At Chapter 1 Early Learning we acknowledge the importance of play in early childhood development. Play is very important, the most effective tool, and is central to a child’s learning and development. Through play infants and young children explore and learn to understand the world around them as they communicate, discover, imagine and create. When children play they are showing what they have learned and what they are trying to understand. When children play with other children they create social groups, test out ideas, challenge each other’s thinking and build new understandings.