PLAYFULNESS AND COMPREHENSIVE DEVELOPMENT: PLAY AS A PRIORITY IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION

Abstract

Playful learning is fundamental to children's comprehensive development, as it promotes cognitive, social, emotional, and symbolic aspects. This article aims to investigate how playful learning, when planned and intentional, contributes to educational processes in Early Childhood Education, analyzing its implications for children's comprehensive development. Methodologically, the study is a bibliographic research with a qualitative approach, based on the analysis of scientific publications from 2015 to 2025, found in databases such as SciELO and the CAPES journal portal. The results show that playful learning is enhanced when there is continuing education for educators, pedagogical intentionality, and the organization of stimulating school environments that are open to playful experiences. On the other hand, limiting factors include curricular rigidity, scarcity of material resources, lack of planning focused on play, and the persistence of traditionalist conceptions that devalue playfulness as an educational practice. It is concluded that the implementation of playful learning in the school context depends on structural, cultural, and training changes, requiring a new educational paradigm that recognizes play as a child's right and as a powerful teaching and learning strategy.