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4 min reading time

Most corporate learning strategies start small. Typically, it's a few text-based courses with the occasional image or two. But, as you gain more learners, and become more confident in your training process, it's essential to branch out and consider creating courses that embrace different learning formats and ways to learn. This is where multimodal learning comes in.

Used to enhance the learning experience and increase engagement, multimodal learning recommends the use of different modes to train. It's a helpful methodology to memorize when creating your eLearning content.

What is multimodal learning?

Multimodal learning suggests that when a number of our senses - visual, auditory, kinaesthetic - are being engaged during learning, we understand and remember more. By combining these modes, learners experience learning in a variety of ways to create a diverse learning style.

For example, let's imagine an organization is onboarding a new sales hire, training them on their product, and has decided to take a multimodal approach. The first part of the course could be text-based, reading an overview document or slides about what the product they are going to be selling does. Then, they're enrolled in a webinar that visually and aurally explains what the product does. From here, they're requested to do a 'sample' demo via video to get them involved and active in the process. And, finally, they have a feedback session with an instructor to hear about their progress and help them further their learning.

Types of multimodal learning

There are four main methods of multimodal learning; visual, auditory, reading and writing and kinesthetic (VARK). Some experts believe that people prefer one over the other; for example they have a preference for visual learning, however the evidence to back this up is sparse.

That being said, VARK is still a valuable model to keep top-of-mind when trying to create diverse learning content to engage your learners.

1. Visual learning

Visual learning involves the use of graphs, infographics, cartoons and illustrations, videos, artwork, flowcharts, and diagrams - anything that primarily stimulates your learners eyes.
Techniques like color coding information, using different fonts and labelling important points with stickers are all part of visual learning too.

2. Auditory learning

Auditory learning is mostly concerned with what we listen to. For an organization delivering training, this can come in the form of a podcast, webinar, audiobook, or an instructor talking to learners face-to-face. Group discussions or debates on the topics covered can all form part of auditory learning.

3. Kinesthetic learning

Kinesthetic learning gets learners active; it can involve site visits, demonstrations and multimedia presentations. It's often a combination of several types of learning together; for example, making a video combines visual, auditory and kinesthetic skills; the different methods of multimodal learning don't operate in a vacuum - they intersect with each other.

If we think back to our sales onboarding example above, kinesthetic learning can be used to test a learner too, as our sales rep had to make a sample demo video as part of their assessment.

4. Reading and writing

Reading and writing - the type of learning we're most familiar with. Here, text-based courses, PDF's, documents, books, and eBooks are often used. Additionally, most written exams or assignments, like true and false or multiple choice questions, come under this bracket too.

How to create a multimodal approach to learning

1. Add different media to your courses

The first step with multimodal learning is to simply dive in and plan how you can add more modes to your courses. When you're creating your course think outside the box and start to use different formats, like video, slides, and audio.

We suggest you start small by repurposing the content you already have and taking advantage of resources outside of your organization, like YouTube videos and podcasts on the subject of focus. From here, you can then start creating your own videos, slides, audio, and interactive learning sessions.

Also, invest in an LMS that supports a wide range of content formats, including Word, PowerPoint, PDF, video and audio.

2. You can use blended learning techniques

Blended learning is an effective training technique that combines face-to-face training with online instruction through your LMS. It gives you all the advantages of interacting directly with learners in a classroom environment along with the convenience of eLearning.

With blended learning, you can hold a live training session with a group of learners, post some extra resources for them to your LMS, and then assign a task or exam to ensure they understood the topic completely. This allows you to easily document and report on who's taken the training session and how effective it was.

3. Learners can do multimodal assignments

You can take advantage of a variety of different means of assessment when you're training through multimodal learning. Challenge your learners to create a video or audio project and upload it to your LMS, give them instructions on a personal essay to write and post, or set up a quiz for them to take.

Setting multimodal assignments lets learners get creative, and encourages them to use different parts of their brain. Cognitive Learning Theory suggests that when learners are actively involved in their own learning, they retain more of their training, so multimodal assignments are likely to create better results.

4. Providing feedback through different media with your LMS

Occasionally, it's not possible for managers to give their teams feedback in person. This may be because some of your team work remotely or are often offsite, or perhaps you have some general feedback you need to provide to a large group and don't have the capacity to speak to everyone individually.

In this instance, recording a short video and posting it to your LMS can be a great solution. Providing feedback through email is risky, it's likely to be misinterpreted or misunderstood as the tone is impersonal. With a video, learners can hear your encouraging tone of voice and see your relaxed body language; and they'll understand that your feedback is constructive and well meant.

Do your training sessions mainly stimulate one or two of the senses, or do you attempt to engage your learners in a variety of different ways? Let us know what works for you in the comments.

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Multimodal Learning: Engaging Your Learner's Senses

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Most corporate learning strategies start small. Typically, it's a few text-based courses with the occasional image or two. But, as you gain more learners,

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All articles. PSYCHOLOGY IN RUSSIA. State of the Art

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"The changes to kindergarten make me sick," a veteran teacher in Arkansas recently admitted to me. "Think about what you did in first grade-that's what my 5-year-old babies are expected to do."

The difference between first grade and kindergarten may not seem like much, but what I remember about my first-grade experience in the mid-90s doesn't match the kindergarten she described in her email: three and a half hours of daily literacy instruction, an hour and a half of daily math instruction, 20 minutes of daily "physical activity time" (officially banned from being called "recess") and two 56-question standardized tests in literacy and math-on the fourth week of school.

That American friend-who teaches 20 students without an aide-has fought to integrate 30 minutes of "station time" into the literacy block, which includes "blocks, science, magnetic letters, play dough with letter stamps to practice words, books, and storytelling." But the most controversial area of her classroom isn't the blocks nor the stamps: Rather, it's the "house station with dolls and toy food"-items her district tried to remove last year. The implication was clear: There's no time for play in kindergarten anymore.

