This article from the PALS group (Play and Learning Scholars Around the World) showcases a study where they invited 400 five- and seven-year-old children (and mothers) in five countries (Argentina, Denmark, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom and the United States) to share their views about play and learning.

Mothers in the five countries recognized that play and learning occur simultaneously, like a rope that is continually intertwining. But what do children think? Do they think that play and learning are separate or are they already thinking, like adults do — including the scientists behind this research — that play and learning co-exist?

 Many children experienced play and learning as distinct activities. Sometimes they also argued that learning was determined by their teachers, but that they controlled what happened during play.

Nonetheless, children across the five countries reported that the worlds of play and learning overlapped in various ways. In addition to learning rules, the children highlighted that playing requires the acquisition of skills. Some children not only understood that they need to learn rules and skills to play, they also recognized that play offered opportunities to learn new things about the world. Some children recognized the social nature of both play and learning. 

Children’s voices indicate that they appreciate the need to learn rules and new skills to play and that playing affords learning about the world around them – animals, numbers, and even how to accomplish the kind of learning they do in school, like math.

As a seven- year-old boy from Argentina said, “Playing and learning together … is more fun than learning alone.”