The Role of Child’s Play in Child’s Growth, Child’s Development, and Child’s Learning in the Mprumem Circuit of the Gomoa West District

The aim of the study was to investigate how early childhood teachers in the Mprumem Circuit of the Gomoa West District of the Central Region of Ghana perceive the role of child’s play in child’s growth, child’s development and child’s learning in early childhood setting. The study was guided by three research questions. A purposive random sampling method was used to sample forty-five respondents for the study. Questionnaires were distributed to early childhood centers who agreed to participate in the study. This study concludes that play helps children’s cognitive development in a variety of ways, and children learn to use language as a tool to meaningfully communicate with others through play. Also, this study concludes that inadequate trained teachers, emphasis on rote-based teaching, and inadequate play-based resources are the main challenges. The study recommends that the Ghana Education Service needs to organize regularly an in-service professional development programme to empower early childhood teachers. Again, administrators of early childhood institutions in the Mprumem Circuit need to make provisions for play-based materials to be readily available for teaching and learning.