We created this innovation in response to a long‑standing challenge with early childhood assessments. Many tools are expensive, complex and centred on adult‑led testing. In refugee and development contexts these issues can be intensified. Children are often taken out of familiar routines to complete tasks with unfamiliar adults, and assessments tend to focus on isolated academic skills rather than the wider developmental picture that supports early learning. This can be inappropriate for children and makes it difficult for programmes to gain an accurate understanding of children’s progress or the quality of everyday practice.
Play is central to early development, yet assessing the quality of play‑based provision has remained difficult across many settings. We saw a need for an approach that values children’s agency, reflects their cultural and community context and supports educators to notice what children can do within their natural routines. The Assessment Framework for Play‑Based Early Education was created to meet this need.
It also enables local educators and communities to engage fully in the assessment process, strengthening ownership and shared understanding of children’s experiences. By generating clear, practical insights, the framework helps settings and organisations identify strengths, highlight areas for development and plan meaningful improvements that enhance the quality of play‑based early education across diverse and low‑resource contexts
The child development tool uses culturally appropriate, open‑ended playful activities within children’s everyday routines, alongside their friends and familiar educators. These activities give children the freedom to explore concepts in their own way and show where they are in their learning journey without pressure. Assessors observe a wide range of evidence‑informed outcomes across five developmental domains: social and emotional, language and literacy, cognitive, physical, and creativity and imagination.
The environmental tool examines broader practice, including child‑led play, relationships, safety, resources, teaching and learning, inclusivity and ongoing assessment. Together, the tools offer a clear picture of both children’s development and the quality of the learning environment.
Both tools enable simple, standardised data to be recorded and analysed to identify strengths and areas for development. Results are presented clearly, with much of the analysis completed automatically, allowing educators and organisations to move quickly from data to action. Evidence from Uganda and Botswana shows that the framework strengthens everyday practice, builds assessor confidence and supports rapid programme improvement, demonstrating its effectiveness across diverse and low‑resource settings.
Since 2023, Children on the Edge and Learn to Play have embedded the Assessment for Play‑Based Early Education across programmes to set clearer targets and guide improvement. In Kyaka II, teacher trainers are now more confident in assessments, recognising the framework as a supportive tool rather than a judgement. It has been used for baseline and endline evaluation as Cluster Learning expanded into settlement zones 6–10, generating data for programme adjustments, while four years of annual data in zones 1–5 continue to shape improvement. Cluster Learning will launch in Karamoja this summer, with the framework embedded to support context‑specific data as the programme becomes established.
Learn to Play has embedded the tool across Botswana playgroups and government‑run centres, proving its potential beyond NGOs. Data has driven rapid improvement; enhancements to the 'Mindful Way' programme helped move children meeting social-emotional milestones from 33% to over 90%, with similar gains in language and cognitive domains. Over the next 2-3 years, both organisations aim to consolidate consistent use, expand adoption across government systems, and build evidence to position the framework as a credible, standardised approach in low‑resource contexts, encouraging broader uptake by making it accessible to other organisations.
Since its introduction, the framework has been continuously reviewed to strengthen clarity and usability. One key change has been renaming, from the Play Programme Assessment Toolbox (PPAT) to the Assessment for Play‑based Early Childhood Education, providing clearer meaning and improved culturally translatable language across contexts.
Most tool adaptations have been minor, focused on improving simplicity and alignment with community feedback. The play activities in the child development tool were revised to enable a shorter assessment so children remained active and engaged and impacting positively on assessor concentration. The environmental tool has been refined each year to ensure wording is straightforward, relevant and easy for local assessors to use. These small refinements have supported more consistent scoring and increased confidence by assessors.
Current developments focus on strengthening how data is captured, stored and interpreted so that organisations can manage their own information securely and use it to guide programme learning. This includes moving from a limited spreadsheet‑based system to a more flexible digital approach that supports larger datasets, enables wider use by partners and maintains the framework’s practicality and accessibility in low‑resource settings.
Organisations interested in a simple, child‑centred way to assess and strengthen ECE provision can contact Children on the Edge or Learn to Play for discussion and support to get started. The framework will be open source, and we can advise on contextualisation. Email debralaxton@childrenontheedge.org or priyanka@learntoplay.org
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