We started this series with the overall argument for why play is essential for human development. The next three episodes dug deep into three main themes: Why we need play for mental health and wellness, for brain development and real learning, and for soft skill development. Then, we shifted to several shorter episodes, touching on specific types of play and how they contribute to development. In this final episode, I’m talking about why ALL children need play, even when others may think it’s time to help children “catch up” instead.
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Notes from the Show:
(*May contain affiliate links.)
All Children Deserve Play (NJC)
Episode 61: Getting Curious About PreK Research (with Dr. Dale Farran)
Episode 50: Rethinking the Entire Approach to Preschool (Diving into the NPR Article)
Find the most recent iteration of the results from the Tennesee PreK Study in this journal article.
A top researcher says it’s time to rethink our entire approach to preschool (NPR)
The Importance of Being Little: What Preschoolers Really Need from Grownups by Erika Christakis
The “Play Deficit” Discovered by Physicians! Implications for Policy and Practice (Journal of Psychiatry and Psychiatric Disorders, 2018)
Why We Play
Share the importance of play with the Why We Play letters! Learn more about Why We Play and sign up for the sample letter at the bottom to ensure you hear about any VIP discounts by clicking here!
Highlights
(00:03) – The Importance of Play in Education
(02:03) The Importance of Play-Based Learning
(10:13) Impact of COVID on Early Learning
(13:31) – Exploring Why We Play Series
Transcript
Transcript produced by Podium.
00:03 – Amanda Morgan (Host)
Hi, I’m Amanda Morgan and this is Not Just Cute the podcast where we discuss all kinds of topics to help bridge the gap that exists between what we know and what we do in early childhood education. We’re starting conversations with academics, authors, decision-makers, educators, and parents so that together we can improve the quality of early childhood education while, at the same time, protecting and respecting the childhood experience. This is the final episode in a nine-episode series called Why We Play. For years, I’ve been speaking at workshops and conferences about the power of play in the early learning environment, which sparked the series of parent letters I’ve written called Why We Play. This month, I’ve been sharing a special podcast series with the same name Why We Play. Every Tuesday and Thursday in February, I’ve shared a new episode focused on the science and stories behind why we play Evidence that play is not just cute, it’s incredibly powerful. Before we jump in, a quick reminder that you can learn more about the why we play letters and grab a free sample letter at notjustcutecom forward slash why we play. These letters will help you jumpstart important conversations in your learning community about the importance and start important conversations in your learning community about the importance and power of play in your early childhood setting. People don’t value what they don’t understand. If you want to help parents and colleagues understand the value of play, the Why We Play letters are a fantastic tool to help you meet that goal. You can find this episode’s show notes, which are always full of links, tidbits, and resources, at notjustcutecom. Forward slash podcast. Forward slash, episode 70. If you’re looking for research-based evidence to support play, you’ll find the pieces I referenced today linked there. Thank you so much for joining me on this series. I am so passionate about the importance of play for young children and it’s been really fun for me to hear from so many of you who are just as passionate about it. If you’re just starting here, make sure that you catch the other episodes as well.
02:18
We started out with the overall argument for why play is essential for human development. The next three episodes dug deep into three main themes why we need play for mental health and wellness, for brain development and real learning and for soft skill development. Then we shifted to several shorter episodes touching on specific types of play and how they contribute to development. In this final episode, I’m talking about why all children need play, even when others may think that it’s time to help them catch up instead. Whether you’re a champion for play or a playful learning skeptic, this series is perfect for you. Let’s jump in. In the work that I do, partnering with conferences and schools and programs to provide support and training for play-based learning,
03:12
I’ve had many different conversations with different professionals in different states, serving different demographics, but a common thread emerges more frequently than I’d like to admit Often, play is accepted as a powerful driver for development and learning. Unless children are viewed as quote-unquote behind, then these advocates that I work with feel that they are met with some extra resistance. Whether the children are disadvantaged economically, developmentally or academically, there are many who are quick to say that these kids don’t need play. They need to catch up Now. I don’t personally assign any malevolent intention in these instances, but I do think it’s an example of wanting to help so badly that we actually end up helping badly.
04:10
Erica Christakis makes a striking observation in her book the Importance of being Little what Preschoolers Really Need from Grownups. It’s an excellent book and I highly recommend it. Here’s what she said the young children who need active play-based learning the most are usually the ones who are least likely to get it from. Preschool. Society’s message seems to be that these kooky hands-on experiences, and that when we take that away from our underserved children, we’re putting them at a more serious disadvantage. It’s interesting to me that the data we referenced to support play-based, high-quality early childhood education. Data that show long-term positive benefits are often derived from studies that are done with disadvantaged populations, yet the methods that they support, those teaching methods, are often more easily found among the affluent children. For example, the Perry Preschool Project was done with underserved children. Even pioneers in the early education field like Montessori and Vygotsky established their work, demonstrating the benefits of their methods in populations that had, in many regards, been excluded from education or even thought of as unteachable Children who supposedly couldn’t quote-unquote catch up. They proved everyone wrong when they were supported with these active learning techniques. But who is more likely to have access to programs inspired by the work of Montessori and Bygotsky today? Affluent children. And this disadvantage may be doubled as many urban and underserved areas may not only have less play in their school programs but also less accessible play spaces in their communities outside of school. There are some who believe that those who are quote-unquote behind or disadvantaged or other in some way need more flashcards and worksheets and drilling to catch up to the affluent children who are playing. The dissonance there is pretty astounding.
