The theme of International Day of Play 2024 is #Play for All: Inclusivity, Creativity, and Joy,  — a global call to celebrate the joy, creativity, and benefits of play in children’s development and overall well-being. This day underscores the importance of play in fostering physical, social, emotional, and cognitive growth among children and encourages communities worldwide to recognise and promote play as a fundamental human right for all 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 as we commemorate International Day of Play, project staff and some of our clients shared their perspectives on why it is critical to include play in learning to advance PlayMatters goal of holistic education for all children.

Please scroll below to view videos of their reflections.

Regional Team Video

Uganda PMC Video