Brain Builders: The Power of Playful Problem Solving

Brain Builders: How to Develop Problem-Solving Skills for Children Through Playful Learning

Playful problem solving is the practice of designing games, open-ended activities, and guided play that invite children to explore, test ideas, and reflect on outcomes, building the cognitive scaffolding that supports critical thinking and resilience. This article explains how learning through play accelerates executive function, memory, and social-emotional skills while giving parents and educators concrete activities to use with toddlers through kindergarten. Many caregivers struggle to translate play into measurable learning goals; this guide bridges theory and practice with step-by-step examples, age-appropriate progressions, and tools that make implementation practical. You will learn the key benefits of play-based learning, critical-thinking activities for preschoolers, a catalog of hands-on problem-solving games, curriculum design strategies for home and school, common parental challenges and solutions, long-term research linking early play to academic and career outcomes, and resources to scale playful learning. The article integrates evidence-based mechanisms and offers actionable lists, EAV tables, and implementation templates so teachers and parents can start improving problem solving for kids immediately. Throughout, the focus remains on practical learning through play while offering options for organizations that want implementation support and operational efficiency.

What Are the Key Benefits of Play-Based Learning for Child Development?

Play-based learning improves multiple developmental domains by combining exploration, social interaction, and physical manipulation to produce measurable gains in cognition, self-regulation, and motor skills. The mechanism is simple: when children face a playful challenge, they must plan, test, adjust, and reflect, which strengthens executive function and reasoning. As a result, play translates into improved attention, collaboration, and physical coordination that carry into classroom learning. The next paragraphs break down cognitive, social-emotional, and physical benefits and give concrete examples to make those domains actionable for caregivers and educators.

Play supports child development in several distinct ways:

• Cognitive benefits: builds working memory, attention, and planning through sequencing tasks.
• Social-emotional benefits: encourages empathy, negotiation, and emotional regulation via role-play.
• Physical benefits: develops fine and gross motor control through construction and movement play.

These three benefit types interact: stronger executive function helps children manage emotions during cooperative play, which in turn supports deeper cognitive engagement.

Different developmental domains map to specific outcomes and sample activities in the table below so caregivers can choose targeted play experiences.

Summarizing across domains clarifies how a single play activity can produce multiple benefits, and the examples above illustrate how to design play tasks with measurable outcomes. Understanding these domain mappings makes it easier to evaluate progress and choose activities that support specific learning goals, which leads into how play specifically enhances cognitive development in children.

How Does Play Enhance Cognitive Development in Children?

Play enhances cognitive development by providing repeated, low-stakes opportunities for children to practice executive functions—working memory, inhibitory control, and cognitive flexibility—through exploration and experimentation. When a child builds, tests, and revises a block structure, they engage in planning and error correction that map directly to problem solving for kids. Recent research and classroom observations show that guided play tasks that include reflection prompts speed transfer of skills to novel problems. Try short memory games and pattern-building activities that require children to hold sequences in mind; these exercises strengthen attention and sequencing, which support later academic skills such as reading comprehension and math reasoning.

Children who repeatedly practice planning and revision during play become more comfortable with challenge and uncertainty, and that comfort encourages persistence during harder tasks. This prepares the child for classroom tasks that require multi-step reasoning and sustained attention. The next section examines the social and emotional skills children gain through play, which often complement cognitive gains.

What Social and Emotional Skills Do Children Gain Through Play?

Play fosters social-emotional development by creating situations where children negotiate roles, share goals, and respond to peers’ perspectives, building empathy and communication skills. Cooperative games and dramatic play require children to read social cues, take turns, and regulate impulses—skills essential for collaborative problem solving. Caregivers can scaffold these interactions by modeling emotion language and asking reflective questions like “How did that choice affect your friend?” which helps children name feelings and consider alternatives. Short role-play scenarios and cooperative puzzles provide safe contexts for children to practice conflict resolution and perspective-taking.

Scaffolding during these moments—offering prompts and reframing conflicts—helps children internalize self-regulation strategies they can apply independently later. As children master social routines in play, they are better equipped to engage in group learning contexts and peer problem solving. This naturally leads to examining how play also supports physical development and motor skills.

How Does Play Support Physical Development and Motor Skills?

