As the beloved Mr. Rogers once said, “Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children, play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood.” Play is the foundation of learning for young children. It is not simply an activity children do during downtime. It is a vital way children develop cognitive, physical, social, and emotional skills. Through play, children explore their surroundings, practice new skills, and learn to navigate the world around them.
In Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), play is often a central focus of therapy sessions, especially for young children. Behavior analysts strategically integrate play as a key component in acquiring skills and modifying behaviors. Let’s explore why play is so important in learning and how it can help unlock a child’s fullest potential.
Play can be both an enjoyable experience and a learning opportunity, offering benefits that extend far beyond simple entertainment. Whether structured or freeform, it can be a powerful tool to foster growth across multiple domains.
There are countless benefits of play, including:
Among the many well-rounded benefits of play, one of the greatest is the simple enjoyment children experience while engaged in preferred play activities.
There are many types of play. Each of these serves unique purposes in meeting children’s cognitive, physical, social, and emotional needs.
Children need a variety of play structures, including free play, guided play, and adult-led play. Free play occurs when the child can choose their own activities without structured rules or guidance from adults. This type of play helps children develop independence while using their imagination to navigate their own play experiences.
Guided play is more structured, where a parent, therapist, or teacher provides the play activity or materials but allows the child to lead. Children are given the ability to explore with guidance from the adult, which is an important component for learning new skills. Much of the play we do within ABA falls under the guided play category.
Adult-led play involves the adult taking a more active role in directing the play. This is done as an intentional way to teach new skills. While the adult takes a more active role in adult-led play, this type of play should still be enjoyable for the child.
Understanding the benefits of play, it’s easy to see how it would be beneficial to incorporate play into therapy sessions. Play is especially important for learning during early childhood. Because of this, many ABA providers utilize natural environment teaching (NET) to teach skills under naturally occurring situations. Incorporating play into ABA therapy is helpful in many ways, including the following.
Children benefit from a diverse range of play experiences outside of therapy sessions. This is where parents come in. Parents and caregivers play an essential role in helping their children generalize therapy goals and support overall learning through play.
We encourage parents to promote learning through play with these tips.
While busy schedules can make it hard to find time for play, even short, dedicated periods of child-led or parent-guided play can be beneficial. The key is quality, not necessarily quantity. Focus on engaging with your child without distractions to maximize the time spent playing. You know your child best, but don’t be afraid to be silly–make sound effects, sing, dance, and contrive other fun situations.
At CompleatKidz, we recognize the power of play in learning. Integrating play into therapy sessions makes learning more enjoyable while fostering the child’s communication, social, emotional, and cognitive development. Our multidisciplinary services–including ABA, speech, occupational, and physical therapies–support children through individualized care across North Carolina. Contact us today to learn more!
References
Ginsburg, K. (2007). The importance of play in promoting healthy child development and maintaining strong parent-child bonds. Pediatrics, 119(1), 182–191. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2006-2697
Gray, P. (2017). What exactly is play, and why is it such a powerful vehicle for learning? Topics in Language Disorders, 37(3), 217-228. Retrieved from: https://oce.ovid.com/article/00011363-201707000-00003/HTML
Skene, K., O’Farrelly, C. M., Byrne, E. M., Kirby, N., Stevens, E. C., & Ramchandani, P. G. (2022). Can guidance during play enhance children’s learning and development in educational contexts? A systematic review and meta-analysis. Child Development, 93, 1162–1180. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13730
Yogman, M., Garner, A., Hutchinson, J., Hirsh-Pasek, K., Golinkoff, R. M., Committee on Psychosocial Aspects of Child and Family Health, & Council on Communications and Media. (2018). The power of play: A pediatric role in enhancing development in young children. Pediatrics, 142(3), e20182058. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2018-2058
If you have any questions about this Notice of Privacy Practices, please contact our Privacy Officer, by telephone at (704) 824-7800 or in writing at 2675 Court Drive, Gastonia, NC 28054.
This Notice of Privacy Practices describes how we may use and disclose your protected health information to carry out treatment, payment or health care operations and for other purposes that are permitted or required by law. It also describes your rights to access and control your protected health information. Protected health information is information about you, including demographic information, that may identify you and that relates to your past, present or future physical or mental health or condition and related health care services.
We are required to abide by the terms of this Notice of Privacy Practices. We may change the terms of our Notice of Privacy Practices at any time. The new Notice of Privacy Practices will be effective for all protected health information that we maintain at that time. Upon your request, we will provide you with any revised Notice of Privacy Practices. You may request a revised version by calling or writing our Privacy Officer and requesting that a revised copy be sent to you in the mail or asking for one at the time of your next appointment.
Your protected health information may be used and disclosed by our office staff others outside of our office who are involved in your care and treatment for the purpose of providing health care services to you.
Your protected health information may also be used and disclosed to pay your health care bills and to support the operation of our practice.
Following are examples of the types of uses and disclosures of your protected health information that we are permitted to make. These examples are not meant to be exhaustive, but to describe the types of uses and disclosures that may be made by our office.
Others Involved in Your Health Care or Payment for our Care:
Unless you object, we may disclose to a member of your family, a relative, a close friend or any other person you identify, your protected health information that directly relates to that person's involvement in your health care. If you are unable to agree or object to such a disclosure, we may disclose such information as necessary if we determine that it is in your best interest based on our professional judgment. We may use or disclose protected health information to notify or assist in notifying a family member, personal representative or any other person that is responsible for your care of your location, general condition or death. Finally, we may use or disclose your protected health information to an authorized public or private entity to assist in disaster relief efforts and to coordinate uses and disclosures to family or other individuals involved in your health care.we may collect information about your computer, including your IP address, operating system and browser type, for system administration and in order to create reports. This is statistical data about our users' browsing actions and patters, and does not identify any individual.
The only cookies in use on our site are for Google Analytics. Google Analytis is aweb analytics tool that helps website owners understand how visitors engage with their website. GoogleAnalytics customers can view a variety of reports about how visitors interact with their website so that they can improve it.
Like many services, Google Analytics users first-party cookies to track visitor interactions as in our case, where they are used to collect information about how visitors use our site. We then use the information to compile reports and to help use improve our site.
Cookies contain information that is transferred to your computer's hard drive. These cookies are used to store information, such as the time that the current visit occured, whether the visitor has been to the site before and what site referred the visitor to the web page.
Google Analyticsw collets information anonymously. It reports website trends without identifying individual visitors. you can opt out of Google Analytics without affecting how your visit our site- for more information on opting our of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites you use, visit this Google page
We embrace diversity and equality in a serious way. We are committed to building a team with a variety of backgrounds, skills, and views. The more inclusive we are, the better our work will be. Creating a culture of Equality isn't just the right thing to do, it's also the smart thing.
Diversity at Compleat KiDZ is expressed through management commitment to equity and the treatment of all individuals with respect. We embrace and encourage our employees’ differences in age, color, disability, ethnicity, family or marital status, gender identity or expression, language, national origin, physical and mental ability, political affiliation, race, religion, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, veteran status, and other characteristics that make our employees unique.
We take our commitment serious to promoting cross-cultural understanding and respect among its employees, patients, and the broader community. At Compleat KiDZ we have a commitment to recruiting and retaining a diverse and all-inclusive staff. We will always strive to maintain the highest standards in cultural inclusion and sensitivity, but we know that we will not always get it right.