A working paper, "Is Kindergarten the New First Grade?," confirms what many experts have suspected for years: The American kindergarten experience has become much more academic-and at the expense of play. The late psychologist, Bruno Bettelheim, even raised the concern in an article for The Atlantic in 1987.
The American kindergarten experience has become much more academic-and at the expense of play.
Researchers at the University of Virginia, led by the education-policy researcher Daphna Bassok, analyzed survey responses from American kindergarten teachers between 1998 and 2010. "Almost every dimension that we examined," noted Bassok, "had major shifts over this period towards a heightened focus on academics, and particularly a heightened focus on literacy, and within literacy, a focus on more advanced skills than what had been taught before."

In the study, the percentage of kindergarten teachers who reported that they agreed (or strongly agreed) that children should learn to read in kindergarten greatly increased from 30 percent in 1998 to 80 percent in 2010.

Bassok and her colleagues found that while time spent on literacy in American kindergarten classrooms went up, time spent on arts, music, and child-selected activities (like station time) significantly dropped. Teacher-directed instruction also increased, revealing what Bassok described as "striking increases in the use of textbooks and worksheets... and very large increases in the use of assessments."

But Finland-a Nordic nation of 5.5 million people, where I've lived and taught fifth and sixth graders over the last two years -appears to be on the other end of the kindergarten spectrum. Before moving to Helsinki, I had heard that most Finnish children start compulsory, government-paid kindergarten-or what Finns call "preschool"-at age 6. And not only that, but I learned through my Finnish mother-in-law-a preschool teacher-that Finland's kindergartners spend a sizable chunk of each day playing, not filling out worksheets.

Finnish schools have received substantial media attention for years now-largely because of the consistently strong performance of its 15-year-olds on international tests like the PISA. But I haven't seen much coverage on Finland's youngest students.

So, a month ago, I scheduled a visit to a Finnish public kindergarten-where a typical school day is just four hours long.

Approaching the school's playground that morning, I watched as an army of 5- and 6-year-old boys patrolled a zigzagging stream behind Niirala Preschool in the city of Kuopio, unfazed by the warm August drizzle. When I clumsily unhinged the steel gate to the school's playground, the young children didn't even lift their eyes from the ground; they just kept dragging and pushing their tiny shovels through the mud.

At 9:30 a.m., the boys were called to line up for a daily activity called Morning Circle. (The girls were already inside-having chosen to play boardgames indoors.) They trudged across the yard in their rubber boots, pleading with their teachers to play longer-even though they had already been outside for an hour. As they stood in file, I asked them to describe what they'd been doing on the playground.

"Making dams," sang a chorus of three boys.

"Nothing else?" one of their teachers prodded.

"Nothing else," they confirmed.

"[Children] learn so well through play," Anni-Kaisa Osei Ntiamoah, one of the preschool's "kindergarten" teachers, who's in her seventh year in the classroom, told me. "They don't even realize that they are learning because they're so interested [in what they're doing]."
"[Children] learn so well through play. They don't even realize that they are learning because they're so interested."
When children play, Osei Ntiamoah continued, they're developing their language, math, and social-interaction skills. A recent research summary "The Power of Play" supports her findings: "In the short and long term, play benefits cognitive, social, emotional, and physical development...When play is fun and child-directed, children are motivated to engage in opportunities to learn," the researcher concluded.

Osei Ntiamoah's colleagues all seemed to share her enthusiasm for play-based learning, as did the school's director, Maarit Reinikka: "It's not a natural way for a child to learn when the teacher says, 'Take this pencil and sit still.'" The school's kindergarten educators have their students engage in desk work-like handwriting-just one day a week. Reinikka, who directs several preschools in Kuopio, assured me that kindergartners throughout Finland-like the ones at Niirala Preschool-are rarely sitting down to complete traditional paper-and-pencil exercises.

And there's no such thing as a typical day of kindergarten at the preschool, the teachers said. Instead of a daily itinerary, two of them showed me a weekly schedule with no more than several major activities per day: Mondays, for example, are dedicated to field trips, ballgames, and running, while Fridays-the day I visited-are for songs and stations.

Once, Morning Circle-a communal time of songs and chants-wrapped up, the children disbanded and flocked to the station of their choice: There was one involving fort-making with bed sheets, one for arts and crafts, and one where kids could run a pretend ice-cream shop. "I'll take two scoops of pear and two scoops of strawberry-in a waffle cone," I told the two kindergarten girls who had positioned themselves at the ice-cream table; I had a (fake) 10€ bill to spend, courtesy of one of the teachers. As one of the girls served me-using blue tack to stick laminated cutouts of scoops together-I handed the money to her classmate.
Throughout the morning I noticed that the kindergartners played in two different ways: One was spontaneous and free form, while the other was more guided and pedagogical.
With a determined expression reminiscent of the boys in the mud with their shovels, the young cashier stared at the price list. After a long pause, one of her teachers-perhaps sensing a good opportunity to step in-helped her calculate the difference between the price of my order and the 10€. Once I received my change (a few plastic coins), the girls giggled as I pretended to lick my ice cream.

Throughout the morning I noticed that the kindergartners played in two different ways: One was spontaneous and free form (like the boys building dams), while the other was more guided and pedagogical (like the girls selling ice cream).

In fact, Finland requires its kindergarten teachers to offer playful learning opportunities-including both kinds of play-to every kindergartner on a regular basis, according to Arja-Sisko Holappa, a counselor for the Finnish National Board of Education. What's more, Holappa, who also leads the development of the country's pre-primary core curriculum, said that play is being emphasized more than ever in latest version of that curriculum, which goes into effect in kindergartens next fall.

