PLAY Toolkit Summary Report
Background and Aims
Supporting children’s learning through play has the potential to transform the global learning crisis by addressing several policy challenges. First, despite a recent focus on improving education quality, there is little evidence of a largescale meaningful improvement in learning outcomes. Learning through play offers mechanisms by which these learning outcomes can be improved. In infancy and early childhood, play builds a strong foundation for later learning by improving brain development and growth.i In education systems that lack the capacity to support children effectively, playful learning brings its own powerful engine to drive learning—the joyful, engaged, intrinsic motivation of children themselves.ii Second, a global focus on standardised reading and mathematics assessments has narrowed the domains of learning targeted by national policies. Learning through play can help broaden this focus to include an emphasis on creativity, agency, social engagement, and problem solving - in addition to literacy and numeracy skills - contributing to a more holistic view of children’s development. Evidence on how adults can support playful learning in families, centres, and schools is lacking, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. This is, in part, due to the lack of instruments to assess support for playful learning and insufficient research to understand cultural and contextual variations in the concept of playful learning. To address these gaps, the PLAY (Playful Learning Across the Years) Measurement project described in this report aimed to develop and assess a culturally responsive toolkit for measuring support for playful learning in home, centre, and school settings across age groups from birth to 12 years.