Child Development

Play & Learning

Early Childhood: DAP (video) – Video demonstrates why ‘Play Is The Way’ to foster the development of young children.

Play! (website) – From Zero to Three, this series of webpages offers videos and articles describing how and what children learn through play.

Play (website) – NAEYC’s collection of resources supporting the development of play during infancy and toddlerhood.

Make the Most of Playtime with Infants & Toddlers (pdf) – Play builds warm & loving relationships. This article describes the development of play skills and offers ideas on how to play with your child to support the development of social, language, and thinking skills.

Who said, “But all they do is play?” (pdf) – When children play they are practicing higher-level thinking skills.

The Importance of Play in Promoting Healthy Child Development & Maintaining Strong Parent-Child Bonds (webpage) – An article from the American Academy of Pediatrics stressing the importance of protecting play.

Alliance for Childhood (website) – working intensively on a few critical issues including the loss of creative play and hands-on activities in children’s lives and the excessive amounts of time spent in front of screens instead of in face-to-face engagement with other children, caring adults, and the natural world. Also working against the commercialization of childhood, the misuse of high-stakes testing, and increasing levels of childhood obesity.

 

Updated 5/22/2019