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Play helps children and adults connect with nature through place-thought walks, playing outdoors in a natural setting, interacting with animals and gardening. Biologically, humans thrive in natural settings. Through nature play, humans are able to connect with themselves and others by connecting with nature.

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Play helps children to regulate their emotions through observing other children’s behaviour, learning emotional vocabulary through regular communication with others, building empathy, understanding perspectives and releasing tension through heavy lifting/rough and tumble play. Play helps adults to regulate their emotions through being present in the moment and processing emotions creatively.

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Play helps children build and navigate relationships by learning social cues, understanding fairness and give and take, learning to share and take turns, understanding their own and others’ boundaries, developing listening and communication skills, developing conflict resolution and understanding teamwork. Play also helps adults to navigate relationships by creating fun and positive memories, developing trust through vulnerability and reducing stress.

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Play helps children learn about numeracy through measuring and comparing, number recognition and counting, building/constructing and estimating, turn-taking, sharing, arranging and sorting. Children learn literacy through reading stories with adults or alone, sharing ideas, letter recognition, music and song, writing their names, and fine motor skills that prepare them for writing. Adults learn literacy and numeracy through board games, artistic expression, reading and creative writing.

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Children can use technology as a tool to assist their play, such as taking photos on a camera, using digital drawing tablets, watching an educational video, learning a new skill from a course, learning to tell time with a digital/analogue watch, listening to music, building and constructing models and handling power tools. Adults can utilise technology in their play through gaming, digital art, fitness and exercise, follow cooking videos, and read e-books.

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Play helps children to problem-solve through trial and error, cause and effect, completing board games and puzzles, negotiation, teamwork and collaboration, practising a variety of risky play and playing games such as hide-and-seek. Play helps adults to problem-solve by lowering stress levels to think clearer.

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Children's confidence can be developed through risky play such as climbing trees, handling power tools, brick laying, rough-and-tumble play and hiking. This helps build children’s confidence by teaching them that they are capable. It gives them the opportunity to identify their own hazards, assess their own risk and give them a sense of responsibility. Risky play helps adults improve their personal growth and face fears.

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Play helps children learn about the world around them. One of the best ways is through spending time in nature. This teaches children cause and effect, living things around them, such as animals, insects and plants etc. They learn basic physics and ecological concepts, spatial awareness and geography. Play helps adults learn about the world around them through travelling to different countries and interacting with diverse communities.

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Children develop their gross motor skills through play by participating in sport games, running, climbing, jumping, doing activities that require balancing and crossing the midline. They can develop their fine motor skills through activities such as finger knitting, sewing, modelling clay, stacking, drawing, painting, and activities that encourage the pincer grip, such as using tweezers. Adults can develop their gross and fine motor skills through play with fitness activities, physical therapy and participating in the art of Eurythmy.

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Children develop their creativity and imagination through play by playing games that involve role-play, drama, creating Playworlds, having an imaginary friend, building with blocks or Legos, finger painting, telling stories, reading picture books and inventing their own games through free play. Play helps adults develop creativity and imagination by reading books, creating artworks, role-playing and improvisation.

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Belonging, being and becoming naturally develop through play. When children feel a sense of belonging to places and communities, they are free to ‘be’ fully immersed in the present moment, which helps to shape their becoming. Play helps children to belong by interacting with peers, with their only goal being to play. Through interacting with others, children’s identities are shaped, and they learn who they are as well as a multitude of things. Walker explains that play, in itself, is a pedagogy (EarlyLifeFoundations, 2013). So, when children are playing freely, they are in a constant state of learning. Play helps children ‘be’ through exploring their current interests. It helps children to ‘become’ through role-playing and overcoming challenges. Belonging is developed through shared experiences with others and an understanding of children’s place within the community and their family unit. As explained by Rymanowicz, play serves as children’s primary learning tool (Rymanowicz, 2015).

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Play can nurture childrens’ lives by being the catalyst for their learning and development. It can nurture adults’ lives by being the co-constructor of play for children, and in turn, having the satisfaction of contributing to children’s lives in a meaningful way. Singer explains that from a very early age, children rely on their teachers to create a supportive environment. They need adult interaction and guidance to be able to thrive, and support in encouraging peer play. Young children use play as a way to interact with their teachers and build a safe and secure world. Teachers can help enrich children’s lives by creating an environment that helps them feel safe and secure, create routines which help children anticipate events, so that children can develop their own agency and take initiative. Teachers support children by understanding that the world is overwhelming for young children, and that play helps them to navigate this (Singer, 2013).

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Play can be very critical for adults’ well-being. Brown explains that biologically, humans are designed to play at all stages of life, not solely childhood. He explains that when we stop playing as adults, there are negative effects on our lives, such as becoming rigid, moody, lacking a sense of humour, and being unable to adapt to situations, which are all essential in coping throughout life (Tippett, 2014). Lubbers et al also emphasise that play is a way for adults to cope with difficult situations, which in turn improves their wellbeing (Lubbers et al., 2023). It is therefore important for humans to never stop playing throughout their whole life cycle. There is also evidence to suggest that a lack of play in childhood can lead to psychopathy in adolescence, as well as severe mental health issues and disorders (Gray, 2011). This shows us how critical play is for human wellbeing.

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Play can not be subjected to just one thing or one way; it is versatile, spontaneous, and can be anything and everything. Rymanowicz (2015) discusses Parten’s six stages of play which demonstrate the progression of play, starting with unoccupied play, where toddlers randomly explore their environment to develop basic skills and self-regulation. This promotes solitary play, where children play alone while developing motor and cognitive capabilities. They then move on to onlooker play, where children observe others to understand social dynamics and discover new approaches to play. The progression continues with parallel play, where children engage in similar activities side-by-side without interaction as preparation for social play, leading to associative play when children become more interested in their playmates than the activity itself and start developing their social abilities. The final stage, cooperative play, involves the most complex skills as children work together toward shared objectives and create rules, though this advanced form of play typically includes some conflict as children practice sharing, turn-taking, and negotiation with guidance from adults to learn emotional regulation and conflict resolution (Rymanowicz, 2015).

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Teachers need to be aware of how essential play-based learning is for children. Research shows that play-based learning can improve children's communication and social skills, reinforce cognitive networks that support learning, improve overall wellness, and strengthen memory and organisation skills. Through free play, children learn to regulate their emotions and solve problems, as well as spark creativity and improve their ability to think critically (Mitchell Institute, 2019). It is also important for teachers to be aware of their role in facilitating and helping to construct children’s play, and this heavily involves critical reflection on one’s practice. Stonehouse urges the importance of following the planning cycle to inform practice, to ensure that all children are given an equal chance to learn. She explains that this may mean that teachers may need to change and improve their practice to fit the child’s specific needs or learning goals, which is challenging but essential (Department of Education, Victoria, 2016).