Playgroups are a popular and vital part of our communities, supporting social connections and learning for both children and adults. They are an informal way for parents and caregivers to engage outside the home and can often be the first step in building friendships and developing a supportive community.

Playgroups help families identify opportunities for learning at home by encouraging playing, reading, talking, and singing with children, access to supportive parenting strategies, and helping children develop dispositions for learning such as curiosity, resourcefulness and confidence.

Why playgroups are important

A child’s first 5 years of life is the most important time for laying the foundations for all future health, wellbeing, and learning. Brains are built over time and more complex skills are built on the foundations of basic skills as children engage in relationships and experiences in their earliest years.

The first 3 years, before children even enter formal education are the most critical time in the child’s brain development, it’s when development happens fastest. Parents are children’s first and most important teachers and play a crucial role in helping to achieve the best outcomes for a child, therefore what families do every day with their young children affects how they develop and learn.

Children who attend playgroups during early childhood have significantly better child development when they start school. The benefits of playgroup are seen across all domains of child development: physical, social, emotional, language and cognitive development, and communication.

Why learning through play is important

Learning through play is fundamental to the healthy development of children. Learning for young children happens best in the context of warm, loving relationships.

Play helps children:

• build confidence
• feel loved, happy and safe
• understand more about how the world works
• develop social skills, language and communication
• learn about caring for others and the environment
• develop physical skills.

The Early Childhood Australia Statement on Play identifies 6 principles of play to deepen understanding and increase support for every child’s experiences of play.

1. Play is essential and valuable in its own right and for children’s learning and development: every child has a right to have play in their life.
2. Every child has a right to a balance of play experiences that develop and healthy mind and body and sense of wellbeing.
3. Play builds each child’s capacity for communication and develops language and thinking skills.
4. Through play, children develop a sense of self and the emotional and social competence to participate in relationships.
5. Play connects children to their world, their cultural identities, to others and to other ways of knowing, doing and being
6. Children’s right to play is our collective responsibility: all adults have a role in understanding, protecting and valuing the importance of play for every child, in every community.

Empowering parents and carers as their children’s first teachers

Playgroups show parents and carers how they can support their child’s learning through simple things. This may be talking more about what they’re doing or seeing, reading regularly to their child or singing familiar songs. This awareness allows them to become a powerful positive influence on their child’s learning, health and wellbeing.

A focus on learning through play

As a playgroup facilitator, you can use the information in this resource to support parents or carers to engage in their child’s learning. Children learn in the context of their family. The aim of playgroups with a focus on learning is to support families to ‘see’ the learning that takes place during everyday play and through learning opportunities.

Families can be learning from the playgroup facilitator and from each other. They might learn about:

• what their child is learning as they play
• connecting with their child through play
• ideas they can implement at home
• how important the home learning environment is to children’s learning opportunities.

Benefits of playgroup for children, families, preschools, schools and the wider community

For children

Playgroup can help children develop:

• literacy and numeracy skills
• social and emotional skills
• fine and gross motor skills
• sensory pathways, which are important to all learning
• cognitive and executive functioning skills
• dispositions for learning (‘habits of mind’), such as cooperation, purposefulness and persistence.

For families – parents and carers

Attending playgroup can help parents and carers:

• gain an understanding of what and how children learn through play and other experiences
• receive ideas for activities they can do at home to support their child’s learning
• develop an increased sense of belonging to the school, preschool, children’s centre or community
• interact with educators and professionals, breaking down perceived barriers
• interact with other parents and carers and share knowledge and experiences.

For preschools and schools

Playgroups can benefit preschools and schools through opportunities:

• to convey early learning messages to families
• for early intervention.

Connections with a local playgroup may lead to:

• increased parent involvement in school boards, governing councils and classrooms
• increased enrolments for associated preschools or schools
• improved transitions into the next stage of a child's early learning journey.

For communities

Playgroups can benefit communities by providing opportunities to:

• connect parents, caregivers and children to services and experiences within the local community.
• earlier access for health or development support for parents and caregivers, that will strengthen children’s inclusion and involvement in the community.