The theme for this year’s International Day of Play is “Choose Play – Everyday”. The theme is a reminder for all of us – governments, businesses, schools and families – to take decisions that embrace and prioritize play for children. 

Evidence Shows that:

• Play is one of the most important ways in which children gain essential knowledge and skills.
• And that, children can deepen their learning when their play is joyful, iterative, meaningful, actively engaging, and socially interactive.
• Additionally, Research shows that children need to develop a breadth of skills that goes far beyond memorizing academic content: their physical, social, emotional, cognitive, and creative skills must also be nurtured concurrently.
• Development in one skill influences development in another, and children who are actively learning through play can develop multiple skills simultaneously these different skills and aspects of development are not silos.

This year, PlayMatters will commemorate the IDOP by launching the Learning through Play library on the website. The library is a collection of publicly-available, evidence-based resources that anyone can download and adapt for any context. Log in to access these materials here in the LtP library.