An engaging interactive environment in early learning boosts children’s creativity, critical thinking, self-expression, teamwork, and overall development. Evidence underscores the crucial role of play in providing these interactive experiences. Play is an opportunity for all children, including those with disabilities, to learn skills and abilities, have fun, feel included, supported, and cared for. Responding to this evidence, GPE partner countries are moving away from traditional learning through rote methods and have started to instead encourage learning by inquiry and through play. However, adult-centric pedagogy is still prevalent, partly because many teachers do not possess skills to support play-based learning, especially for children with disabilities.

This project builds on lessons from previous research to contextualize play-based learning by including teacher mentorship and support, particularly for child-to-child play and interactions for all children, including those with multiple disabilities. It aims to generate evidence on inclusive play-based approaches that strengthen a smooth transition from pre-primary to primary school in Uganda, Ghana, and Liberia. The project is building evidence on scaling inclusive teacher support programmes, expanding opportunities for children with complex disabilities to benefit from play-based early learning, and developing actionable insights to inform the development or revision of policies related to early childhood care and education, emphasizing the importance of inclusive, play-based learning approaches.