our Integrated Approach to Theme-based and Experiential Learning, which emphasises play and hands-on activities—especially for our youngest learners (18 months to 3 years). As children begin their journey with us, they acquire key skills that serve as a solid foundation for the exciting learning experiences ahead.

Come visit KLAY Preschool and Daycare and see firsthand how our innovative programs support your child’s growth and development. Book a tour today!