The Wisdom of Play H Ow Ch I L D R En L E a R N to M a K E Sense O F T H E Wo R L D Introduction by David Elkind

The Wisdom of Play h ow ch i l d r en l e a r n to m a k e sense o f t h e wo r l d Introduction by David Elkind

“Many of our greatest thinkers locate their capacity for original and profound thought in their imaginative abilities, first developed through creative play in early childhood.” Sharna Olfman Psychology Professor Point Park University

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Contents

Introduction David Elkind ��2 History David Elkind ��4 Time Sydney Gurewitz Clemens ��6 Imagination Richard Lewis ��8 Brain Research Stuart Brown ��10 Research and Current Trends Joan Almon...... 12 Building Blocks for Learning Katrina Ferrara...... 14 Kathryn Hirsh-Pasek Roberta M. Golinkoff Active Learning Larry Schweinhart...... 16 Nature Rachel Grob...... 18 Open-ended and Creative Play Francis Wardle...... 20 Author Biographies...... 22 Resources...... 24 …a way to learn about self and the world through self-created experiences.

the brief articles in this booklet When children play games of Introduction present from a variety of their own invention, or even By David Elkind, PhD perspectives. For young children traditional games like hide and in particular, play is a fundamental seek, they often make up their lay, like love and work, is mode of learning. An infant’s own rules as to who is to be “it” an ambiguous term—with playful babbling teaches them to and what the limits of the game meaning that changes over create all the sounds needed to are. In this way, children learn the course of the human speak their native tongue or any what Jean Piaget called “mutual lifeP cycle. The play, love, and work language. A toddler learns that respect.” Mutual respect means of children are simply different when you bang a metal spoon or that when one child makes a rule, from those of adults. We easily a wooden spoon, you get two very the others follow. But the rule understand the new side of “love” different sounds. A child learns maker must in turn follow the that emerges in adolescence, and through dramatic play that some rules made later by another child. that the adult concept of work children are bossy, others timid. It is only when children engage in self-initiated play of this kind —earning one’s own living—does In playing board games like that they acquire a solid sense of not apply to children. Yet when it Checkers or Monopoly, a child mutual respect. comes to children’s play, we tend to learns not only strategy, but think of it in adult terms—as the also to read the body language Clearly, play serves a very opposite of work, engaged in for and vocal intonations of other different function for children its own sake. children. And, in seeing how than it does for adults. For However, child play is very other children respond to him or children, it is a way to learn different from adult play, as her during the game, the child about self and the world through learns about self. self-created experiences. That is one reason child-initiated play is so important and why it should not be replaced either by adult-organized sports or by academic activities disguised as games. When we appreciate the important role play serves in a child’s learning about self and world, we give children the time and opportunity to engage in the self-initiated play that is the surest way for them to fully realize all of their intellectual, emotional, and social potential.

…it starts with the child and not with the subject matter.

