Creating Joyful Moments
Empower Growth
Supporting Parents, Developing Children
Our Vision
Play Learning Consultancy envisions a world where adults effectively guide children's learning through play. We champion play-based approaches, utilising engaging activities and thoughtfully designed environments to foster healthy development, independence, creative thinking, and problem-solving skills.
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With over 15 years of experience in nurseries, schools, babysitting, and nannying, we know firsthand how rewarding—but also how challenging—the parenting journey can be. That’s why we’re here: to guide and support you every step of the way.
Through personalised online support, an insightful blog, and our upcoming parenting courses, we offer practical tools and heartfelt strategies to help your little ones grow, thrive, and learn through play in a nurturing environment.
Brain Development
​​According to Best Start in Life (2024) Knowledge is sticky: children learn new things by making links with things they already know.
Children need to encounter and think about a new concept repeatedly to remember and learn it. Their learning is often urged on by their interests.
​As children think about their learning, or talk about it with another person, they deepen their understanding of new concepts.
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Language development is central to self-regulation: children use language to guide their actions and plans. Play gives many opportunities for children to focus their thinking, persist and plan ahead, think flexibly, regulate strong feelings and bounce back when things get difficult.
(Development Matters, 2023)
The Power of Play
The Five Types of Play
- Physical play: active exercise play, like jumping, climbing, dancing, skipping, bike riding and ball play,(...)and fine-motor practice, such as sewing, colouring, cutting, junk modelling and manipulating action and construction toys. (Whitebread, 2012, p.18)
- Play with objects: As young scientists, children explore the physical world through object play. Starting with sensory investigation in infancy, their interactions evolve to arranging, sorting, and by age four, constructive play, demonstrating a developing understanding of objects and their properties. (Whitebread, 2012)
- Symbolic play: (...) humans are uniquely equipped to use a wide variety of symbolic systems including spoken language, reading and writing, number, various visual media (painting, drawing, collage) music and so on. (Whitebread, 2012, p.21)
- Pretence/ socio-dramatic play: Engaging in high-quality pretend play significantly benefits children's cognitive, social, and academic abilities. Furthermore, the act of following character roles in sociodramatic play strongly promotes the development of self-restraint and self-regulation. (Whitebread, 2012)
- Games with rules: This encompasses a wide range of games, including physical (chasing, hide-and-seek) and intellectual (board games, sports). Beyond rule comprehension, their primary developmental benefit lies in their social nature, fostering essential skills like sharing, turn-taking, and understanding different perspectives during play with others. (Whitebread, 2012).
Holistic Play
What children learn through play:
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Builds confidence
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Develops exploration skills
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Enhances social relationships
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Encourages goal-setting and problem-solving
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Supports learning through self-directed play
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Benefits from guided play and learning with adults
Play is crucial for children's development as it:
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Promotes a sense of belonging
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Improves language skills
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Fosters independence and perseverance
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Develops emotional resilience and regulation
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Enhances cognitive skills
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Supports maths and literacy development
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Strengthens personal, social, and emotional skills
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Facilitates understanding of the world
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Develops gross and fine motor skills
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Encourages self-expression through various media
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Nurtures creativity and imagination
Overall, play is an essential part of children's lives, fostering holistic
development and contributing to their well-being.
(Department for Education, 2024)
According to the Department for Education (2024), daily outdoor play is crucial for children's health, development, and exploration, offering distinct advantages over indoor environments. It significantly improves physical abilities, cognitive growth, social skills, emotional well-being, nature connection, creativity, and focus.
The NHS (2025) advises that children under five should engage in at least 180 minutes of daily physical activity, including ample active and outdoor play.
Outdoor Play
Incorporating Loose Parts into play offers numerous advantages, including boosting creativity and imagination, supporting open-ended exploration, enhancing problem-solving skills, encouraging social interaction, and facilitating a connection with nature through versatile materials.
Loose Parts are defined as open-ended, versatile materials. Examples like rocks, sticks, fabric pieces, shells, cardboard boxes, buttons, and other materials that can be moved, combined, and transformed in countless ways (Hofmann & Becker, 2020).
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