"Play is a very efficient way of learning for children," she told me. "And we can use it in a way that children will learn with joy."
"Those things you learn without joy you will forget easily."
The word "joy" caught me off guard-I'm certainly not used to hearing the word in conversations about education in America, where I received my training and taught for several years. But Holappa, detecting my surprise, reiterated that the country's early-childhood education program indeed places a heavy emphasis on "joy," which along with play is explicitly written into the curriculum as a learning concept. "There's an old Finnish saying," Holappa said. "Those things you learn without joy you will forget easily."

After two hours of visiting a Finnish kindergarten, I still hadn't seen children reading. I was, however, hearing a lot of pre-literacy instruction sprinkled throughout the morning-clapping out syllables and rhyming in Morning Circle, for example. I recalled learning in my master's degree courses in education that building phonemic awareness-an ability to recognize sounds without involving written language-was viewed as the groundwork of literacy development.

Just before lunch, a kindergarten teacher took out a basket brimming with children's books. But for these 5- and 6-year-olds, "reading" looked just like how my two toddlers approach their books: The kindergartners, sitting in different corners of the room, flipped through pages, savoring the pictures but, for the most part, not actually deciphering the words. Osei Ntiamoah told me that just one of the 15 students in her class can currently read syllable by syllable. Many of them, she added, will read by the end of the year. "We don't push them but they learn just because they are ready for it. If the child is willing and interested, we will help the child."
Nowadays, Finnish teachers are free to teach reading if they determine a child is "willing and interested" to learn.
There was a time in Finland-in the not so distant past-when kindergarten teachers weren't even allowed to teach reading. This was viewed as the job of the first-grade teacher. But, as with America, things have changed: Nowadays, Finnish teachers are free to teach reading if they determine a child is-just as Osei Ntiamoah put it-"willing and interested" to learn.

Throughout Finland, kindergarten teachers and parents meet during the fall to make an individualized learning plan, shaped by each child's interests and levels of readiness, which could include the goal of learning how to read. For Finnish kindergartners who seem primed for reading instruction, Holappa told me it's still possible to teach them in a playful manner. She recommended the work of the Norwegian researcher Arne Trageton-a pioneer in the area of play-based literacy instruction.

Meanwhile across the Atlantic, kindergarten students like that of the Arkansas teacher are generally expected-by the end of the year-to master literacy skills that are far more complex, like reading books with two to three sentences of unpredictable text per page. "These are 5- to 6-year-olds!" the Arkansas teacher wrote in disbelief.

More than 40 states-including Arkansas-have adopted the Common Core State Standards, which contain dozens of reading expectations for kindergartners. In the United States-where 22 percent of the nation's children live in poverty (more than 16 million in total)-the Common Core's emphasis on rigorous language-learning in kindergarten could be viewed as a strategy for closing the alarming " Thirty Million Word Gap " between America's rich and poor-holding schools accountable for having high expectations for their youngest students.

Furthermore, unlike the reality of teaching kindergarten in Finland where the poverty rate is 10 percent and the student-teacher ratio is typically 14:1 (based on national guidelines), most American kindergarten teachers don't have a choice whether or not they teach reading. Under the Common Core, children should be able to "read emergent-texts with purpose and understanding" by the end of kindergarten. Ultimately, they're expected to, at the very least, be able to decode basic texts without the support of a teacher.

"But there isn't any solid evidence that shows that children who are taught to read in kindergarten have any long-term benefit from it," Nancy Carlsson-Paige, a professor emeritus of early childhood education at Lesley University, explained in a video published by the advocacy group Defending the Early Years.
"But there isn't any solid evidence that shows that children who are taught to read in kindergarten have any long-term benefit from it."
Research by Sebastian Suggate, a former Ph.D. candidate at New Zealand's University of Otago studying educational psychology, confirms Carlsson-Paige's findings. One of Suggate's studies compared children from Rudolf Steiner schools-who typically begin to read at the age of seven-with children at state-run schools in New Zealand, who start reading at the age of five. By age 11, students from the former group caught up with their peers in the latter, demonstrating equivalent reading skills.

"This research then raises the question," he said in an interview published by the University of Otago. "If there aren't advantages to learning to read from the age of five, could there be disadvantages to starting teaching children to read earlier?"

At the end of my visit to the Finnish kindergarten, I joined the 22 children and their two teachers for a Friday event that only happens on weeks when children are celebrating their birthdays. The birthday child that week sat at the front of the classroom in a chair facing his peers and teachers, all of whom sat in a semicircle, and a table with a candleholder to his left.

I expected the celebration to end after the lighting of candles and "Happy Birthday" song, but it didn't. One of the boy's classmates, donning a hat that looked like a beret and wearing a mail carrier's sling over his shoulder, took him by the hand, and the two proceeded to dance as we sang the Finnish children's song, "Little Boy Postman."

Once the song was complete, the little postman took out a card and handed it to his classmate. "Would you like me to help you read this?" one of the birthday boy's teachers asked. "You help," he responded, a hint that hadn't quite mastered the skill yet. I watched his face carefully, searching for any hint of shame. I found none-but then again, why should he have felt embarrassed?

The flickering six candles reminded me he's only a little kid.

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Kindergarten: While American Kids Read, Their Finnish Peers Play

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"The changes to kindergarten make me sick," a veteran teacher in Arkansas recently admitted to me. "Think about what you did in first grade-that's what my 5-year-old babies are expected to do."

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Activity that is not required, but is enjoyed.

While the term "play" may refer to an extremely varied range of activities, certain broad, defining characteristics have been noted. Perhaps the most basic one is that play is something that is not required. Although the enjoyment derived from it may be needed emotionally, no single play activity itself is necessary for survival. Thus, play is referred to as "autotelic"-it is engaged in for its own sake, with the reward inherent in the activity itself. Nevertheless, in spite of its detachment from survival and financial gain, play is engaged in wholeheartedly. During the time allotted to play, it commands a person's entire attention.

