The importance of play
Play is a fun activity that reaps serious rewards. It helps improve children’s social, emotional, physical and cognitive development.
A review of scientific evidence of the benefits of play showed that it contributes to verbalisation, vocabulary, language comprehension, attention span, imagination, concentration, impulse control, curiosity, problem-solving strategies, cooperation, empathy, and group participation.
The importance of play for a child’s development is considered so great it has been recognised by the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights as a basic right of every child.
Still, children are now engaging in much less play with other children. This is believed to be due to a range of factors, such as demographic changes in family structures, an increased focus on literacy and numeracy, an increase in passive entertainment, as well as the perception of a lack of safe outdoor areas for children to play.
Playgroups
Playgroups are important as they provide a safe, low-cost environment where similar-aged children can mix, and allow parents to focus on their development.
Playgroups also have the added benefit of having a range of positive effects on parents and caregivers, which are likely to translate into better outcomes for the child. For instance, parents attending playgroup with their children report reduced social isolation, improved parenting skills and self-confidence, increased knowledge of relevant community services, and a greater awareness of their child’s needs.
And nationally, only 36% of children attend playgroups prior to starting school. This is despite research findings demonstrating that playgroup is universally beneficial to all children from a range of different backgrounds
For more information about playgroups
- Visit Playgroup Australia
- Download the Playgroup Australia Report [PDF]
Our research impact
Our researchers were engaged by Playgroup Australia to undertake a comprehensive quantitative and qualitative evaluation of Community Playgroups across Australia in order to examine the role of playgroup in the lives of Australian families, and how this might impact on a child’s early development.
They discovered that:
- Children who attend playgroups during early childhood have significantly better child development when they start school. The benefits of playgroup are seen across all domains of child development: physical, social, emotional, language and cognitive development, and communication.
- Those who do not attend playgroups are 1.78 times more likely to be developmentally vulnerable on one or more domains of the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) at school entry, after adjusting for socio-economic and demographic differences.
Identified issues that need to be addressed included:
- Boys, Indigenous children and children with a language background other than English are less likely to attend playgroups.
- Attendance increases incrementally for children living in less socio-economically disadvantaged communities - from 26% in the most disadvantaged communities to 44% in the least disadvantaged communities.
Our researchers have now replicated this research using the more recent 2015 AEDC data and confirmed that the same patterns of improved child development for children who attend playgroups also exist in a more recent cohort of children.
