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Child Development & Early Education vocabulary · Play and Learning

Play

Meaning in child development & early education, with examples

/pleɪ/nounCore term

In child development & early education, play means: Activity that children choose freely and enjoy for its own sake, such as building, pretending, running or exploring; it is seen as a key way young children learn.

In Turkish: oyun, oynama

How it is used

Usually uncountable as a noun: free play, outdoor play, role play. Professionals describe types of play and talk about observing, supporting and extending play. It is also a verb: children play with blocks or play together.

Example sentences

  1. We put out the water tray and watched how the children's play developed.

  2. Through play, children practise language, movement and getting along with others.

Common collocations

  • free play
  • role play
  • extend play
  • play-based learning
  • messy play
  • learning through playAn approach to early education in which children learn skills and ideas mainly by playing, exploring and experimenting, with adults supporting them.
  • pretend playPlay in which children imagine and act out situations, use one object to stand for another, or take on roles, such as feeding a doll or using a block as a phone.
  • child-initiated playPlay that a child chooses and leads, deciding what to play with, how and for how long, while adults watch and support only when needed.
  • parallel playPlay in which children play next to each other, often with similar toys, but mostly do not play together or join in each other's games.
  • outdoor playPlay that takes place outside, in a garden, playground, park or forest, giving children space to run, climb, dig and explore nature.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Play and Learning

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