Play takes place in a realm divorced from ordinary reality and governed by its own rules, which may be more complex and absolute than those of many "serious" activities. It is also bound in terms of both time and space. The period during which one engages in play has time limits: it begins, proceeds, and inevitably ends when one returns to "real life." Play is also set apart in space-a person generally goes somewhere special (even if it is only the "play room" or the "playground") to engage in play. The relationship between play and tension has also been noted. While tension is not absent from play itself, the ultimate result is the reduction of tension and conflict. Based on this feature, play has often been viewed as a "safety valve" for the harmless discharge of tensions and conflicts.

In children, play is a necessary vehicle for physical, social, and cognitive development. The well known early 20th-century American psychologist G. Stanley Hall (1844-1924) viewed the evolution of children's play as recapitulating the evolution of the human species. Individually, play develops in stages that correspond to a child's social and cognitive development. Initially, a child's play is solitary in nature. Next comes parallel play, where children are in each others' company but playing independently. Socially, the final stage is cooperative play, which consists of organized activities characterized by social roles.

Jean Piaget formulated a series of developmental stages of play that corresponded to the successive stages in his influential theory of cognitive development in children. The sensorimotor stage ( to approximately two years old), when children are focused on gaining mastery of their own bodies and external objects, is characterized by "practice play" consisting of repeated patterns of movement or sound, such as sucking, shaking, banging, babbling, and, eventually, "peekaboo" games in which objects are made to repeatedly disappear and reappear. As children learn more about the properties of objects and learn how to manipulate them, they begin to monitor the effects of play on their environment, and their relationship with that environment becomes increasingly systematic.

The preoperational stage (ages 2-7 years) is marked by the ability to master symbolic functions, including the association of objects with words, and the transition from an egocentric focus to an awareness that events have causes outside themselves. At this stage, children begin to engage in make-believe games marked by the use of objects for purposes other than their intended function. Between the ages of 4 and 7, when their thinking is still dominated by intuition rather than logic, children first become interested in games characterized by rules, structure, and social interaction. As they move through the concrete operational stage (ages 7-11), during which categorizing activities and the earliest logical operations occur, the types of rules governing their play and the reasons for following them change. At first, rules are centered on the sensorimotor aspects of play and largely provide structure and repetition. Gradually, they become more focused on the social aspects of play and are connected with acceptance by the group. By the fourth, or formal operations stage (ages 12 and higher), with the gradual emergence of a mature ability to reason, competitive games and games with codes of rules begin to predominate.

While other psychologists have proposed schemes that vary from this one theory, there is general agreement on its broad outlines. Some additional categorizations of children's play that have been proposed include diversive play, composed of aimless activities that serve as a diversion when a child is bored; mimetic play, which is repetitious, structured, and symbolic; and cathartic play, which is therapeutic in nature.

One of the first to use play in therapy with children was Hermine Hug-Hellmuth in 1921, following Freud's work with "Little Hans," a five-year-old boy with a . British psychoanalyst Melanie Klein used play as a source to a child's unconscious from which she could make interpretations, starting in 1919. Just as adults used free association to communicate about their unconscious and talk to communicate about their feelings, theorists reasoned that children communicate through their natural play what they cannot yet verbalize. Play therapy was used by to help children develop a closer connection to the therapist. A more structured approach came about in the 1930s with David Levy using play therapy to help children work through and re-enact stressful situations to release them. In keeping with Carl Rogers' non-directive play work in the 1940s, Virginia

Axline used non-directive play to allow a child to freely be himself or herself, working toward self-realization. By the 1960s, schools had introduced guidance and counseling services. A number of counselors, including Garry Landreth urged in writings that school counselors incorporate play therapy to meet the developmental needs of all children. The International Association for Play Therapy formed in 1982 and now has 3,300 members worldwide. Play therapy has grown in its applications, expanding to include adults and families and into hospitals as well. The therapy usually occurs in a playroom, specially designed for children and furnished with toys and equipment to facilitate children's play.

Further Reading

Dolinar, Kathleen J. Learning Through Play: Curriculum and Activities for the Inclusive Classroom. Albany, NY: Delmar, 1994.

Gil, Eliana Play in Family Therapy. New York: Guilford Press, 1994.

Landreth, Garry L. Play Therapy: The Art of the Relationship Muncie, Indiana: Accelerated Development Inc., 1991.

Moyles, Janet R. The Excellence of Play. Philadelphia: Open University Press, 1994.

Hughes, Fergus P. Children, Play, and Development. Boston Allyn and Bacon, 1991.

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Activity that is not required, but is enjoyed. While the term "play" may refer to an extremely varied range of activities, certain broad, defining characteristics have been noted. Perhaps the most basic one is that play is something that is not required.

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Renowned psychologist and child development theorist Jean Piaget was quoted in his later years as saying "Our real problem is - what is the goal of education? Are we forming children that are only capable of learning what is already known? Or should we try developing creative and innovative minds, capable of discovery from the preschool age on, throughout life?"

No doubt, Piaget didn't have to deal with standardized assessment-and he would be at odds with those officials who prioritize test high scores and good grades as the primary goals of education. Instead, Piaget would advocate for helping students understand learning as a lifelong process of discovery and joy. Why do we question the value of this approach?

Being a kid is critical. We see the signature of early childhood experience literally in people's bodies: as this study from the Harvard Center on the Developing Child shows, positive early experiences lead to longer life expectancy, better overall health, and improved ability to manage stress. Plus, long-term social emotional capabilities are more robust when children have a chance to learn through play; form deep relationships; and when their developing brains are given the chance to grow in a nurturing, language-rich, and relatively unhurried environment.

This is something that as educators we understand in our souls but often find it difficult to implement given the restraints and restrictions of the modern classroom and accountability environment. But, it's critical to address this disconnect directly in order to make progress. So, let's talk about why students need play and how we can bring it into our own classrooms-even if we have to sneak it in, and even if we are working with kids who are not so little anymore.

