Date/Time: November 5, 2026 | 3:45 – 4:45 pm

Room: YAKIMA 1

Abstract: As schools focus increasingly on structured learning outcomes, opportunities for child-directed play have diminished. Yet research shows that free play is essential to cognitive development, resilience, creativity, and social growth.

This session explores how designers and educators can rethink school environments to restore meaningful play experiences. Drawing on the work of Peter Gray, Schema Play Theory, and examples such as the documentary The Land: An Adventure Play Documentary, we will examine how children learn through exploration, risk-taking, and open-ended materials.

Participants will engage in a short interactive exercise demonstrating how schema play behaviors—such as transporting, enclosing, trajectory, and rotation—can inform the design of play environments.

By reframing playgrounds as learning landscapes, designers can create environments that support curiosity, agency, and imaginative exploration—true “learning without limits.”

Learning Objectives:

1. Understand the role of free play and schema play in early childhood development.
2. Identify how conventional playground design can unintentionally limit exploration.
3. Explore design strategies that support open-ended, child-directed play.
4. Learn how architects and planners can advocate for play-based environments with school districts and communities.