Types of Play | EYFS

EYFS definition

Types of play are descriptions of the different ways children explore, imagine, move and interact while playing. In the EYFS, these terms can help practitioners discuss experiences and provision, although there is no single classification used by every educational approach.

Common descriptions of play

  • Exploratory or sensory play: investigating properties, actions and effects.
  • Constructive play: making or arranging something, such as a shelter or model.
  • Pretend or imaginative play: using objects, actions and roles to represent ideas.
  • Physical play: exploring movement and bodily skills.
  • Games with rules: playing within agreed patterns, turns or shared rules.

These descriptions overlap. Children making a pretend café might build a counter, explore materials, take roles and invent a turn-taking game within one experience.

Playing alone, alongside or together

Other labels describe the social arrangement. Solitary play means playing independently; parallel play means playing alongside others without organising a shared activity; cooperative play involves working on a shared play idea.

Children can move between these arrangements according to their interests, confidence and circumstances. The labels need not be treated as a fixed ladder that makes one form of play more valuable than another.

How might the terms help practitioners?

They can support reflection on the experiences children can access and the support that may help them participate. A child’s play does not need to fit neatly into one box.

Child-led, guided and adult-led describe a different dimension: how the experience is directed. They can occur within several forms of play.

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