Message to Early Childhood Educators
We know that you are on the front lines of one of the most important — and often misunderstood — developmental periods in a child’s life. As play-based and play-responsive professionals, you nurture the foundational skills that children need to thrive: curiosity, cooperation, empathy, self-regulation, confidence, and the joy of learning.
Yet, we also recognize that you often encounter concerned or skeptical parents who ask, “When will my child learn to read?” or “Why aren’t they doing more math?” These questions reflect deeply rooted cultural pressures and misunderstandings about what early academic “achievement” should look like.
We want you to know: we hear you, and we want to help. At the National Institute for Play, we’re working to shift public understanding — to help parents, educators, and policymakers recognize that play is not the opposite of learning; it is the engine of learning.
To support you in these conversations, we’ve drafted a short message you may want to share with parents — as-is, or reworked in your own voice — that helps explain the value of play-based learning. We hope it makes your important job a little easier.
With gratitude and admiration,
The National Institute for Play
Why We Emphasize Play in Early Childhood
Dear Parents,
We know you want the very best for your child —and so do we. It’s natural to wonder when your child will start learning phonics, adding numbers, or reading. These are important skills, and we promise: they will come.
But here’s what decades of child development research —and countless hours in classrooms like ours— tell us: children learn best through play.
Play is not a break from learning. It is learning. In fact, play supports holistic child development –in addition to cognitive growth (learning), play also fosters social, emotional, and physical growth. Children learn far more through play than through traditional academic pedagogy.
When your child builds with blocks, they’re learning about balance, patterns, and spatial reasoning. When they negotiate turns at the dress-up station, they’re building empathy, cooperation, and language skills. And when they pretend to be a chef, a firefighter, or a puppy, they are literally creating neural pathways in their brains — a flexible, dynamic architecture that supports creativity, resilience, and self-control. These are the skills they’ll rely on to adapt to the ever-changing world they are growing into.
That world is shifting faster than ever before. The jobs and technologies of 10 or 20 years from now cannot be predicted let alone prepared for. In such a landscape, the ability to memorize facts or follow rigid steps will matter less than the ability to think flexibly, learn continuously, and stay curious.
That’s why play matters.
Through joyful, hands-on exploration, children aren’t just having fun — they are wiring their brains for curiosity, initiative, and a deep desire to seek understanding. These neural pathways will help them embrace new ideas and persist through challenges — far more valuable, in the long run, than learning the alphabet or arithmetic a year earlier through rote instruction.
Rote learning may check boxes, but it often stifles the brain’s natural love of exploring and learning. Play-based learning does the opposite: it builds adaptable, agile brains. And an adaptable brain is a lifelong asset.
So yes, your child may come home talking about a game they invented instead of a worksheet they completed — but that game is full of rich, essential learning. The literacy and math will come more easily and joyfully because their learning is rooted in curiosity, purpose, and play.
We’re proud to partner with you in nurturing your child’s growth — and we’re always happy to talk more about how and why we do what we do.
References
The messages above are grounded in decades of research from neuroscience, education, and child development. Here are selected studies and expert reviews that support the importance of play for wholistic child development:
- Lillard, A. S., et al. (2013). The impact of pretend play on children’s development: A review of the evidence. Psychological Bulletin, 139(1), 1–34.
➤ Explores how pretend play supports cognitive, social, and emotional development. - Panksepp, J. (2007). Can play diminish ADHD and facilitate the construction of the social brain? Journal of the Canadian Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 16(2), 57–66.
➤ Highlights how play activates key brain systems and supports emotional regulation. Suggests play ‘sanctuaries’ -as a substitute for psychostimulants- for children at-risk of ADHD. - Hirsh-Pasek, K., & Golinkoff, R. M. (2003). Einstein Never Used Flashcards: How Our Children Really Learn—and Why They Need to Play More and Memorize Less. Rodale.
➤ A powerful, parent-friendly explanation of why rote learning undermines early development — and why play is essential for building real-world skills. - Zosh, J. M., Hirsh-Pasek, K., et al. (2018). Learning through Play: A Review of the Evidence. The LEGO Foundation.
➤ Synthesizes evidence from global studies showing how play enhances learning outcomes and future-oriented skills like creativity and problem-solving. - Engel, S. (2015). The Hungry Mind: The Origins of Curiosity in Childhood. Harvard University Press.
➤ Describes how play cultivates curiosity — a key predictor of lifelong learning. - Almon, J., & Miller, E. (2009). Crisis in the Kindergarten: Why Children Need to Play in School. Alliance for Childhood.
➤ Warns of the negative effects of early academic pressure and highlights the benefits of free play. - Jones, D. E., Greenberg, M., & Crowley, M. (2015).Kindergarten social competence and future wellness.American Journal of Public Health, 105(11), 2283–2290.
➤ Social-emotional skills at age 5 strongly predict long-term success — more than early academic knowledge.
