Play and Social Skills in Preschool: Relationship and Impact in the Colombian Context

In Colombia, the use of play in preschool lacks systematic evidence regarding its impact on the development of social skills, especially in Caribbean regions like Montería (Córdoba). This study aimed to systematize the international and national empirical evidence published between 2024 and 2026 on the relationship between structured play and social skills in preschool children, identifying convergences, divergences, and research gaps. A systematic review with a qualitative-descriptive approach was conducted, based on the analysis of empirical studies and supplemented with institutional data from the Jorge Eliécer Gaitán campus of the Victoria Manzur Educational Institution (Montería), incorporating the contributions of Vygotsky, Piaget, and Bronfenbrenner. The results show that pedagogically mediated play generates statistically significant improvements in prosocial dimensions such as cooperation, empathy, communication, and conflict resolution, with greater effectiveness than spontaneous play. However, methodological differences were identified between European and Colombian research, limiting the comparability of the findings. In conclusion, this work offers an initial systematic mapping, with an emphasis on the Colombian Caribbean, and highlights four critical gaps: a lack of operationalization of the construct, a scarcity of longitudinal designs, an absence of studies in Córdoba, and a lack of validated instruments for the Caribbean context. These findings guide future situated correlational research and offer implications for early childhood education practice.