Defining a Play-Based Approach to Learning

Play is the defining feature of human development: the impulse is hardwired into us and can't be suppressed. It's crucial that we recognize that while the play impulse is one thing, understanding the nuts and bolts of actually playing is not always so natural, and may require careful cultivation.

That's why a play-based approach involves both child-initiated and teacher-supported learning. The teacher encourages children's learning and inquiry through interactions that aim to stretch their thinking to higher levels. There are other foundational thinkers who have built from Piaget's theories that support this; educators like Montessori and Stanley Greenspan have recognized that the way to teach a child is through their own interests and developed concrete strategies to do so.

For example, while children are playing with blocks, a teacher can pose questions that encourage problem solving, prediction, and hypothesizing. The teacher can also bring the child's awareness towards mathematics, science, and literacy concepts. How tall can this get? How many blocks do you need? Can you BLOW the house down? Who else does that? These simple questions elevate the simple stacking of blocks to application of learning. Through play like this, children can develop social and cognitive skills, mature emotionally, and gain the self-confidence required to engage in new experiences and environments.

Understanding the Value of Play

When children engage in real‐life and imaginary activities, play can challenge children's thinking.

Children learn best through first-hand experiences-play motivates, stimulates and supports children in their development of skills, concepts, language acquisition, communication skills, and concentration. During play, children use all of their senses, must convey their thoughts and emotions, explore their environment, and connect what they already know with new knowledge, skills and attitudes.

It is in the context of play that children test out new knowledge and theories. They reenact experiences to solidify understanding. And it is here where children first learn and express symbolic thought, a necessary precursor to literacy. Play is the earliest form of storytelling. And, it is how children learn how to negotiate with peers, problem-solve, and improvise.

It is in play that basic social skills-like sharing and taking turns-are learned and practiced. Children also bring their own language, customs, and culture into play. As an added benefit, they learn about their peers' in the process.

Involvement in play stimulates a child's drive for exploration and discovery. This motivates the child to gain mastery over their environment, promoting focus and concentration. It also enables the child to engage in the flexible and higher-level thinking processes deemed essential for the 21st century learner. These include inquiry processes of problem solving, analyzing, evaluating, applying knowledge and creativity.

Finally, play supports positive attitudes toward learning. These include imagination, curiosity, enthusiasm, and persistence. The type of learning processes and skills fostered in play cannot be replicated through traditional rote learning, where the emphasis is on remembering facts.

Play-Based Learning and Executive Function

Children are naturally motivated to play. A play-based program builds on this motivation, using it as a context for learning. In this framework, children can explore, experiment, discover, and solve problems in imaginative and playful ways. They also expand their executive function skills by practicing their ability to retain information-like where the butterfly was in the spread of memory cards, who had the "4" in Go Fish, and what color card they have and need for in UNO.

When students play games that involve strategy, they have an opportunity to make plans, and then to adjust those plans in response to what happens during gameplay. This engages other critical executive function skills like inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility, and working memory. Think Battleship, checkers, tick-tack-toe, or Hide-and-Go-Seek; these games have children develop a plan and adjust on the fly in response to the other player.

Teachers can provide opportunities for students to build their executive function skills through meaningful social interactions and fun games-including activities as common as checkers, Simon Says, and I Spy. Harvard's Center on the Developing Child offers lots of great ideas for children at different ages.

Play and the Value of Active Learning

Play-based learning is an important way to develop active learning. Active learning means using your brain in lots of ways. When children play, they explore the world-and build on their understanding of the natural and social environments around them.

On the physical level, kids work on both gross and fine motor development through play. Students working in a play-based classroom explore spatial relationships and hone these important motor capabilities. In fact, it is before the age of 7 years-traditionally known as "pre-academic" age-when children desperately need to have a multitude of whole-body sensory experiences daily in order to develop strong bodies and minds. This is best done outside where the senses can be fully engaged, and young bodies are challenged by the uneven and unpredictable, ever-changing terrain-but a well-equipped, thoughtfully set-up classroom can be just as effective.

Developing Soft Skills Through Cooperative Play

Children build language skills while developing content knowledge. Plus, cooperative experiences provide children the opportunity to cultivate social skills, competencies, and a disposition to learn.

Play also builds self-esteem. Children are most receptive to learning during play and exploration and are generally willing to persist in order to learn something new or solve a problem. The experience of successfully working through something new or challenging helps kids gain the self-confidence required to engage in new experiences and environments.

And a big winner in play is Social development. Interpersonal skills like listening, negotiating, and compromising are challenging for 4- and 5-year-olds (as well as older kids and adults). Through play, children get to practice social and language skills, think creatively, and gather information about the world through their senses. Think about the games that students come up with on their own-they are creative, often intricate, and their "rules" always have to be negotiated.

Games and Gamification

Some educators regard the time kids spend socializing with their friends while gaming online as the salvation during the COVID-19 pandemic, or in any scenario where a child might experience barriers to in-person socialization. In addition to the social connections, there is an increased understanding that video games can actually improve kids' remote learning. As educators we know that using student's passions to engage them in learning is critical and kids love games. Done right, gaming and gamification of games can engage both intrinsic (pleasure and fulfillment) and extrinsic (recognition and rewards) motivation.

How Teachers Can Encourage and Promote Play-Based Learning

Teachers help enhance play-based learning by creating environments in which rich play experiences are available. The act of being a teacher is recognizing the goals of education, understanding how learning works, and figuring out how to apply all this to each student, one at a time. Teaching children how to learn is a strong basis for every grade level.

It is pretty clear that students learn through play. Every child. Some use play to explore their world, others to gain language, and on and on and on. In fact, we have also seen that it is a natural impulse-like getting hungry, or crying when upset, children play. So why not lean into it? Find ways to increase the time spent on play in your class. Whether you create centers for dramatic play, bring in costume boxes, explore problem solving with board games, or design your own multiplication board game or even better, have your students design that game, lean in. Use what is part of a child's fabric to enhance instruction and learning.

