Perhaps one of the things that people miss most about childhood is play. Who doesn’t miss getting to create your own story and your biggest choice was deciding which dress to put on which Barbie. While play may seem like a simple task, the benefits of play in your child’s learning and development continue to come to light.
In a recent study researchers explored the effect of guided play on children’s development and their ability to learn in different subject areas. Guided play is a type of learning that is play-based in which an adult must provide guidance such that a learning goal is achieved, children are still able to make choices and lead the play-time, and the adult has multiple methods in how they guide the child. Adults can guide play by prompting children with open-ended questions relevant to the type of play, hints, and modeling how to play during an activity.
Guided play is thought to be beneficial particularly for learning because of the engagement it provokes from children. Children enjoy playing and have the ability to make their own choices which may be limited throughout the everyday. During guided play children get to be hands-on in their participation and can reflect on what their play means in a broader context. This benefits a child’s learning because the adult is able to teach them how to play a new activity, content may be learned that a child is able to discover on their own, and adults can assist in activities that a child alone may not be able to do just yet. This type of play is also beneficial in that there is a meaningful connection between an enjoyable experience and what is being learned which can increase memory retention which is important for learning.
Researchers found that guided play had a greater impact on early math skills, executive function, and shape knowledge than direct instruction. Guided play also had a better influence than free play on spatial vocabulary.
Guided play can be a useful tool in extending your child’s knowledge and confidence by providing them with new opportunities and support.
Read the full article: https://srcd.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/cdev.13730
Marissa Robarge
UConn KIDS Research Assistant