Marina Tiso

When you observe an Early Years classroom, it's common to find children building castles, running an imaginary shop, looking after dolls, exploring materials, inventing stories or turning a simple cardboard box into a rocket about to take off.

For some adults, these scenes can raise a question:

"But when does the learning happen?"

The answer is simple: it's already happening.

Decades of research into child development show that play is one of the most important ways in which children build knowledge about themselves, about others and about the world. As they play, they observe, experiment, form hypotheses, solve problems, test ideas, communicate their thinking and develop skills that will be fundamental throughout their entire school life.

While playing, children explore language, negotiate ideas, solve problems and build knowledge about the world around them.

In childhood, play isn't a break from learning. Play is learning itself.

One of the richest forms of play is make-believe. When a child turns a chair into a bus, a box into a castle, or takes on the role of doctor, cook, teacher or explorer, they are doing far more than simply re-enacting everyday situations.

In these moments, children create rules, organise sequences of actions, negotiate roles, make decisions and use language to build shared meaning. By imagining different scenarios and perspectives, they develop increasingly sophisticated ways of thinking.

When playing restaurants, for example, they need to decide who will be the cook, who will take orders, what dishes will be served and how to deal with unexpected situations that crop up during the game. All of this calls for planning, communication, creativity and flexibility.

In make-believe play, children try out roles, test ideas and build increasingly sophisticated ways of thinking.

Play also plays a fundamental role in language development and in what experts call emergent literacy.

Long before they can read and write conventionally, children notice signs, recognise symbols, explore books, make drawings accompanied by marks, create lists, write notes and attach meaning to the written language present in their everyday lives.

When a child plays schools, writes a "menu" for their imaginary restaurant or records a discovery in a drawing, they are building important knowledge about the social function of reading and writing.

These experiences help form the foundations on which formal literacy will be built in the years that follow.

But the benefits of play aren't limited to cognitive and language development.

Through play, children learn to wait their turn, cope with frustration, negotiate rules, resolve conflicts, share ideas and understand different points of view. They also learn to recognise and express emotions, developing social-emotional skills that are essential for getting along with others and for learning.

In other words, play is also learning to live as part of a community.

Play is also learning to get along, cooperate and understand emotions.

When talking about the benefits of play, there's an important caveat: we shouldn't reduce play to a tool that's only valuable because it produces certain results.

It's true that play contributes to the development of language, thinking, social-emotional skills and emergent literacy. But its value isn't limited to that.

For a child, play is a meaningful experience in its own right. It's a time of discovery, imagination, creation, experimentation and connection with others. While adults tend to organise their time around goals and outcomes, children live intensely in the present moment of play.

It's precisely in this space of freedom, curiosity and genuine engagement that many of the most important kinds of learning take place.

Play isn't the opposite of serious. It's one of the most important ways in which children come to understand themselves, others and the world.

Given all this, a question often arises: what, then, is the adult's role in play?

Children learn while they play, even when there's no defined objective or direct intervention. Curiosity, imagination, experimentation and interactions with other children are, in themselves, powerful sources of learning.

At the same time, in high-quality Early Years education, practitioners observe these processes closely and create the conditions to build on them. They organise environments, select materials, ask questions, offer challenges and follow children's discoveries.

This isn't about controlling play or dictating its direction, but about recognising its potential and creating opportunities for new learning to emerge from it.

It's precisely the meeting point between the child's initiative and the practitioner's intentionality that makes the experience all the richer.

Well-planned play can be just as powerful for learning as any formal activity.

In a world that increasingly values creativity, collaboration, communication and problem-solving, play remains one of the most complete experiences we can offer children.

So when we see a child playing, we aren't watching a gap between moments of learning.

We are watching learning happen.

AND AT HOME, HOW CAN WE ENCOURAGE IT?

🛒 Playing shops, restaurants, schools or going on a journey

💬 What's happening here? Who are the characters in this story?

📚 Reading stories and inventing new characters or different endings

💬 What could happen next? How else could this story end?

🎭 Joining in the play and taking on a role alongside the child

💬 How is this character feeling? What are they thinking?

🎨 Providing materials for drawing, building, creating and exploring freely

💬 Tell me about what you've made. How did you come up with that idea?

🌳 Setting aside time to play outdoors, observe nature and explore the surrounding environment

💬 What did you notice? What caught your attention? What do you think would happen if...?

✨ When adults value play and join in with genuine interest, they strengthen bonds, broaden communication and create opportunities for children to explore, imagine, discover and learn.