Looking for additional ideas to make your classroom a more hands-on learning environment for your young students? Check out this blog post on Exploring CTE at the Elementary Level Through Play for more outside-the-box inspiration!

Interested in learning more about play-based learning? Check out our OnDemand webinar where we explore this topic in-depth!
This post was originally published October 2019 and has been updated.

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Play-Based Learning: What It Is and Why It Should Be a Part of Every Classroom

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Renowned psychologist and child development theorist Jean Piaget was quoted in his later years as saying "Our real problem is - what is the goal of education? Are we forming children that are only capable of learning what is already known?

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In your search for the right preschool, you may have come across programs that label themselves as "play-based". Play-based learning is a common term in the early childhood education world. But what does it really mean?

In this post, we'll take a look at what play-based learning is, how it compares to academic-based preschools, and how play-based learning prepares children for kindergarten - even if doesn't seem to.

If you decide play-based learning is right for your family, we will also discuss what to look for in a play-based program and where you can find one near you!

What exactly is play-based learning?

Play-based learning is a type of early childhood education based on child-led and open-ended play. If you're picturing preschoolers finger painting or 'playing house', you're spot on.

Play itself is a voluntary, enjoyable activity with no purpose or end goal. Believe it or not, activities like this lay the foundation for a child to become a curious and excited learner later in life. Play-based learning helps children develop social skills, motivation to learn, and even language and numeracy skills. Taking initiative, focused attention, and curiosity about the world are all a part of play.

Children are naturally wired to do the very thing that will help them learn and grow. According to the NAEYC, "The impulse to play comes from a natural desire to understand the world."

What play is NOT

Play is not 'work'. Play is not directed or prescribed by an adult and there's no desired outcome in play like in more 'work-oriented' activities. While both 'play' and 'work' can contribute to a child's development, they are different from each other.

Recently, certain activities have been labeled as "play-based learning" when in fact they're gamified work. For example, using a song or game to get children to differentiate between "big A" and "little a" is not play-based learning - it's work disguised as play. (But it's still a great idea to make learning fun by turning it into a game!)

A good way to differentiate the two is if there's an agenda for the activity, it's likely not true play-based learning. Your kid won't get the same benefits they would from true play-based learning (they may get different benefits though!)

Elements of play-based learning

Play-based learning includes the following elements:

Self chosen: A child voluntary chooses to play, how they'll play, and for how long. An adult may initiate play insofar as he or she invites or suggests play but the child determines the rest.

Enjoyable: Play is enjoyable for the child. This emotional aspect is important. There may be some frustrations or disagreements during play but overall it's pleasurable.

Unstructured: A child has ample time to explore and discover during play. They're directed by their own interests, not by any prescribed rules or plans.

Process-oriented: There is no end or learning goal. Instead, it's the process of play that's important.

Make believe: Play often involves imagination, 'make believe', or 'playing pretend'.

Definitions of play-based versus academic learning
Play-based and academic preschools differ in overall learning theory as well as day-to-day activities.

Play-based learning helps a child develop holistically through social-emotional learning, developing confidence and motivation, and practicing cognitive skills. The academic or traditional approach to early childhood education is more focused on teaching young children cognitive skills and knowledge through structure and routine.

In play-based learning, children choose their own activities for the day. The room is often broken up into sections or stations like a block area, dramatic play area, and reading nook, among others. Play-based programs are also sometimes called 'child-centered' because the children guide their own learning with their curiosity and interests.

Meanwhile, academic programs are teacher-led and meant to prepare children for kindergarten. The teacher comes up with activities or games to help children learn letters and distinguish shapes, sounds, and colors. Children may spend time practicing handwriting or filling in worksheets. These programs are typically very structured with a daily routine and lots of activity prep from the teacher.

You may encounter a program that incorporates a little bit of both. Different parts of the day may be reserved for different types of learning.

You may also see a program that combines play-based learning with other learning philosophies like Montessori, Waldorf, or Reggio Emilia.

"Play is the work of the child." - Maria Montessori

Pros and Cons of Play-based vs Academic programs

Both play-based learning and academic learning have their pros and cons. Choosing one or the other for your child will depend on what you're looking for in an early education program and how your child learns best.
Play-based learning programs: Pros

Children get to choose their own activities and topics and this keeps them interested

Contributes to kindergarten readiness:

Play helps develop social skills and children with social skills are more successful in academics later on

Children in play-based programs score better on measures of self-regulation, cognitive flexibility, and working memory (Diamond et al. 2007). Self-regulation and impulse control is predictive of later academic success

Play-based learning programs: Cons

Children may not be exposed directly to learning letters, numbers, or scientific concepts

Children may not score as highly on standardized testing (until after first grade)

Academic programs: Pros

Early attention skills are predictive of academic success later on

Children are more familiar with academic subjects by the time they enter kindergarten

Academic programs: Cons

Can cause children to lose interest because they are being told what to learn and do

Children in academic programs have been shown to score higher on standardized tests than their counterparts but this gap closes by first grade

Children in academic programs often have more behavior problems than those in play-based programs

Teaching academics earlier doesn't lead to faster cognitive development

One of the most important things children need is self-confidence and judging them and telling them their ideas are 'right' or 'wrong' instills the opposite. It can make them feel ashamed or embarrassed for trying.

Teacher-led learning can dampen creativity and curiosity (Fuller et al. 2017)

How do play-based environments support children's development?

You may be wondering, how is my child learning if they're just playing all day?! What do kids learn through play?

Even if it looks like your kid is just having fun, play has a major impact on their development in every way.

As the Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) said, "Play is so important to optimal child development that it has been recognized by the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights as a right of every child."

Studies have conclusively shown play contributes to the following types of child development:
Social-emotional development
According to the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), social-emotional learning is when children "acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions."

