Learning Theory #1

Welcome to 2025! New year, new blog topics, new books. This year, we’re going to focus on learning theories. First up, The Play Theory. (There’s a short video here.)

All of us learn through play. Yes, even we adults benefit from play.

Watch a toddler interact with their environment. From picking up things and tasting them to banging them together, their brains encode vital information.

Children who are mastering language take play to another level. Simple board games teach turn-taking, planning, and goal achievement.

I recently took my seven-year-old granddaughter on a ropes course. She learned a lot about balance, coordination, and teamwork.

Another granddaughter, who wasn’t used to swimming in the surf at our local beaches, learned to make decisions using incoming sensory information. Do I go under or over this wave? Her brain performed many calculations based on water depth, wave height, and speed.

Neither girl was conscious of how hard their brains were working for them. They just knew their bodies were responding. Errors were made, but brains learn more from mistakes than always getting things right.

Encouraging children to play brings learning rewards.