06:47
Dr Del Feren’s work with the Tennessee Pre-K program has fascinated me, which is why I reference it a lot and I’ll link to some of those resources, including my interview with her here on the podcast and several other articles and studies. All of that will be in the show notes of this episode. If you’re new to the research on the Tennessee pre-K program, you can check out those links in the show notes. But here’s the quick rundown.
07:10
When Tennessee launched their statewide pre-K program, they found that they had far more children applying than they had room for. This meant that children had to be assigned by lottery, and this is where researchers like Dr Dale Farran came in, seeing that there was a perfect opportunity to study the impacts of a state pre-K program in as close to an experimental format as you can get, based on all kinds of research showing the benefits of quality early childhood programs. They assumed that they’d be collecting data on all the positive impacts of this state’s pre-K program At the end of the pre-K year. They found that good data. The children who participated in the program were scoring higher on kindergarten readiness measures than those who didn’t attend the program. But by third grade, and even more so by sixth grade, those pre-K participants actually started performing worse, both academically and behaviorally, than those who didn’t attend the program.
08:09
Farron said that the results shook her, but she leaned in to see what could be learned Now. First, to be clear, she did not come to the conclusion that we should gut early childhood programs, but she did find that the quality of a program matters. It isn’t enough to just have a place called preschool or pre-k. What we do there matters. She also began to lean into the possibility that we have double standards when it comes to what that quality looks like.
08:44
In an NPR article, which is also linked in the show notes, she’s quoted as saying this one of the biases that I hadn’t examined in myself is the idea that poor children need a different sort of preparation from children of higher income families. What she’s alluding to is the fact that educated high-income families tend to seek out more play-based programs with a variety of enriching programs like art and music, while the state programs designed for at-risk children tend to lean a bit more into drilling basic skills in an effort to help these children catch up. Farran goes on to say, higher higher-income families are not choosing this kind of preparation, and why would we assume that we need to train children of lower-income families earlier? Whether children are disadvantaged economically or due to physical or developmental challenges, some may argue that these children, they’re the ones that need to buckle down and catch up. Play is nice, it’s cute, but we’ll have to save it for later. These kids need to catch up, but why would we expect them to catch up if we’re not supporting them in a way that we know contributes to healthy and effective growth and development? This “catching-up” argument can go down a slippery slope very quickly.
10:13
Essentially, as a nation, all children have been deemed quote unquote behind due to COVID, behind due to COVID. But if we even accept that label, which is a whole other discussion, what are these youngest learners behind on? Young children who are in early childhood programs today were infants and toddlers during the pandemic. They did not miss out on flashcards and worksheets and recitations. They did not miss out on rote memorization. More likely than not, if they’re behind on anything, they’re behind on the number of interactions they’ve had with different people. They may be behind on the number of hours that they’ve played in group settings or the number of peer relationships they’ve built. They might be behind in the conversational turns that they’ve been a part of and the language experiences they’ve built. They might be behind in the conversational turns that they’ve been a part of and the language experiences they’ve been able to enjoy. So the argument that children are behind is, in reality, an argument that they need more play.
11:16
As we’ve covered throughout this series, play builds soft skills and executive functions, things like resilience, self-control, decision-making, negotiating, emotional awareness, and a variety of social skills that are linked to long-term, life-altering outcomes. It promotes developing math, language, literacy, science, and other cognitive concepts in both constrained and unconstrained ways, the coupling of which is key to effective long-term learning, and we know that it’s connected to mental, emotional and psychological health. These are all really big outcomes. There are mountains of evidence telling us that children need play All children. It drives their development. So, knowing this, Erika Christakis questions– are we willing, as a society, to outsource children’s imagination and, I would say, their play to the affluent like an offshore tax shelter? After all the benefits of play that we’ve talked about in this series back to the foundational reasons of playing for mental health and wellness, for brain development and learning and for soft skill practice. With all of that research and all of that information right in front of us, who would we decide are the other children that this research doesn’t actually apply to? There are no other kids in this scenario. All children need play. All children benefit from play. All children deserve play.
13:07
Thanks again for listening to Not Just Cute, the podcast. You can find show notes at notjustcutecom forward slash podcast. Forward slash, episode 70. There you’ll find links to some of the articles and research discussed today, as well as other fascinating tidbits I know you’ll find interesting. If you’re looking for something I’ve referenced today that you don’t find linked there, please email me and let me know.
13:31
You can also hit up the show notes for a link to the Why We Play letters. Forward slash podcast. Forward slash, episode 70. Or go straight to notjustcutecom forward slash why we play to get signed up and download your free sample letter. Please be sure to catch the full Why We Play series focused on better understanding and better articulating to others, why we play in early childhood education. You can find them all at the podcast homepage notjustcutecom forward slash podcast. I’m Amanda Morgan. You can read more on my blog and sign up for the Not Just Cute newsletter at notjustcutecom. You can also stay tuned for social media updates on Instagram by following me at Amanda underscore, notjustcute. Thanks for listening today and, as always, thank you for standing up for children and for childhood.