Children develop socially and emotionally through play as they imagine the world from a different perspective, understand the differences between themselves and others, learn how to interact with others, and more.

Trying on different roles during play helps children learn how other people feel and think. When they role play and act out scenarios, they're exploring the possibilities of their actions in the real world.

The social aspect of play helps children build friendships and learn how to cooperate and work together. It offers opportunities for them to learn to resolve conflict (Blasi & Hurwitz 2012, Erickson 1985, Pellegrini & Smith 1998).

Playing with others also helps children establish a sense of self. They can initiate play and make decisions, which empowers them to become confident and motivated learners.

Creating art in a play-based learning environment exposes children to process vs product-focused art. Process-focused art experiences have no rules and no examples to guide the children. There is no right or wrong way to create. Meanwhile, product-focused art is based on instructions and guided by examples the teacher makes. In this type of art, there is a 'right' and 'wrong' way to create. Process focused art benefits children by allowing them to express their feelings or ideas the way they want to and they feel successful no matter what they make.

Play reduced stress and serves as an outlet for anxiety

Cognitive development
Cognitive development is a child's growing ability to use their intellect to process information. It includes problem-solving, language learning, and the interpretation of sensations.

Play has been shown to support healthy brain development ( Shonkoff & Phillips 2000, Frost 1998). It also engages a child's mind and helps them hone early literacy and language skills, sensation and perception, and even basic science and math.

Doing art like making collages or adding names to drawings helps children learn to represent ideas through images, use letters to convey meaning, and understand the purpose of writing.

When children play, they use their imagination. Imagination is all about symbols: a laundry basket symbolizes a car, a stick symbolizes a fishing rod, and so on. Understanding symbols is key to reading and writing, as letters are symbols. The same goes for mathematical concepts and numbers.

During dramatic play, children use language to talk to each other. They represent and act out stories, practicing their language and storytelling skills.

Children develop an elementary understanding of scientific concepts as they learn how the world around them works. For example, what happens when you stack one block on top of another or what the feathers of a bird feel like.

Physical development
Physical development refers to gross and fine motor skills development and how a child uses their body. Through play, children build muscle mass and coordination, explore different tactile experiences, and get a healthy amount of exercise.

Art and play expose children to different tactile experiences. They learn about the feeling of wooden blocks, soft plushy toys, wet paint, and more.

Play increases physical activity when compared to passive forms of entertainment like watching TV or playing games on an iPad (Burdette & Whitacker 2005).

Children build muscle mass and coordination as they jump, climb, swing, run, and move during play.

But will my child be ready for kindergarten?

The short answer is yes.

In a time when children are being pressured to achieve academic success before they even get to kindergarten, it's important to look at the evidence that play-based learning absolutely prepares children for school.
Play-based learning contributes to kindergarten readiness
According to a study conducted by the Gesell Institute for Human Development, even though kindergarten has become increasingly focused on academic skills, children pass cognitive milestones at the same rate as in the past, before kindergarten became this serious.

In this study, researchers did cognitive assessments with children ages 3-6 in schools across the country and found there was no significant difference in development between these children and children from past studies from 1925, 1940, 1964 and 1979. Ultimately, teaching academic skills earlier does not affect a child's natural pace of development.

It's important that when your kid gets to kindergarten, they're comfortable in a school setting, comfortable engaging with other children, and excited to learn. Emotional learning is as important, if not more, as academic skills learning. This is what they will acquire in a play-based program.
How do I know my child is learning?
A high-quality play-based preschool will help children:

Adjust to a school setting

Be ready to learn

Acquire better problem-solving skills

Have better learning behaviors

"Play is the highest form of research." - Albert Einstein

Overall, the program will establish a basis for learning as your child gets older. There are certain kindergarten readiness indicators you can look for as your preschooler nears age 5 or 6. Here are just a few examples, drawn from Arkansas's Department of Human Services Kindergarten Readiness Indicator Checklist:

Physical development: Catches a ball with both hands

Language: Uses 4-6 word sentences

Literacy: Listens and engages in stories

Social-emotional development: Shares and plays with others

Cognitive development: Sorts objects by color, shape, and size

How do I find a good play-based program?
What to look for in a play-based program
A quality play-based program can be hard to find if you don't know what you're looking for. Here are some suggestions of what to look for as you compare your options:

A program that incorporates the children's natural interests into the daily flow

Both indoor and outdoor play

A variety of play spaces available, like dramatic play areas, block building area, and sensory area

Children get to self-select their play experience and materials

Children can play for long periods of time without interruption

Children have the opportunity to play with others and to play alone as well

The adult supervisor's role is to view the child as confident and a director of his or her own learning experience. The caregiver in a play-based program learns about the individual children and families in the program and makes adjustments accordingly. They should also interact with, offer suggestions, and support children.
Incorporate play-based learning at home
It's important for children to play with each other, but also for parents to play with their children. You could play outdoors by throwing a ball, digging in the mud, or swinging on a swing set with your little one.

You could play indoors by dancing to music, letting them tell you stories with stuffed animals, or doing puzzles together. First 5 California has some more ideas of ways to play with your children here.
Find a play-based program near you
Wonderschool is a network of boutique in-home early education programs, including many that are primarily play-based. Start by exploring our network of programs here.

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What is play-based learning? | Wonderschool Resources Hub

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In your search for the right preschool, you may have come across programs that label themselves as "play-based". Play-based learning is a common term in the early childhood education world. But what does it really mean?

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Finland is known for their exceptional education. They base their education on "play" and "joy." Early childhood education in Finland is focused on play-based learning. The kindergarten age in America is considered preschool in Finland. In Finland kindergartener's, or "preschoolers," spend a large part of their day playing. Many schools only have their students doing work at their desk, such as handwriting, about once a week. The students rarely sit down at a desk; most of the time they are moving around. Finland requires that teachers offer playful learning opportunities to students. There are two different forms of play they focus on: spontaneous/free form and guided/pedagogical. Finland uses these play tactics to help students learn.

