Learning is the process of acquiring new understanding, knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, and preferences. Some learning is immediate, induced by a single event The changes induced by learning often last a lifetime, and it is hard to distinguish learned material that seems to be “lost” from that which cannot be retrieved.
Human learning starts at birth and continues until death as a consequence of ongoing interactions between people and their environment. The nature and processes involved in learning are studied in many fields, including educational psychology, neuropsychology, experimental psychology, and pedagogy.For example, learning may occur as a result of habituation, or classical conditioning, operant conditioning or as a result of more complex activities such as play, seen only in relatively intelligent animals. Learning may occur consciously or without conscious awareness.
Play has been approached by several theorists as the first form of learning. Children experiment with the world, learn the rules, and learn to interact through play. Lev Vygotsky agrees that play is pivotal for children’s development, since they make meaning of their environment through playing educational games.For Vygotsky, however, play is the first form of learning language and communication and the stage where a child begins to understand rules and symbols.