The philosophical foundations education came to be seen as History of early childhood education an important first step on the By David Elkind, PhD were provided by John Amos educational ladder. Comenius, John Locke, and Jean In America, the Head Start Jacques Rousseau. Its curriculum arly childhood Program, launched in the 1960s and methodology were created education, the care and for low-income children, had by the likes of Johann Heinrich instruction of young an unintended consequence. Pestalozzi, Friedrich Froebel, children outside of Although it was very effective, the Maria Montessori, and Rudolf Ethe home, over the last half title gave parents the impression Steiner. Most recently, it was century has become a downward that education was a race, and that scientifically grounded by extension of schooling. It the earlier you start, the earlier and the research and theories of is now the first rung on the better you finish. Middle-income Sigmund Freud, Jean Piaget, and educational ladder. In many parents wanted their preschoolers Erik Erikson. While there are respects, however, this most to have a head start as well. This differences in the approaches recent addition to the pedagogical gave added emphasis to the of these progenitors of early hierarchy is quite different from importance of early childhood childhood education, they are its elementary and secondary education as the answer to overshadowed by one common predecessors. improving the educational system. principle: that early childhood The early childhood curriculum curriculum and practice must be As a consequence, kindergarten, is the most holistic and least adapted to the maturing needs, once a half-day affair required by differentiated at any level abilities, and interests of the child. only 40 percent of US states, has of education. It is also the become largely a full-day affair This was the principle embodied most solidly grounded in required nationwide. Academics, in the first kindergarten program, philosophy, in clearly articulated including math and reading developed by Friedrich Froebel methodology, and in theory curricula, testing and grades, are (1782-1852) and the first early and research. Those who now the norm in many schools. childhood program to be contributed to the discipline of Programs for younger children widely adopted in both Europe early childhood education came have expanded as well. Today, and abroad. The kindergarten from occupations and professions some 80 percent of children movement was propelled by the outside the academic domain. under the age of six spend part industrial revolution and the What they had in common was or full time in non-parental introduction of women into the an understanding of children. child care settings. Having your factory labor force. Later, Maria And that is what makes early child cared for outside of the Montessori’s (1870-1952) early childhood education unique; it home, once looked down upon childhood program was also starts with the child and not with as an abrogation of a mother’s widely adopted both in Europe the subject matter. maternal instinct, is now a and abroad. But it was not until socially accepted practice. Indeed, after WWII that early childhood 4 those parents who choose not to of early childhood education, “the new first grade.” The articles put their children in out-of-home supported by an overwhelming presented in this booklet make settings are the ones perceived amount of contemporary research clear that a play-based curriculum as insufficiently concerned with and classroom experience, is is best suited to meet the emerging their child’s welfare. dismissed as irrelevant. Instead, needs, abilities and interests of we have had a politically and young children. We have come too With the rapid expansion and commercially driven effort to far from where early education acceptance of early childhood make early childhood education began: with the child. programs, the basic principle

5 …the hummy rhythm of the children’s attention to their work.

relaxes. To children, time is it’s “cleanup time.” Respecting Time measured in units of joy. this, some programs choose to let structures remain—out of By Sydney Gurewitz Clemens From the moment they greet the way of the cleaning staff—so the children in the morning, building can continue tomorrow. two-year-old on the adults at a child care center sandy beach with a pail or kindergarten convey their Waiting in line at the supermarket and a shovel lives in attitude about how time is to be feels wasteful unless you play with joy, outside of time. He used. Without pressure, there’s the other people in line. So it is Ahas the attention span of a giant. time to say hello and ask how in the early childhood classroom. He will play, with or without your things are going. Courteous, If children have to wait, they company, as long as you’ll let him. relaxed interactions start a good will get impatient or angry—not A seven-year-old city child, at day. Where time is organized emotions you’re trying to develop. that same beach, lets himself rigidly, and there’s never enough Wise teachers thus arrange a fluid, hang out, observes people, birds, of it, staff and children collide. responsive day with minimal and water. Suddenly, without an Children want to keep on waiting. In Reggio Emilia, Italy, external trigger, he gets up and building with blocks until they’ve children and staff work together sprints along the beach and into finished what they’re building, on a project for as long as eight the water up to just the right and they resent having to tear or ten weeks, returning to it most height, stops, rests, considers, down what they’ve built because days, as if they had all the time in the world. A great deal can be accomplished by children working on this kind of extended timeline, and these children’s ability to understand how the world works changes because mindful time was invested in important exploration. A good classroom will flow. Teachers will have a general idea of a schedule, but respond intuitively to the hummy rhythm of the children’s attention to their work. Like good parents and good friends, good teachers tune in to those they care for, and promote a flowing, peaceful use of time.

…bringing children into a space of their unique knowing and understanding.

or jump as high as the clouds, and bringing children into a Imagination becoming, in an instant, a part of space of their unique knowing By Richard Lewis the exuberance and playfulness of and understanding. nature itself. lay is an act of imagining. Even our own adult imagining When children go out- In more solitary forms of is a form of play. Haven’t we all side to play—running, play—be it a child playing in a noticed that when we imagine, skipping, jumping—what sandbox, dressing up, or having dream and reality, time and space, Pis activated is a different form of a conversation with a doll—the feeling and thought begin to knowing. It is a way of believing imagination is now, through intertwine, blending components that allows children, if they its own resources, at play. It is that reflect who we are and how wish, to run as fast as the wind creating, pretending, performing, we interpret the wondrously complex world around us? For the child, both play and imagining are instinctive capacities. They are not only crucial to a child’s sense of well- being, but also, if encouraged and supported, the path to envisioning possibilities, discovering new ideas, enlarging experience, and questioning and expressing the delicate boundaries of the known and the unknown. Perhaps it is part of the genius of childhood to integrate play and imagining into one seamless activity. A way in which the life of our minds and our bodies are in dialogue with each other. Or, as one child, Maggi, said to me: “When I play it feels like you can’t fall down. And it feels like the stars are carrying me.”

