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Connecticut teachers want you to know that “play-based learning” is not an oxymoron.
For years child development and education experts have praised the benefits of play-based learning — a pedagogy that drives organic and lasting academic growth through activities that spark curiosity, engagement and joy in young students. Now, Connecticut legislation makes an explicit commitment to play-based learning in statute. The Gesell Program in Early Childhood at the Yale Child Study Center's Director, Dr. Peg Oliveira, weighs in on the importance of this new law.
- July 15, 2024Source: Shifting Schools Podcast: Conversations for K12 Educators
On our power of play series this week we talk with Dr. Peg Oliveira about the power of play in early childhood, and throughout life.
- February 01, 2023Source: The Journal of Social and Emotional Learning
Families are struggling (Phelps & Sperry, 2020), and research suggests that parents are reporting more child behavior problems (Sun et al., 2022). With a growing increase in requests for mental health services, a plan for ensuring that the children of the COVID-19 generation receive the academic and social and emotional support they need to rebound from continued pandemic echoes is needed. So is a pause. In stressful times, parents and teachers can return to a basic, fundamental “old school” priority of child development: play.
- July 31, 2020
In addition to protecting children from physical threats, we strive to buffer children from the psychological impacts of toxic stress. This pandemic brings both types of dangers.
- July 31, 2019
While some may think of academics and play as mutually exclusive, others argue that it’s important to embed the brain-boosting practice of play into the skill-building activities of academics. This summer, the Gesell Program in Early Childhood partnered with New Haven Public Schools to launch a play-based learning pilot focused on pre-K through grade 3.
- July 25, 2019Source: New Haven Register
Over the month of July, teachers were incorporating play into their classrooms. Teachers in the New Haven Public School Systems Play Pilot Program were taught on how to use play principles to guide students in learning and the exploration of topics in the classroom. Throughout the play-based program, students have become more interested in what they are doing and want to learn more.
- July 25, 2019Source: New Haven Independent
The play-based curriculum program that took place in July, has changed the way New Haven Public Schools look at education. Teachers see that with the play-based curriculum, they are not wasting their time or energy to get the kids to sit down and focus. Instead, teachers have students who want to learn and are interested in the topics they are exploring.
- March 22, 2019Source: New Haven Register
All work and no play makes the city’s youngest children unprepared to learn in school, or so said dozens of experts, parents and students. At a Board of Alders Education Committee meeting Wednesday on the role of play in early childhood education, school district officials acknowledged that classrooms could be doing more.
- February 13, 2019Source: District Administration
Early childhood educators should not sleep on the effect of naps on learning. Children ages 3 to 5 years old should get 10 to 13 hours of sleep, including naps, every 24 hours, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. No data exists on how many schools still offer nap time, says Peg Oliveira, executive director of the Gesell Institute of Child Development. However, it is now one of a number of practices that were once considered normal in early childhood classrooms but have been traded for academic activities, she adds. While not all young children may need to nap, virtually all would benefit academically from taking a pause to process information, Oliveira says. This is in line with research that shows the benefits of mindfulness and meditation.
- December 10, 2018Source: Education Week
Some of the students who most need that time to rest may be less likely to get it, according to Peg Oliveira, the executive director of the Gesell Institute of Child Development, which studies early learning and school readiness. Nap time "is a victim of the increased academic pressures in early-childhood classrooms," Oliveira said. "In schools that have the luxury of students who arrive in kindergarten ready for the demands of kindergarten, they feel they can relax a little bit and provide time for naps and play. But these tend to be more affluent [public] and private schools. ... The places that feel pressure to show academic gains for students feel they don't have the luxury to give kids these ... cognitive breaks."