Practical Play-Based Strategies for Diverse Learners
About This Course
This course provides educators, early intervention practitioners, therapists, programme assistants, and caregivers with foundational, research-supported skills to design and deliver effective play-based learning. Grounded in developmental and neurocognitive research, the curriculum positions play as a primary driver of learning, emotional regulation, and social growth.
You will explore how developmental play enhances neural integration and executive functioning, while sensory-rich and social play supports self-regulation, attention, and communication, particularly for children with diverse sensory and developmental profiles.
Through hands-on activities and guided facilitation practice, you will learn to apply these principles using frameworks aligned with learning experience delivery, learning mode design, and learning solution design. These frameworks enable you to structure purposeful play sessions, adapt materials for different developmental needs, and create multimodal learning environments that strengthen engagement.
Additionally, you will develop communication strategies to guide families and centre teams in embedding play-based routines, supporting centre Innovation and the adoption of child-centred best practices across home and educational settings.
What You'll Learn
• Apply core principles of developmental, sensory, and social play to design meaningful play-based learning experiences, demonstrating proficiency in learning experience delivery.
• Design simple, multimodal play activities using visual, tactile, auditory, and social elements to support children’s engagement, attention, and participation.
• Implement practical intervention techniques such as modelling, co-regulation, prompting, and scaffolding within structured and unstructured play routines.
• Adapt play materials, instructions, and facilitation strategies to accommodate children with diverse developmental, sensory, regulatory, or communication needs.
• Facilitate positive peer interaction through turn-taking routines, cooperative play sequences, and social play invitations to strengthen communication and social-emotional skills.
• Use effective communication strategies to guide caregivers, co-facilitators, and centre teams in implementing consistent play-based approaches across home and educational settings.
Entry Requirements
Participants should meet at least one of the following:
● GCE N-Level qualification (or equivalent), or
● A recognised certificate or diploma in education, early childhood, psychology, special needs, social services, therapy, or related fields, or
● At least 1 year of relevant work experience in education, early intervention, disability services, social services, youth work, caregiving, or support work.