…nothing lights up a child’s brain like play.

into higher centers, activating Brain Research interaction with the environment. By Stuart Brown, MD This flow is similar in humans and (founder of National Institute for Play) involves our hands, which are so richly connected with our brains, close look at and a primary way we interact young children with the world. As kids play with worldwide reveals the blocks, fashion mud pies, and spontaneous whole- throw balls, they are constantly Aself involvement of their bodies, fertilizing neural growth and minds and spirits in the joyful integrating complex areas that the pursuit of play. Something deep natural world offers. within prompts them to enjoy Immersion in the natural world the tug of gravity and urges is a central aspect of healthy them to move, chase each other, child’s play. High-tech industries wrestle and squeal with delight— such as NASA’s Jet Propulsion and to find pleasure through Laboratory have found that their exploration and tinkering with best overall problem solvers objects around them, making were master tinkerers in their toys or building fantasy forts youth. They have even altered and hiding places. their hiring policy to give high In studying what occurs in the priority to this play background brain during play, researchers information. into animal play have provided In childhood play, it is a safe evidence of play-brain assumption that kids need more relationships that also apply to than a two-dimensional screen humans. They have discovered to gain competency. Children that play arises from areas of the need free, hands-on play that is “ancient” brain (that all mammals kid-organized, to maximize their possess) that are organized for potential. Nothing lights up a survival, and they flow “upward” child’s brain like play.

…play works, but is seriously endangered in today’s schools.

experiment with academic on-task. Many parents are now Current Trends kindergartens, for instance, show demanding recess time for their & Research that play-based early education children, and some states have produces better long-term results outlawed the elimination of By Joan Almon (co-founder of Alliance for Childhood) in reading and math, social and recess. emotional adjustment, creativity, Many other studies documenting and oral expression. the value of play in early learning or the past half century Today, after a long decline, have been summarized in the the vital importance of the value of play is once again book A Mandate for Playful play in young children’s gaining recognition in the United Learning in Preschool: Applying development has been States. Position statements in the Scientific Evidence. These documentedF in study after favor of play and recess have been studies clearly indicate the direct study. This compelling evidence, issued by the American Academy relationship between the quality however, has been largely of Pediatrics, and numerous of early childhood play and later ignored by policy makers and articles on the importance of academic outcomes. school administrators pushing play have appeared in Scientific early academic instruction. The Overall there is a growing American, The New York Times, widespread assumption is that awareness of the importance of Atlantic Monthly, and other the earlier students are taught play for children of all ages and publications. literacy and math skills, the more there are many new initiatives successful they will be. But these Evidence showing the immediate supporting play. The research is arguments are not supported by benefits of play are summarized clear: young children need play well-designed research and so are by Olga Jarrett in her report in order for genuine learning to fundamentally flawed. titled “A Research-Based Case occur. But it will take work and for Recess.” Jarrett describes advocacy to reassess current Intensive test-driven programs children’s heightened attention education policies and develop may produce short-term gains to classroom work following a appropriate practices that are in scores, but long-term research time of play and activity. They grounded in this research. The indicates that these gains fade were less fidgety and more time for change is now. away. Studies of Germany’s

…balancing one block atop another, they are registering principles of physics and support.

Building Blocks “Creating environments to note patterns and compare where children can learn features. And when they build for Learning towers by masterfully balancing through play is not a simple one block atop another, they are By Katrina Ferrara, BA, thing to do consistently registering principles of physics Kathryn Hirsh-Pasek, PhD, and support. and Roberta M. Golinkoff, PhD and well...The role of the adult is critical...The adult Research suggests that four and designs an environment five year-olds given 15 minutes with hands-on, concrete of free play will spend a third of this time engaged in spatial, materials that encourage mathematical, and architectural exploration, discovery, activities! Studies also show that manipulation and active this kind of play, especially with blocks, helps children discover engagement of children.” principles such as symmetry and J. Hewes geometry and sets the stage for more advanced skills used later in locks. Seemingly mathematics and geography. simple, they actually Given their utility as a creative offer children an entire medium, a foundation for classroom’s worth of learning, and a basis for fun Bopportunities for mathematical interaction between parents and and spatial learning. children, blocks are one of the As children pick up and feel most versatile and rewarding the rigid angles and smooth items in the toy box. No wonder curves of wooden squares, the American Academy of circles, and triangles, they are Pediatrics recognized blocks learning the fundamentals of as among the “true toys” that shape and proportion. When they should be valued in our homes distinguish the green block from and schools. the red, they refine their ability

