Playful Resource Series

A mom is walking with her child through the park | How Play Aids Adult Executive Function Skills

How Play Helps Adults Build Focus and Decision-making Skills

Executive functions allow people to prioritize, organize, regulate their emotions, think creatively, plan for the future, stay focused on tasks, set goals, adapt to new situations, recall what they’ve learned, and stay flexible during unexpected moments. There are ways adults can…

Family Guide: Play is Learning

Play is a vital part of development for children, and there are a variety of ways children can play with support from their caregivers. Play is not just for children, but rather the whole family. There are a multiple ways…

Child standing in looking down with bubble floating them around | Play is Crucial for Brain Development

40 Reasons Why Play is Crucial for Brain Development

Medical professionals, teachers, and early childhood organizations all agree - play is a crucial part of childhood development.

Child sitting in grass playing with trucks | Childs Cognitive development

12 Ways to Promote Child’s Cognitive Development

Cognitive learning is important in early childhood and scientists believe that the first five years are a particularly significant period for acquiring information because the brain is more malleable for absorbing new information.

Babies’ Brain Development through Play

The most important interaction a parent can have with a child is through play. In this recording, This article makes suggestions for parents on how to boost their babies’ brain development.

A mother throwing toys planes through hoops with her children | How to Promote Cognitive Development

How to Promote Cognitive Development: 23 Activities & Games

While reading, writing, and mathematics are important, developing cognitive skills is indispensable for lifelong learning.

The Role of Play in Child Development and Learning

Play is important for kindergarteners and all students in early childhood education. This YouTube presentation provides examples of materials and activities that can be used to meet kindergarten standards and enhance development and learning

Thinking and Play

Play is important for cognitive development. A parenting website has tips for encouraging cognitive development in newborns, babies, toddlers, and preschoolers.

How Play Promotes Cognitive Development

When children participate in play and have opportunities to become fully involved in what they are doing, they develop more sophisticated and complex ways of thinking.

$One child doing a head stand and two other children standing by intrigued | 8 Ways to Encourage Math Learning During Risky Outdoor Play$

8 Ways to Encourage Math Learning During Risky Outdoor Play

Children’s risky play is filled with rich mathematical possibilities, according to a NAEYC blog post by a kindergarten teacher, researcher, and writer.

$One child doing a head stand and two other children standing by intrigued | 8 Ways to Encourage Math Learning During Risky Outdoor Play$

Can Guided Play Enhance Children’s Learning in Educational Settings?

In recent years, there has been a conceptual shift toward a play-based learning approach that acknowledges the combined benefits of play and traditional teaching.

Let’s Play

Learning Through Play offers a variety of games that children and their caregivers can play indoors or outside, using everyday items they’ll find at home.

Playing to Learn: Benefits of Play in Early Childhood

Play is an important part of learning during childhood and can facilitate child development in the five Early Learning Outcomes Framework domains.

The Transformative Power of Play in Society

Play isn't just for children. Rolling Stone writes on the benefits of play for adults and how to incorporate play into work life.

The Need for Pretend Play in Child Development

Many people think of play in the form of young children at recess engaging in games of tag, and ball, using slides, and swings, and physically exploring their environment. But physical play is not the only kind of play.

Multigenerational Play Creates Intergenerational Impacts

Playful learning – an area of research that examines how children learn best through playful exchanges – shares many of the same core foundations as the study of intergenerational learning, a body of research involving older and younger generations coming…