Planning for Play in Early Childhood Classrooms

Despite evidence that play supports learning and development across a range of domains in early childhood, play time has been decreasing for many young children in recent years. Early care and education (ECE) teachers are in a unique position to promote developmentally appropriate play as a way to help young children learn, and ECE teachers’ ability to do so is recognized as a critical skill by several leading professional organizations, including the Council for Professional Development and the National Association for the Education of Young Children. This study examined how ECE teachers planned to use different types of play – ranging from child-led to teacher-led – to support young children’s learning and development across nine different learning domains. Our findings revealed that while ECE teachers do plan to use developmentally appropriate play, they may need additional professional development support on how to use multiple forms of play to teach across the learning domains.