…we learn what we do.

reading, writing, and discovering learning how to take initiative. Active Learning meaning. These new abilities The HighScope Educational enrich our lives with whole new By Larry Schweinhart, PhD Research Foundation conducted a (HighScope) realms of knowledge, but they long-term follow-up study of three never replace our immediate types of preschool education: world of senses and activities. ctive learning is the direct instruction, traditional We learn what we do. way we all learn. From nursery school, and HighScope’s our beginnings, our When we make a plan, we are active participatory curriculum. brains are constantly learning how to work toward Direct instruction teachers taught Agrowing, connecting their objectives. When we carry out children lessons and how to give synapses in new ways and into a plan, we are learning how the right answers. Traditional increasingly complex structures. to follow through on what we nursery school teachers let At birth, we first learn to make say. When we review the plan children do what they wanted and sense of booming, buzzing afterwards, we are learning how to followed their lead. Teachers in confusion. We learn from take responsibility. When children the active participatory program what we see, feel, touch, taste, do what we tell them, they are had children plan, do, and review smell, and do. We develop learning how to do what we say. their own activities and supported the special human abilities of When we ask them what they them in these activities. All three language—speaking, listening, want to do and they do it, they are groups of children became better prepared for school, but the two more child-led approaches seemed to better prepare children for life—with fewer emotional problems and fewer crimes committed as teens. Children engaged in active learning learned not just from the lesson content, but also from the educational activities themselves.

…outside—all they need is time, playmates, and permission.

The number and kinds of bodies can do. As landscape Nature “variables” outdoors are endless: architect Robin Moore writes, By Rachel Grob, MA, PhD plants, animals, insects, water, “The indeterminacy of rough (Sarah Lawrence College) sand, dirt, dust, hills, holes— ground allows it to become all of these are fascinating, a play-partner, like other hink back to when and many change over time, forms of creative partnership: you were a child. Did constantly revitalized as material actress-audience, potter-clay, you crave the outdoors? for children’s play. Nature is photographer-subject, painter- Did you have a favorite the very best place for children canvas. The exploring/creating spot to play—a tree, a stream, T to find “loose parts”—that is, child is…using the landscape as a rocky crevice or vacant lot? material for play that can be a medium for understanding the Did you have a special place to moved around and used in many world by continually destructing/ hide, where you could watch ways. Pieces of wood can make reconstructing it.” without being seen and let your a fort or a miniature world; imagination run free? Did you Nature offers children not rocks can serve equally well as resist being called back inside, just physical room to play, but pretend people or pretend food wanting to swing one more mental and emotional room as in an imaginary game; dirt can minute with your face tilted up well. The “secret spaces” young be sculpted into a palace for to the darkening sky people need for private reflection ants or dug to create a hole for or to finish a last exhilarating and growth can be found in buried treasure. The open-ended game on the street? abundance, and children will use characteristics of the natural their time outdoors to nurture Because of our own experiences, world excite play far richer than contemplative as well as active many of us already know and what children will ever find in forms of playfulness. Their ability feel the benefits of play in natural manufactured toys that require to relate creatively and peacefully settings. Research corroborating them only to push buttons or with others expands in nature our firsthand perceptions comes follow pre-set rules. too; researchers have found as no surprise, but it helps us In addition, the gross motor decreased incidents of aggression understand why outdoor play play children need to become and increased imaginative play is so essential. One reason is physically adept emerges and creative social interactions that nature offers unparalleled spontaneously and joyfully in in environments converted from opportunities for exploration and the outdoors. The natural world asphalt to an “environmental experimentation. As landscape offers room to run, irresistible yard” with ponds, gardens, a architect Samuel Nicholson put opportunities to climb, uneven meadow, and trees. it, “In any environment, both terrain to be negotiated. Most the degree of inventiveness and Features of the natural world children need no coaxing creativity, and the possibility children explore with their or coaching to burn calories of discovery, are directly senses by day, they play with in outside—all they need is time, proportional to the number and their dreams at night, and turn playmates, and permission from kind of variables in it.” into poetry when they wake. adults to explore what their

18 19 …a sense of power, control, and mastery of their own learning.

