November 21, 2018 / News & Blog
Prescription for Play: What Science Says About the Importance of Play for Children and Families
Thank you to everyone who joined us for “Prescription for Play: What Science Says About the Importance of Play for Children and Families” on Monday, November 19, 2018. In collaboration with Boston Children’s Museum, this was the Association of Children’s Museums’ first-ever webinar geared toward both children’s museum staff and the parents and caregivers they serve.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recently released new guidelines to empower pediatricians to write a “prescription for play” to every family they see. During the webinar, Dr. Michael Yogman and Dr. Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, two of the lead authors of AAP’s report, The Power of Play: A Pediatric Role in Enhancing Development in Young Children, joined ACM Executive Director Laura Huerta Migus to present their findings.
Special thanks to Boston Children’s Museum’s Carole Charnow for introducing the webinar and to our speakers, Drs. Yogman and Hirsh-Pasek, for sharing their expertise on the power of play!
Whether you tuned in live or you’re watching later on, check out these resources on the science of play.
Resources:
Webinar Recordings:
Further Resources:
- The Power of Play: A Pediatric Role in Enhancing Development in Young Children: Read the new report from the American Academy of Pediatrics encouraging physicians to write a “prescription for play”
- Playful Learning Landscapes: View the video shared by Dr. Kathy Hirsh-Pasek during her presentation. Learn more about these playful projects, including Parkopolis, Urban Thinkscape, and Playbrary, here.
- “The Power of Play” two-page museum handout: Developed by Boston Children’s Museum, this document shares AAP’s recommendations with parents and caregivers. This resource is available as an editable file, allowing museums to insert their logos into the header image.
Children’s Museum Case Studies:
During the webinar, Laura Huerta Migus gave a brief overview of the work children’s museums are already doing to spread the word about AAP’s play recommendations. Check out these slide decks with even more information about these initiatives:
Works Cited:
- Accessing the Inaccessible: Redefining Play as a Spectrum (Zosh, Hirsh-Pasek, 2018)
- Building vocabulary knowledge in preschoolers through shared book reading and gameplay (Hassinger-Das, Ridge, Golinkoff & Hirsh-Pasek, 2016)
- Taking It to the Classroom: Number Board Games as a Small Group Learning Activity (Ramani, Siegler, & Hitti, 2012)
- Block Talk: Spatial Language During Block Play (Ferrara, Hirsh-Pasek, Newcombe, & Golinkoff, 2011)
- Tools of the Mind: The Vygotskian Approach to Early Childhood Education (Bodrova and Leong, 2007)
- School Readiness and Self-Regulation: A Developmental Psychobiological Approach (Blair & Raver, 2015)
- Playing With Ideas: Evaluating the Impact of the Ultimate Block Party, a Collective Experiential Intervention to Enrich Perceptions of Play(Grob, Schleisinger, Hirsh-Pasek, & Golinkoff, 2017)
- Supermarket Speak: Increasing Talk Among Low‐Socioeconomic Status Families (“The Supermarket Study”) (Ridge, Ilgaz, Weisberg, Hirsh-Pasek, & Golinkoff, 2015)
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