The “5 W’s” of Guided Play: Research-backed tips for supporting your child's play
By Katelyn Fletcher, Charlotte Wright, & Ally Masters
Educators and academics are uncovering the many benefits of play for children’s learning. Play is essential for children to learn the skills needed for success inside and outside of school. But not all play is made equally— a special kind of play called guided play has a number of important benefits. Luckily, play can easily be turned into guided play by following a few simple principles. We break down the who, what, where, when, and why of guided play:
Who participates in guided play?
During guided play, adults initiate an activity and then the child takes the lead. Adults act as a “guide on the side” by supporting (or scaffolding) play. Parents can set up the environment and use open-ended questions and prompts to guide their child toward a learning goal, while their child directs their own experience (Weisberg, Hirsh-Pasek et al., 2016; Zosh et al., 2018). Guided play is like bowling with bumpers: the child has structured freedom within the experience. Critically, adults do not tell a child what to do or direct them towards the “right answer” during guided play, but rather adults encourage the child to explore further and find their own solutions.
What does guided play look like?
Play that is socially interactive, joyful, iterative (meaning it is different each time), active, engaged, and meaningful creates the best conditions for learning (Toub et al., 2016). Infusing these key characteristics helps promote children’s learning and transforms it into guided play. This can look like labeling objects and their properties (color, size shape) while an infant touches them (Tamis-Lemonda, Kuchirko & Tafuro, 2013) or placing blocks of different shapes in a 4-year-old’s bin after they’ve mastered building with cubes (Weisburg et al., 2014). At older ages, supporting guided play might look like asking “What have you tried so far?” and “What did you notice when you tried that?” when they get frustrated as they try to build a “super fast” ramp for their toy car (Vandermaas-Peeler, Mischka & Sands, 2019).
When and where does guided play take place?
Guided play can happen anytime and anywhere! Supporting a child’s play doesn’t require purchasing the latest toy or downloading the educational app everyone seems to be talking about. It’s not something extra to put on parents’ already overflowing plates! Rather, science tells us that normal, everyday moments that parents share with their children are ripe with opportunities to engage in guided play (Neuman, Portillo & Celano, 2020; Ridge et al., 2015; Hassinger-Das et al., 2020). Riding the bus? Search for different shapes on the road signs you pass or count how many people get on and off. Doing laundry? Sort clothes by color or shape or race to match pairs of socks. Normal routines can be enriched to include social connection, joy, and learning for children.
Why make time for guided play?
There are so many reasons to play - but it’s most important to remember to have fun! Studies find that play reduces stress for both children and parents and promotes a positive parent-child bond (LEGO, 2012; Weisleder et al., 2019). Not only is guided play fun, it also develops the transferable skills - collaboration, communication, content, critical thinking, creative innovation, and confidence (termed the 6Cs by Golinkoff & Hirsh-Pasek, 2016) - that researchers, educators, and employers say are crucial for success in our complex and dynamic world (Golinkoff & Hirsh-Pasek, 2016; Hirsh-Pasek et al., 2020; Darling-Hammond et al., 2020; Davis, 2020).
Children thrive when they have lots of opportunities to play. Parents can support children’s initiative to play and guide it towards a learning goal by promoting active, engaged, meaningful, iterative learning. Most importantly, guided play is widely applicable and accessible because it is an approach to play that transforms everyday playful moments into learning experiences (Hassinger-Das, Hirsh-Pasek & Golinkoff, 2017). By expanding our understanding of play and our ability to enact play in the service of learning, across multiple settings, we are helping to set up our children’s brains and bodies for lifelong learning.
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