How ditching the ‘outdoor play versus screen time’ divide could improve kids’ education and wellbeing

Play matters. We know this from decades of research – the science of learning explains the active ingredients of learning through play and studies show the benefits of play for learning.

The right to play is also established under Article 31 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). Canada ratified the UNCRC in 1991 and upholds this right through national policies while Sweden, Scotland, Wales and the Netherlands have also enshrined the right to play in law. International organizations like BRAC’s PlayLabs, Right to Play and the LEGO Foundation are working hard to bring play into humanitarian and crisis settings.

The UN's International Day of Play on 11 June 2025 is an opportunity to issue a global call to champion play as a fundamental right for every child. This is more necessary than ever. When people are facing armed conflict and climate crises, children are often left to navigate challenges far beyond their years. But despite global efforts to prioritize play, how much is it truly integrated into all children’s lives?

Even though play is widely seen as essential for children’s healthy development, it’s still missing from most classrooms. Play service delivery in hospitals is also low. And while social media platforms are often used to share captivating stories about the importance of play, it’s still lacking in most vulnerable communities.

Mixing digital games with outdoor play can provide children with more chances to play, no matter where they are or what their situation is. The unhelpful idea that digital and non-digital play are completely separate, or even opposed, simply distracts from what really matters: Making sure children have plenty of playtime, because play is so important for their learning and wellbeing.

There is a lot the global community can do to address this. My recent research with Roberta Michnick Golinkoff and Kathy Hirsh-Pasek highlights three important steps to help integrate play into children’s learning and wellbeing:

Classroom assessment needs to be reimagined as a continuous process that focuses on children’s potential, not just standardized test scores. Play reveals authentic insights into children’s developing abilities (what learning scientists call “children’s potentiality”). This would support a shift to a more dynamic assessment system that tracks individual progress over time.

The outdated idea that play and guided teaching approaches are incompatible must be discarded. Playful learning actually supports academic success and holistic development, with lasting positive effects throughout life. So it should be prioritized, especially in high-risk environments.

Perhaps most important for today's policy-makers to understand is that digital and outdoor play shouldn’t be seen as opposites. Instead, outdoor play can be enhanced by digital tools that encourage creativity and active participation. A clear example is Pokémon, where children go outside to find and collect virtual creatures. The Seek app by iNaturalist, encourages families to snap photos to identify plants or animals, making exploring nature fun and educational. Similarly, digital play can be extended with books and other objects likely to be found in a typical preschool room.

Children’s digital play is “real play”. Most of the 16 key play types occur both online and offline, except rough and tumble play. Digital games further expand children’s social worlds beyond physical boundaries, which allows for friendships outside their immediate circles.

In fact, several studies show that it is children’s intrinsic motivation that underscores the benefits of play in all settings. In one study, a randomized, controlled trial found that 10-11 year-olds improved their spatial thinking skills with Minecraft Education, but only if they were interested in the game they were playing.

Leading play researchers do not frame play as a choice between time spent outdoors versus screen time. Instead, they see it as a continuum. This play continuum has evolved with new forms of play.

One significant shift is that online play allows local experiences to be influenced by global factors. While your child might play in their own customized virtual world of Roblox, they still get exposed to global brands like Starbucks or Adidas, introducing them early on to our globalized world. Also, when children create or modify objects during online play, the software often acts as a co-author, which would be hard to replicate with analogue resources.

But policy often focuses solely on the ways in which digital play is worse than analogue play. A recent open letter by French medical experts, for example, notes that free play, board games, creative and artistic activities only benefit children if they are off-screen. In another example, the Danish wellbeing commission has recommended banning mobile phones in schools and after-school clubs for children under 13 so they have more time for “free play”.

Digital play is generally more heavily scrutinized for its negative effects. Even children view digital play more critically than non-digital play.

Instead of treating all digital play as a screen time problem, it’s more important to focus on the quality of games – especially the design quality. Unethical, manipulative or “dark patterns” design pushes players to spend more time, money or to share more personal data. It is such exploitative designs that warrant targeted critique and regulation.

This year’s International Day of Play should be a celebration of all forms of play, as well as an opportunity to champion thoughtful, non-manipulative game design. Play practitioners and caregivers should also join in the fun. They can play alongside children and also provide time and space for children to enjoy independent play with their friends.

Game designers should prioritize rights-respecting features that create enjoyable experiences and remove dark patterns from gaming environments. Researchers should focus on collecting game-specific data to better inform policy-makers about harmful patterns. And policy-makers must remember that fostering quality digital play requires stronger legislation and evidence-based evaluation. Relying solely on broad measures like “screen time” doesn’t work.

Putting play at the heart of childhood means connecting screens and swings, rather than pitting them against each other.