Play supports physical development by pairing goal-directed movement with problem solving, so children refine fine motor control and gross motor coordination while completing meaningful tasks. Construction play, bead-stringing, and manipulative puzzles improve hand-eye coordination and dexterity, whereas obstacle courses and ball games develop balance and spatial awareness. Materials can be simple—cardboard, blocks, rope—and activities can be scaffolded to increase precision or complexity as motor control improves. Short, repeated play sessions that require controlled movements give children practice in planning sequences of actions and adjusting motor output to achieve a goal.

As motor skills improve, children gain confidence to attempt more complex tasks that combine physical and cognitive demands, such as measuring and building on a larger scale. With motor competence supporting exploration, kids can engage in richer problem-solving activities that merge movement and thought, which leads us to specific critical thinking activities for preschoolers.

How Can Critical Thinking Activities Foster Problem Solving in Preschoolers?

Critical thinking activities foster problem solving in preschoolers by creating structured opportunities to make predictions, test hypotheses, and reflect on results, which builds analytical habits early. These activities work because they pair curiosity-driven inquiry with adult scaffolding that nudges children to explain reasoning and consider alternatives. Short, routine activities that cycle through prediction → test → observe → reflect produce measurable gains in reasoning and decision-making. The following list provides simple activity frameworks that educators and parents can use immediately to target analytical skills in young children.

1. Prediction walks: children predict what they will find, collect items, then compare outcomes.
2. Sink/float experiments: children form hypotheses and test objects, recording results.
3. Pattern puzzles: children predict the next item and explain their reasoning.

Using predictable scaffolds—ask, "What do you think will happen?" and "Why?"—helps children learn the habit of evidence-based explanation. The next paragraphs describe effective games and how to scaffold curiosity and open-ended questioning for toddlers.

What Are Effective Critical Thinking Games for Preschoolers?

Effective critical thinking games for preschoolers ask children to predict, test, compare, and reflect in short cycles that fit limited attention spans. Games like mystery bag guessing, simple sorting challenges, and comparative observation tasks encourage children to form hypotheses and revise them after testing. Set up a brief experiment area with 4–6 objects and ask children to sort by properties, then change a rule and prompt them to notice differences; this builds flexible categorization skills. Keep rounds short—five to ten minutes—and use concrete language to help children articulate reasoning.

Scaffolding these games with age-appropriate prompts increases analytical depth: ask "How do you know?" or "What would change if...?" to move from description to explanation. Repeated exposure to these routines trains children to approach problems methodically, which prepares them for more complex problem-solving activities described later.

How Does Encouraging Curiosity Improve Analytical Skills in Toddlers?

Encouraging curiosity in toddlers improves analytical skills by turning everyday exploration into structured discovery that prompts hypothesis testing and focused observation. Low-prep activities like sensory bins, exploratory walks, and simple cause-and-effect stations invite toddlers to notice patterns and outcomes while caregivers model inquiry through questions and observations. Use prompts such as "What happens when we add water?" or "Can you find something that is rough?" to guide attention and foster verbalization of observations. These routines strengthen vocabulary and descriptive ability, both of which support later reasoning.

By consistently following exploration with brief reflection—asking the child to describe what changed—caregivers help toddlers link actions to outcomes and build early scientific thinking habits. This connection to questioning naturally leads into the role open-ended questions play in developing critical thinking.

What Role Do Open-Ended Questions Play in Developing Critical Thinking?

Open-ended questions stimulate reasoning and language by requiring children to construct explanations, consider alternatives, and practice narrative sequencing rather than giving yes/no answers. Asking questions like "What could we try next?" or "How did that solution work?" prompts children to articulate strategy and reflect on outcomes, which strengthens metacognition. Provide age-tiered prompt examples: for toddlers use "What did you notice?" and for preschoolers use "Why do you think that happened?" to push thinking deeper. These question patterns create a culture of inquiry where children learn to test ideas and communicate reasoning clearly.

Consistent use of open-ended prompts during play makes reflective thinking habitual, and that habit is a cornerstone of developing independent problem solving. The next section catalogs hands-on activities and games that explicitly build these skills across age bands.

What Are the Best Problem-Solving Activities and Games for Kids?

The best problem-solving activities and games combine hands-on manipulation, imaginative challenges, and puzzles that scale with age to build planning, flexible thinking, and perseverance. Activities grouped into construction, creative challenges, and puzzles each target different cognitive processes—spatial reasoning, divergent thinking, and logical sequencing respectively. Below are top activity types presented as a quick reference for selecting age-appropriate options and scaffolds.

