Michelle Kang: Let’ s start with the big picture. Why is play so important, especially for babies, toddlers, and young children? What is the science telling us?
Kathy Hirsh-Pasek: Here’ s the most amazing epiphany I came to after reading thousands of articles. The very characteristics that define how the human brain learns map directly onto the characteristics of how we define play. That’ s stunning. We learn best when we’ re active, not passive; when we’ re engaged, not distracted. We learn best when something’ s meaningful, not when it isn’ t. We learn best when it’ s socially interactive and we’ re learning with another person or teacher. We learn best when it’ s iterative and we learn it in multiple different ways, and we learn best when we’ re having fun. Then how come so much of school is passive and distracting and sometimes not meaningful? We could change all that, and it could be amazing to have joyful schools, joyful teaching, and deeper learning.
Michelle: What was the reaction when people first started understanding the research and making the connection between play and brain development?
Kathy: I think the most important thing to understand is that faster is not always better. Those who cook know that’ s true. Fast food is often not as good for you as the stuff that takes just a little more time. There’ s a wonderful study, by Arne Güllich and colleagues, that just came out in 2025. It asked the question,“ How do you get to be world class?” One way you might think you get to be world class is to start piano at age 3 or start soccer lessons at age 4 or 5. And you would think that if you did that, at the end of the day, we would have a better soccer player and a better musician. But that’ s not what the data tell us. What the data tell us is that children who meandered for a while and tried out a lot of stuff— yes, played a little bit— are the ones who figured out what they wanted to be. They turned out later to be the ones who were world class.
We’ ve tried putting children in academic environments when they’ re 3 and 4, thinking that by the time they get to kindergarten, they’ re going to be the ones who are smarter. It doesn’ t turn out that way. It turns out that in reading and math, you’ re not necessarily going to be able to tell when they’ re in kindergarten which child started early and which started a little bit late. That’ s a problem for that theory.
So families and teachers can take a breath and relax. When a child is playing with blocks, they’ re actually learning spatial terms: Above, in, on top of. Those predict out to later math skills. And when a child can tell you a good story, that predicts out to reading even better than mastering phonics when they’ re 4.
The very characteristics that define how the human brain learns map directly onto how we define play.
Michelle: That’ s such a great example. When I visit early learning programs, I have the opportunity to hear families who are touring a program for the first time. And especially if they’ re not understanding that play is how children learn, their questions often center on when the learning happens( because of a misunderstanding of what they see). Play is connected to not only literacy but also to children developing self-regulation and cognitive and social competencies. How does play support learning in those areas?
Kathy: Play is actually one of the best ways you can learn to have impulse control because you have to take turns. For example, a child goes outside, and Johnny’ s on the swing. The child really wants to use that swing but can’ t. So they
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