The wonders of play

Four-year old Sheuly (not real name) and her friends are having a field day today: wherever they look, they find new toys to play with! Today is the day everyone gathers in the BRAC Play Labs for the material development workshop, and the little ones are enjoying every minute of it. Sheuly sees her mother sitting with other neighborhood women making toys, some with clay, some with cloth, and some crafting their hearts out with paper. Later, these toys will be used as part of the BRAC Play Lab curriculum so that children like Sheuly can learn and grow through play.

From the moment they are born, through play children learn about the world around them. They touch, see, smell and hear the world and use their senses to understand and explore their surroundings. Play is the medium with which they engage with other living beings and their surrounding environment. At BRAC Institute of Educational Development (BRAC IED), we have explored the ways in which play is ever present in our own childcare practices, and we have built on this knowledge to promote early childhood development practices that focus on unlocking the skills and capabilities of children. Through our work, we have attempted to boost children’s learning, and well-being and give them the skills to be well-rounded individuals and adults who are capable of taking on the world.

Different skills are developed in children through different types of play. Through jumping, running, climbing, dancing, lifting, and local games such as chhuwa-chhuwi (tag) and borof-pani (freeze), they develop their gross motor skills. Their fine motor skills, which is their ability to use their smaller muscles such as fingers and toes, are developed through painting, grasping objects, etc. Play that involves engaging with other children, teachers, parents and so on, helps children develop their social skills, and teaches them sharing, negotiation, conflict resolution, and collaboration. Play also helps children develop their emotional intelligence; children develop empathy for people and for other living beings and learn to handle complex emotions and how to build relationships.

Through games, children develop their cognitive skills: they learn to reason, think logically, develop their memories, and concentrate. They also develop their language skills through games, and as a result, are able to understand others and communicate clearly. Finally, play fosters children’s imaginations and helps them identify their unique interests, which they learn to express creatively.

We, as adults, have a crucial role to play in children’s growth: to build a playful world for a child, we, too, need to be playful and engaging, and it falls on us to ensure that our children are in a safe, stimulating, and welcoming environment where they can play with safe, easily available materials. We need to rethink our notions about play and engage with its wonders instead.

BRAC IED has developed, through trial and testing, a play-based, child-led curriculum for children in their early years. We implement this curriculum in the BRAC Play Lab - a low-cost model - that is spread across low-resource settings in urban Dhaka, and some parts of rural Bangladesh. Some aspects of this model have also been added to primary schools. A salient feature of our work in the BRAC Play Labs is that we collaborate with communities to explore community wisdom and identify play practices, which we add to our play spaces and curriculum. We do not focus on the children alone; we bring families and communities together to take part in their children's play, making them a part of our work. Local play materials made with recyclable items are used to actively engage children in their early years, thereby contextualizing our model with the surrounding culture. The structure of these play spaces is also designed with the help and guidance of local communities, who also come together to select the facilitator of the BRAC Play Labs from amongst themselves. We believe in taking grounded approaches and making the community a part of our work.  In our Material Development Workshops, mothers, fathers, grandparents, and older siblings come together to make toys and decoration materials for the BRAC Play Labs. Each workshop turns out to be a joyous festival, not just for the children but for their families and communities as well!

Throughout our journey, we have collaborated with the LEGO Foundation, and this year, to celebrate their 90th anniversary and BRAC’s 50th, we have launched a series of celebratory events that centre around play! As part of the aptly titled ‘Build a World of Play’ celebrations, we have held 100 Material Development Workshops throughout the country, in urban and rural regions as well as the humanitarian camps of Cox’s Bazar.

All children have a right to play, and to uphold this playful spirit, we have taken a pledge to ensure each of us makes an effort to make more moments out of each week playful. Will you, too, take the Play Pledge with us by putting more play into your day?

* Syeda Sazia Zaman is Programme Head at BRAC Institute of Educational Development (BRAC IED)