1. Construction challenges (blocks, loose parts): build-to-plan and collaborative builds.
2. Creative repurposing tasks: invent a tool from recyclables to solve a problem.
3. Puzzle sequences: pattern and logic puzzles that increase difficulty progressively.

These activity categories give caregivers a clear menu of entry points depending on child interest and developmental goals. The EAV table below helps educators pick specific activities by age, skill targeted, and materials/time required.

This table provides a quick way to match activities to goals and logistics so adults can select feasible options during routine scheduling. The following subsections offer step-by-step setups and scaffolding levels for each activity type.

Which Hands-On Problem-Solving Games Boost Cognitive Skills?

Hands-on games like stepwise building challenges and tool-making tasks boost planning and sequencing by forcing children to anticipate and adapt to constraints. For a block tower challenge, provide a simple brief (e.g., "build a bridge that spans two chairs") and allow trial-and-error; encourage children to explain design choices to practice reasoning. Scaffolding can move from full adult modeling to independent trials as skill grows, with prompts that focus on prediction and testing. Short reflection at the end—what worked and why—reinforces transfer of planning skills to new tasks.

Gradually increase complexity by adding restrictions (time, materials) or collaborative requirements to develop social problem solving alongside cognition. This approach builds not only spatial reasoning but also metacognitive awareness of planning strategies.

How Do Creative Challenges Encourage Flexible Thinking in Children?

Creative challenges—like inventing a tool from loose parts or telling alternative endings to stories—encourage divergent thinking and flexible problem solving by rewarding multiple viable solutions rather than a single correct answer. Present a clear constraint (e.g., "make something that can carry a marble across the room") and let children prototype and iterate; celebrate novel approaches to reinforce exploration. Use assessment cues such as the number of distinct solutions offered and the child's willingness to revise ideas to gauge flexible thinking growth. These tasks develop cognitive flexibility, an essential component of creative problem solving and later academic innovation.

As children become comfortable with open-ended tasks, they transfer flexible thinking to tasks with more defined parameters, improving adaptability in both play and structured learning contexts.

What Age-Appropriate Puzzles and Brain Teasers Help Build Problem-Solving?

Selecting puzzles that progress in complexity helps children build confidence while developing logic and pattern recognition; start with shape sorters for toddlers, move to sequencing puzzles for preschoolers, and introduce simple logic puzzles as children approach kindergarten. Match attention span expectations—short puzzles for younger children and multi-step ones for older preschoolers—and scaffold difficulty by reducing hints over time. Timing expectations help set realistic goals: 5–10 minutes for toddlers, 10–20 for preschoolers, and 15–30 for older children. Incremental increases in puzzle complexity promote persistence and independent problem-solving without overwhelming a child.

Use observation checklists to document when a child shifts from guessing to strategic approaches, as that marks a meaningful cognitive advance. These assessments inform lesson adjustments and next-step activity choices.

How Can Parents and Educators Implement Play-Based Learning at Home and School?

Implementing play-based learning requires intentional design of space, routine, and assessment so playful activities align with learning objectives and are scalable across classrooms and families. The mechanism is curriculum alignment: define learning goals, choose activities that target those goals, embed brief formative assessment, and reflect to iterate. Doing this systematically turns incidental play into measurable learning moments that support problem solving for kids. The steps below outline a practical framework any educator or parent can adopt.

1. Define objectives: list 2–3 skills to target each week and link them to activities.
2. Design activities: choose construction, creative, or puzzle tasks aligned with objectives.
3. Assess: use simple observation checklists or quick child reflections to gauge progress.
4. Reflect & Iterate: adjust materials, scaffolds, or time blocks based on assessment.

Following this four-step routine makes play-based learning predictable and measurable for adults and engaging and iterative for children. The next subsections provide a sample weekly plan, home strategies, and teacher facilitation methods to operationalize this framework.

What Are Key Strategies for Designing a Play-Based Curriculum?

A simple four-step framework—objectives → activities → assessment → reflection—keeps play curriculum focused and adaptable to different age bands and settings. Begin each week by identifying 2–3 specific targets (e.g., sequencing, turn-taking), select 3–4 activities that map to those targets, plan quick formative assessments, and schedule reflection time with staff or caregivers to refine the plan. Sample weekly plans can mix guided play stations, free-play blocks, and short group debriefs to balance exploration and intentional teaching. Clear learning goals and brief, consistent assessment make it possible to demonstrate progress to administrators and families.

