Caregivers’ Perspectives on Playful Learning Activities: Benefits, Barriers, and Engagement

Caregivers serve an important role in guiding their children’s early playful learning experiences, which range widely from free play to direct instruction. How caregivers themselves approach these different activities and how to best encourage playful learning among families remains an underexplored area of research. Caregivers of 2-5 year old children (n = 177) completed an online survey about their perceptions and approach to different activities across the play spectrum. Participants came from diverse backgrounds in terms of race, income, education level, and gender identity. Caregivers saw a number of benefits to each caregiver/child activity, and likewise reported barriers that limited their ability to participate. Several caregiver perception variables were associated with the frequency of engaging in each activity. These findings provide insight into the motivating factors and limitations in caregiver-child play, offering implications for future research on caregiver play beliefs as well as possible areas for intervention.