How play streets can boost learning
Organised play on car-free roads can improve preschoolers’ language and numeracy
When children start school there is already a language gap – children from lower-income families have poorer language skills than those from wealthier families. As these skills are key to learning, it can be hard for children from less privileged backgrounds to catch up academically. To encourage language through playful learning, paving the way for school success, researchers have looked to ‘play streets’.
What is a play street?
In 1914, the New York police first closed certain streets to traffic to encourage outdoor play and minimise conflict between police and children. Today in the US, the UK, and other countries, residents can apply to host play streets, temporarily closing them to traffic and inviting neighbour children to come out and play. There are several play streets in my local area each year, and the host encourages people to bring toys and games to share. This offers children the opportunity to play outside in organised or free play sessions, which can benefit a range of cognitive and social processes as well as health.
The city of Philadelphia hosts hundreds of play streets each summer. Over four years, researchers examined whether these events encourage skills and behaviours related to language and numeracy, especially those that are important for school.
At several of these play streets, teenage helpers called “Play Captains” are trained to incorporate numeric and spatial language into play, for example asking children to count colours, throw a ball left or right, and pick the smaller or larger ball. Helping children use numeric and spatial language can improve their maths outcomes, and helping them recognise shapes and talk about colours can help prepare them for school. Local library staff are also there to read to children and facilitate dramatic play and singing sessions.
What is the impact of play streets?
In Philadelphia, researchers from the Temple Infant and Child Lab at Temple University observed that children used more numeric, spatial, spelling, and literacy-related language when Play Captains were facilitating activities than when play continued after the Play Captains had left. This was true for the first three years of their research, but during the fourth year the children still used just as much “academically-related language” in the absence of the Play Captains, which the researchers called “facilitation carry over”. They continued to count, talk about directions, and mention letters. While it’s not fully clear why the 2022 group showed this effect, it suggests that the efforts of the Play Captains in 2022 in particular had a lasting impact.
“Play Captains had a positive impact by helping children communicate and collaborate with confidence.”
In an earlier observational study, researchers from the same department found that Play Captains had a positive impact by helping children communicate and collaborate with confidence – social skills that are useful in the classroom. The authors concluded that “children who engaged in the Play Captains’ activities were building skills that provide a strong foundation for learning”.
Playful learning, social skills, and physical activity promote school success, and by encouraging these behaviours and skills, play streets likely help to prepare children for school learning.
Play streets can also foster community cohesion. Adults and children who had attended a play street event said in interviews that the benefits went beyond school readiness and physical activity; they also led to a greater sense of safety and trust.
Being playful with children in everyday life
Because play streets take place at specific locations, days, and times, only a limited number of children are able to attend. The Temple Infant and Child Lab have therefore brought playful learning opportunities to supermarkets, bus stops, and libraries in areas with high levels of poverty. Signs in the supermarket asked simple questions like ‘Where does milk come from?’ or ‘What’s your favourite vegetable?’. These prompts increased language interactions between children and their caregivers by 33%.
Other initiatives have included a hopscotch game, which requires impulse control; a puzzle wall at a bus stop; and painted narrative stories on outdoor wooden ramps. The Urban Thinkscape project run by researchers from several universities, shows that: “playful learning can occur in everyday interactions between adults and children”, the project team noted as one of its key messages.
“Incorporating play into parenting creates a richer, more joyful world for children – who, in turn, feel encouraged to learn.”
Everyday life provides many opportunities to encourage playful learning with minimal effort. Children can help adults sweep, name the colours of objects as they tidy up, and measure out ingredients for baking. Outdoors, sticks and stones offer natural numeracy prompts. Playful learning doesn’t necessarily require formal instruction or an abundance of toys. Incorporating play into parenting creates a richer, more joyful world for children – who, in turn, feel encouraged to learn. So if you see a play street near you, give it a go. It will be fun and your children might learn something, too.
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