Embedding routine reflection ensures activities remain responsive to child development and classroom logistics, which supports program reliability and continuous improvement. Now consider how parents can support these strategies at home with low-cost materials and simple prompts.

How Can Parents Support Early Childhood Problem Solving Through Play?

Parents can support problem solving through daily routines that incorporate short, scaffolded play tasks using low-cost materials like cardboard, kitchen items, and printable cards. Introduce micro-challenges—build a bridge for a toy car, sort utensils by size—and use open-ended prompts that encourage explanation: "How did you decide to do that?" and "What would you change next time?" Short sessions of 10–20 minutes fit typical family schedules and build cumulative skill. Consistent language and modeling from caregivers help children internalize strategies like planning, testing, and adjusting.

Documenting small wins and sharing observations with teachers creates continuity between home and school, reinforcing learning across contexts and making progress visible to both caregivers and educators. The next subsection outlines classroom teaching methods that support playful problem solving.

What Teaching Methods Help Educators Foster Playful Problem Solving?

Effective teaching methods include guided play, inquiry-based learning, scaffolding, and formative assessment that align with playful goals and preserve child agency while focusing learning outcomes. Teachers can rotate between demonstration, supported exploration, and independent challenge, using short observational notes to track progress on target skills. Formative assessment in play can be as simple as a checklist noting instances of planning or perspective-taking during activities, which informs subsequent scaffolds. Explicit reflection periods where children explain choices consolidate learning and transfer strategies to new problems.

Integrating these methods into daily schedules supports both child-led discovery and teacher-directed learning objectives, improving learning outcomes and classroom efficiency. For organizations seeking operational support to scale such programs—professional training, curriculum rollout, or efficiency-focused implementation—consultation and demo options are available to help align play-based curricula with institutional goals and profit-protection strategies. These services can assist with staff training, lesson-plan bundling, and evaluation frameworks to ensure reliable implementation across classrooms.

What Challenges Do Parents Face When Teaching Problem Solving Through Play?

Parents commonly face time constraints, screen dependency, and difficulty motivating reluctant children when trying to teach problem solving through play; addressing these requires simple systems that reduce friction and foster intrinsic engagement. Practical solutions include scheduling short, consistent play windows, providing enticing low-prep materials, and using interest-based prompts to spark motivation. Managing these challenges systematically prevents well-intentioned activities from becoming sporadic and ineffective. The following list outlines common obstacles and solution strategies.

• Time pressure: schedule two 15-minute play windows per day and treat them as non-negotiable learning slots.
• Screen reliance: replace one passive screen session with a structured activity that mirrors a favorite digital theme.
• Low motivation: link play tasks to child interests and use choice to increase engagement.

Pairing predictable routines with materials that are easy to set up reduces adult burden and increases consistency. The next sections address screen time management, motivating reluctant children, and balancing structure with free play.

How Can Screen Time Be Managed to Encourage Independent Play?

Managing screen time to promote independent play works best when caregivers audit usage, set clear limits, and replace passive screen periods with active alternatives that scaffold independence. Start with a simple five-step plan: audit current screen use, set realistic limits, introduce one replacement activity, practice short independent play periods, and reinforce progress with specific praise. Replacement activities should be low-prep and tied to a child’s interests to increase uptake—sensory bins, block challenges, or printable puzzles work well. Gradually increase independent play durations while maintaining predictability through visual schedules.

Positive reinforcement for sustained independent play—focused praise that references problem-solving behaviors—builds intrinsic motivation without relying on rewards. These strategies reduce reliance on screens while strengthening the child’s capacity for self-directed exploration and problem solving.

What Are Tips for Motivating Reluctant or Distracted Children?

Motivating reluctant or distracted children requires tailoring tasks to their interests, breaking challenges into tiny, achievable steps, and using non-contingent encouragement to sustain effort. Offer two to three short choices to give autonomy, use small-step goals that guarantee early success, and keep sessions brief to match attention spans. Interest-based scaffolds—linking a puzzle to a favorite character or theme—increase engagement without adding extrinsic rewards. Observing what captures a child's attention and embedding those elements into problem-solving tasks often yields quick buy-in.

