Learning through Play: Increasing Impact, Reducing Inequality - White Paper

The aim of the LEGO Foundation is to systemically reach children with learning through play, and empower them to become creative, engaged, lifelong learners. Over a number of years, the LEGO Foundation has worked consistently to redefine play and reimagine learning, in order to provide a coherent definition of learning through play which adequately demonstrates the potential for children to develop the critical skills needed for the future. This report applies the lens of learning through play and its promotion of a breadth of skills to recent evidence from early childhood interventions. It explores the extent to which these interventions engage children in learning through play, and to what degree there is potential for children’s play to promote equality in outcomes and address learning gaps between children from more advantaged and less advantaged backgrounds. This report builds on the characteristics of learning through play, the play types and facilitation approaches addressed in past reports and recasts the evidence to inform recommendations for future work.