Learning to play
Could supporting children to play help them to balance hope with the reality of the challenges we face?
Authors
Play is more than just fun. According to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, every child has a fundamental right to participate freely in play. Children need play to learn, and playing promotes wellbeing. We might associate learning through play with young children, but play is beneficial at all ages.
Unstructured play of the kind children might engage in during school breaktimes builds social, emotional, and cognitive skills, and facilitates learning in school. More adventurous outdoor play – jumping off a tree or into the deep end of a pool – may allow children to learn important life skills. Giving children space to explore and lead their own play can elicit feelings of excitement, and even fear, which may teach them to cope with uncertainty and evaluate risks.
That said, guided play within an environment that has been prepared by adults is beneficial too. Encouraging a particular kind of exploration or asking open-ended questions in key moments can help children think about what they are doing and therefore learn more. But it’s still crucial for the adult to follow the child’s lead. When adults play with children, their brains become synchronised, which helps children to learn. The interaction between the adult and the child can focus the child’s attention.
It’s not only physical play that’s beneficial – digital play through video games, online apps, and exergames can enhance cognitive skills.
Could supporting children to play, especially in nature, help them to balance hope with the reality of the challenges we face?
This video is part of the animation ‘Learning to thrive’. The animation and related resources bring these ideas to life, providing a space to engage in thinking about how caregivers and educators might support young people to thrive. This is also a space for researchers and science journalists to share the latest evidence on the role of nature, play, creativity and agency in young people’s wellbeing.
Play is an essential part of growing up.
A playful outlook can be beneficial for children and adults. What if we let go more often? What if we gave ourselves permission to be more playful?
Play can help us to thrive — to experience, sense, and imagine the world in new ways. Play helps us see things from a different point of view.
Through play, we can see new possibilities and dream of alternative futures. There are no limits to what we might imagine!
Balancing playfulness and hope with the reality of the challenges we face can be difficult at times. This is true for children too. We might ask: How can we support them, and ourselves, to find a healthy balance in uncertain times?
By exchanging ideas with each other, we could find the confidence to identify, and even create, solutions to some of our shared challenges.
Embracing and capturing opportunities to make connections with nature and each other, no matter how small, might be a good starting point…
These connections remind us that we are part of something bigger. That we can be there for one another. That we can help each other to thrive.
No opportunity is too limited or too small. When we help children to make connections, we empower them. This can improve their wellbeing, equipping them with the capabilities needed to thrive in an uncertain future.
Though our world can be complicated and challenging, it is full of wonder, beauty, and potential.
Children can thrive in this world. We can help by giving them opportunities to connect with nature and with others. Listening to children’s voices and understanding their experiences can help us imagine and build better futures together.
Authors
Footnotes
Produced by PositiveNegatives for BOLD
In collaboration with Lifeworlds
Powered by the Jacobs Foundation
Direction
Dr Benjamin Worku-Dix
Scriptwriter
John Servante
Illustration
Gabi Froden
Animation
Diana García