Documenting incremental progress and celebrating strategy use rather than outcomes reinforces persistence and curiosity, which are critical for developing resilient problem solvers. The next subsection recommends time ratios for structured versus free play to optimize learning.

How Can Parents Balance Structured and Free Play for Optimal Learning?

Balancing structured and free play benefits learning by combining focused skill practice with open-ended exploration that fosters creativity and autonomy. A practical daily ratio is to offer roughly 40% guided or structured play and 60% free, child-led play, adjusted for age and classroom demands. Structured blocks target specific skills like sequencing or turn-taking, while free play allows children to synthesize those skills in novel ways. Transition prompts that connect structured tasks to free-play opportunities—such as "Now use your new bridge-building idea in your block corner"—help children transfer strategies.

This balance ensures systematic skill development while preserving the intrinsic motivation and imaginative capacity that make play a powerful engine of problem solving. With practical routines in place, educators and parents can focus on long-term impacts of early playful learning.

Why Is Early Childhood Play-Based Learning Critical for Lifelong Success?

Early play-based learning lays foundational cognitive and socio-emotional building blocks that predict later academic performance and workforce-relevant skills by strengthening executive function, collaboration, and creative problem solving. These early skills scaffold later abilities such as complex reasoning, self-regulation in classrooms, and adaptive teamwork in adult contexts. Longitudinal studies and expert syntheses indicate that early gains in executive function correlate with better math and reading outcomes and with higher rates of persistence in challenging tasks. The next subsections map these pathways more specifically and summarize key research evidence.

How Do Early Problem-Solving Skills Influence Academic Performance?

Early problem-solving skills influence academic performance by improving children’s capacity to focus, follow multi-step instructions, and apply logical reasoning—behaviors directly tied to success in reading and math. Executive function practice through play supports classroom behaviors like sustained attention and task switching, which facilitate comprehension and problem-solving in academic tasks. Studies tracking children over time show that those with stronger self-regulation and planning abilities in preschool are more likely to exhibit higher achievement in elementary years. Assessing classroom behaviors and early skill markers helps educators tailor instruction to reinforce these foundational competencies.

Translating play-based assessments into classroom interventions improves readiness and narrows gaps before formal schooling begins. This connection between early skills and later success also underpins how playful learning maps to workplace traits.

What Is the Link Between Playful Learning and Future Career Readiness?

Playful learning cultivates traits employers value—creativity, collaboration, resilience, and adaptive problem solving—by giving children repeated practice in ideation, negotiation, and iterative testing from a young age. Tasks that reward multiple solutions and team collaboration foster comfort with ambiguity and the capacity to co-create solutions, which are critical in modern work environments. Employers consistently cite creativity and teamwork among top competencies; play-based early learning plants the seeds for these capabilities. An illustrative case is when collaborative block projects build both planning skills and social negotiation strategies, mirroring many workplace problem-solving scenarios.

Helping children develop these traits early increases the likelihood they will apply flexible thinking and cooperative problem solving in academic and career settings later on. The following subsection highlights the research base supporting play-based approaches.

What Research Supports the Importance of Play in Early Development?

Current research and authoritative organizations underscore play as a central mechanism for early learning: the Harvard Center for the Developing Child emphasizes that early experiences shape neural circuits for learning, NAEYC advocates play-based pedagogy for early childhood settings, and multiple longitudinal studies link early executive function to later academic achievement. Peer-reviewed interventions show that guided play increases transfer of skills compared with free play alone, and observational research documents improvements in social competence following structured cooperative play. Taken together, these sources indicate a robust evidence base for integrating play into early curricula and family routines.

Understanding this evidence helps practitioners design programs that translate playful activities into measurable outcomes and supports the case for institutional investment in play-based programming. For organizations looking to scale play-based programs and protect operational efficiency, expert consultation and demo options are available to help align curriculum, staff training, and evaluation processes with program goals.

What Resources and Tools Enhance Playful Problem Solving for Children?

A mix of toys, printables, and short instructional videos enhances playful problem solving by providing materials and scaffolds that support repeated practice, assessment, and scaling across settings. Selecting resources that are open-ended, durable, and adaptable to multiple age bands maximizes value and learning impact. The table below compares resource types, their best-use cases, and practical notes to help educators and parents choose tools that fit budgets and learning objectives.

