Preschoolers who spend much of their classroom day engaged in so-called “free-choice play” make smaller gains in language and math skills than children who receive input from teachers in a range of other activity settings. Researchers studied more than 2,700 children enrolled in public pre-kindergarten programs, more than half of whom were in poverty. They found that children engaged in free-choice play made smaller academic gains than children who spent less time in free-choice play.