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Recent research has indicated the importance of play-based learning, so currently both play-based learning programs and academic programs exist for preschool, and parents may choose which program they want their child to attend.

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Some may argue that academic programs are beneficial because children in early academic programs have been shown to score higher on standardized tests, but this gap closes by first grade, and teaching academics earlier has not been linked to faster cognitive development. Additionally, children in academic programs often have more behavior problems than those in play-based programs.

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While academic programs do have some pros, such as helping familiarize children with academic subjects and displaying early attention skills which are predictive of later academic success, they also have many cons. For example, academic programs can cause children to lose interest because they are being told what to learn; teacher-led learning can discourage child creativity and curiosity. Additionally, telling a child that their ideas are "right" or "wrong" may damage their self-confidence and discourage them from trying.

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In Sweden play is an important aspect of children's learning and education. Many Swedish teachers feel that play offers new opportunities for children. Pre-school in Sweden has a curriculum which is based on sociocultural and experience-based approaches; children are seen as active participants in their own development and learning. Therefore, play is a critical part of this. It states, “The preschool should strive to ensure that each child develop their curiosity and enjoyment, as well as their ability to play and learn." They believe that play is linked to and should be perceived as a prerequisite to learning. However, the Swedish curriculum only states overarching goals. Not every pre-school bases itself upon play. Many people are beginning to fear that the focus on learning is becoming more prominent and that play and children’s influence will decrease.

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The American kindergarten experience has become much more academic in recent years. American classrooms have recently increased time spent on literacy and decreased time for art, music, and child-selected activities. This means that children have less time to play, which is problematic given that play is essential for children.

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                                                                                                      Play-Based Education in Other Countries

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                                                                                                      Play-Based Education in Other Countries

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How does integrated curriculum relate to play-based learning?

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How does integrated curriculum relate to play-based learning?

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A goal of integrated curriculum is for the child to take charge of their own learning, which is a key feature of play-based learning, as play-based learning is meant to be child-led. Furthermore, both integrated curriculum and play-based learning allow the child to pursue learning in a holistic way.

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How does multimodal learning relate to play?

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How does multimodal learning relate to play?

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During play, children use all of their senses, therefore children are likely to understand and remember concepts learned through play. This confirms that a play-based approach enhances learning, since multimodal learning maintains the idea that engaging the senses enhances learning.

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“The role the child plays, and her relationship to the object if the object has changed its meaning, will always stem from the rules, i.e., the imaginary situation will always contain rules. In play the child is free. But this is an illusory freedom." -Lev Vygotsky

- Vygotsky believes that "real" play includes three components:
1. Children create an imaginary situation
2. Children take on and act out roles
3. Children follow a set of rules determined by these specific roles
- He only focused on typical dramatic or make-believe play for pre-school and elementary children.
-Vygotsky believed that play is the source of development and creates the zone of proximal development. He explained this is done through letting play evolve from the early childhood years to a more mature level. Play allows children to develop self-regulated behaviors due to the relationship of the roles children play and the rules they need to follow when playing these roles. Play requires that players observe and restrain themselves.

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Integrated curriculum means making connections across disciplines, to real life, and to prior learning. There are three approaches to integrated curriculum--multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary.

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Multimodal learning is the idea that when a number of our senses--such as visual, auditory, reading, writing, and kinesthetic--are being engaged during learning, we are more likely to understand and remember concepts.

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                                                                                                                  Play-Based Education in the U.S.

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                                                                                                                  Play-Based Education in the U.S.

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                                                                           Multimodal Learning and Integrated Curriculum in Relation to Play-Based Learning

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                                                                           Multimodal Learning and Integrated Curriculum in Relation to Play-Based Learning

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“Our real problem is – what is the goal of education? Are we forming children that are only capable of learning what is already known? Or should we try developing creative and innovative minds, capable of discovery from the preschool age on, throughout life?” -Jean Piaget

- He advocated for helping students understand that learning is a lifelong process of discovery and joy.
- Piaget formulated a series of developmental stages of play that go along with the stages in his theory of cognitive development in children.
1. The sensorimotor stage (birth to approximately two years old) is when children are focused on gaining mastery of their own bodies and objects. It is described as "practice play" and it consists of repeated patterns of movement or sound, and eventually "peekaboo" games.
2. The preoperational stage (ages 2-7 years) is when children begin to master symbolic functions, including the association of objects with words and the transition from an egocentric focus to an awareness that events can have outside causes. At this stage, children begin to engage in make-believe games. Between the ages of 4 and 7, when their thinking is still dominated by intuition rather than logic, children first become interested in games characterized by rules, structure, and social interaction.
3. Next is the concrete operational stage (ages 7-11). In this stage children categorize activities and the earliest logical operations happen, and the types of rules controlling their play and the reasons for following the rules change. Children become focused on the social aspects of play.
4. Finally, the formal operational stage (ages 12 and up) comes the emergence of a mature ability to reason. Competitive games and games with codes of rules begin to predominate.

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In play-based learning, the teacher may pose questions occasionally that encourage problem solving, prediction, and hypothesizing in order to achieve a higher level of thinking. However, teachers should mainly observe and make sure that play is still child-led.

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                                                                                                                                           Theorists

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                                                                                                                                           Theorists

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Play should not feel like work. Play-based learning is process-oriented, meaning that there is no end-goal; the process of play itself is what's important.

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Children are naturally motivated to play. Play-based learning is voluntary, enjoyable, and unstructured.

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Play-based learning supports the development of children's social skills, language acquisition, understanding of concepts, problem solving skills, creativity, motor skills, motivation to learn, and more.

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Play based learning is an approach to early childhood education that involves child-led and open-ended play.

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                                                                                                                               What is Play-Based Learning?

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                                                                                                                               What is Play-Based Learning?