These resource comparisons make it easy to match materials to learning targets and logistical constraints so programs can be both effective and practical. The next subsections describe toy selection, printable uses, and video guidelines in more detail.

Which Educational Toys Best Promote Problem-Solving Skills?

Educational toys that promote problem solving are open-ended, encourage iteration, and offer multiple levels of challenge—examples include construction sets, simple STEM kits (non-branded), and progressive puzzles. When choosing toys, prioritize items that can be reused in varied scenarios and that invite collaboration, such as loose parts for building or modular pieces for sequencing. For toddlers, select larger pieces that support fine motor development; for preschoolers, include sets that encourage planning and engineering thinking. Rotate materials regularly to maintain novelty and challenge.

A focus on adaptability and multi-use value increases the longevity of toys and supports continuous skill progression across developmental stages. After evaluating materials, practitioners often pair them with printables and videos to create cohesive learning modules.

How Can Downloadable Printables and Activity Sheets Support Learning?

Downloadable printables—mazes, sequencing cards, challenge prompts—support learning by providing consistent, reproducible scaffolds for short practice sessions and formative assessment. Use printables for quick tabletop activities, to create challenges that align with weekly objectives, and to document progress through simple checklists. Printables work well as station prompts: pair a card with a tactile material and a reflective question to close the learning loop. Keep printables visually simple and age-appropriate, and laminate frequently used sheets to extend durability.

When used alongside manipulatives and brief modeling, printables help translate one-off play experiences into a sequence of scaffolded lessons that reinforce targeted skills.

What Role Do Videos and Visual Aids Play in Teaching Problem Solving?

Short, focused videos and visual aids model problem-solving strategies and provide a consistent example that children can revisit, but they should be used as a brief modeling tool followed by active, hands-on practice. Select videos under three minutes that clearly show the process—predict, test, reflect—and pair each with guided activities that require children to try the modeled strategy. Visual scaffolds like simple flowcharts and pictorial prompts support independent sequencing for younger children. Use videos sparingly and always debrief afterward to convert passive observation into active practice.

Used this way, videos accelerate learning by providing clear exemplars while preserving the experiential learning that comes from hands-on testing and iteration. For institutions seeking tools, training, or implementation support, consultations and demos can help evaluate resource bundles and set up scalable play-based systems that protect operational efficiency and program outcomes.

Structured Play Enhances Executive Function Skills in Preschoolers

Overall, the data supported active engagement through social experiences as a route to develop executive function skills. Given the psychosocial benefits of acquiring executive function skills at an early age, the contribution of this study suggests that play-based strategies are effective in enhancing executive function skills. These strategies are applicable in different learning environments. Supporting the development of executive function skills through structured play: A qualitative study of South African preschool teachers, E Etokabeka, 2024

Research indicates that structured play significantly contributes to the development of executive function skills in young children, with these benefits being applicable across various learning environments.

Creative and Critical Thinking in Early Childhood Through Play

It is during the preschool years that sensitive periods for cognitive development are formed, in particular, creative and critical thinking skills. Sociocultural perspectives ascertain that a child’s cognition is co-constructed through the social environment. This chapter draws from Vygotsky’s sociocultural cognitive theory and creative imagination theory to explain the processes involved as young children generate new knowledge. Examples from children’s interactions in social learning environments are presented, demonstrating how children think creatively and critically as they solve problems and seek meaning through play and imagination. Creative and critical thinking in early childhood, N Leggett, 2023

The preschool years are a critical period for developing creative and critical thinking, with Vygotsky's sociocultural theory highlighting how children co-construct cognition through social interactions and play.

Guided Play Boosts Kindergarten Literacy, Executive Function, and Creativity

Additional positive academic results included practice in story-composing, sequencing ideas into a complex cause and effect chain of events; application of new vocabulary; repeated practice of phonics and phonemic awareness skills to new examples; self-regulation of emotions; communication and negotiation with peers; and imagination, fantasy, humor, and creativity. Students evidenced preference for the experimental condition, continuing to repeat their games during recess or free time and to record them in their journals. Examples of student-generated literacy games are provided. Kindergarten scores, storytelling, executive function, and motivation improved through literacy-rich guided play, 2017

Guided play has been shown to yield significant academic benefits in kindergarten, including improvements in literacy, executive function, and creativity, with students demonstrating a strong preference for these engaging activities.