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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.