Play based learning is a way of teaching young children through play, with educators who plan the play and guide it. Children choose what to explore, and the adults around them look for the learning inside it: counting while building, new words while pretending, problem solving while working out how to share a toy.
If you have visited a childcare centre and heard the phrase, you may have wondered whether it just means children playing all day. It doesn’t. This guide explains what the approach is, what it looks like at different ages, and what to watch for on a tour.
Australia’s national Early Years Learning Framework describes play based learning as including different types of play, with both children and educators taking intentional roles. Through play with other children and with adults, children build relationships, test ideas, challenge each other’s thinking and develop new understandings.
The word that matters is intentional. According to the framework, educators act deliberately and purposefully to support learning through play. In practice that includes:
The framework gives a useful guide to how the educator’s role shifts as children grow.
For children under two, educators watch closely what a child does and how they react, and use those observations to decide what to offer next. A baby banging a spoon on a pot is learning about cause and effect and sound. For two to three year olds, educators act as respectful co-learners and collaborators as children become more independent. Water play, simple puzzles and “feeding the baby doll” all build language, coordination and early social skills. For three to six year olds, educators and children have longer, more challenging exchanges built on the children’s own ideas. A group building a cubby from blocks and fabric is planning, negotiating roles, measuring and solving problems.
Play based learning supports skills that matter for school and beyond:
You can often tell whether a service is doing play based learning well from what you see in the rooms.
It’s fair to ask how educators record children’s learning and how that is shared with families.
Our four centres in Manly, Algester, Ripley and Stafford Heights use play based, child-led learning that follows the Early Years Learning Framework. You can read more about how our programs run on our curriculum page, or about the values behind them in our philosophy. If you’d like to see it in action, you can visit one of our centres and meet the educators.
No. Free play is one part of it. Play based learning also includes educator-planned experiences and conversations that extend what children are exploring.
Play builds the skills schools look for, including listening, taking turns, communicating and persisting with a task. Children also meet letters, numbers and early writing through play-based experiences.
It applies from birth. For babies it looks like sensory exploration and responsive interaction with educators, and it grows more complex as children develop.
Ask your educators. Services observe and document children’s learning and should be able to show you examples and talk through next steps.