• Creatively adapting everyday Open-ended and objects to play with; Creative Play • Imposing new meanings and By Francis Wardle, PhD uses on familiar objects and the environment; • Enjoying themselves without observed some young needing to use expensive, girls helping their mothers technological or educational toys; wash clothes in the stream. The Maya living in the • Finding a creative way to have highlandsI of Guatemala care for fun and enjoy each other’s their children while engaging in company. work—the boys with the men, Open-ended play materials are the girls with the women. On those that offer children many this occasion, a small group of ways to engage with them. For three to five-year-old girls example, children can play with was helping their mothers. sand, water, or clay in a variety However, they soon got bored, of ways. In creative play, children so they started to invent a game use objects and toys to create by tossing the small pieces of stories, build constructions, and soap to each other, and trying engage in a fantasy world. The to catch the slippery objects. use of materials in flexible and They delighted in the fun of creative ways teaches children to a game that required great be flexible and creative thinkers concentration, physical agility, with abstract ideas and concepts. and creativity! This game continued for a considerable The value of open-ended and length of time as the girls found creative play is that it enables different ways to enjoy this children to explore a variety activity. The mothers seemed of creative uses of common quite content to watch them materials and environments, have fun playing in the stream. challenges conventional ways to It seems to me these girls were use materials, and gives children doing many things, including: a sense of power, control, and mastery of their own learning. • Creating play activities to eliminate boredom;

David Elkind, PhD, is currently Richard Lewis is a teacher, Author Professor emeritus of author, and the Biographies Child Development at founder and director Tufts University in of The Touchstone Medford, Center for Children, We are especially grateful Massachusetts. His research and an arts and education organization for the help and support of theorizing have been in the areas located in New York City. these authors, without whom of perceptual, social, and (www.touchstonecenter.net) this book would not have been cognitive development where he The Center’s particular interest is has worked to build on the the role of the imagination within possible . Thank you for your theories of Jean Piaget. Perhaps learning—and its relation to our time, creativity and enthusiasm Elkind is best known for his understanding and expression of in writing these beautiful books, The Hurried Child, All the natural world. Recent books chapters . Thank you for your Grown Up and No Place to Go, by Richard Lewis include: When Miseducation, and most recently, Thought is Young, Living by care and respect for children The Power of Play. Wonder, I Catch My Moment: Art everywhere and your tireless and Writing by Children on the Life Sydney Gurewitz Clemens, work in celebration of childhood. of Play, and a collection of poems, an early childhood Shaking the Grass for Dew. teacher for more than thirty years, is a widely Stuart Brown, MD, is a medical recognized author doctor, psychiatrist, and presenter on topics which clinical researcher, involve hot cognition: children and the founder of the learning through things they National Institute for are passionate about. These Play. (www.nifplay.org) He first topics can be from the happy discovered the importance of parts of life: early literacy, play by discerning its absence in creativity, and many aspects a carefully studied group of of the work being done in homicidal young males, Reggio Emilia, or from life’s beginning with the University of painful parts, including divorce, Texas Tower mass murderer, death and dying, and parents in Charles Whitman. Dr. Brown prison. Sydney is the author of speaks regularly to Fortune 500 two practical and inspiring companies and groups across the books on early childhood: The country on the importance of Sun's Not Broken, A Cloud's Just play in our lives. Most recently, in the Way: On Child-Centered he appeared at the New York Teaching, and Pay Attention Public Library. The producer of a to the Children: Lessons for three-part PBS series, The Teachers and Parents from Sylvia Promise of Play, he has also Ashton-Warner. Visit her website appeared on NPR and was at www.eceteacher.org. featured in a cover story in The New York Times Magazine.

22 Joan Almon is director of the US Roberta Michnick Golinkoff, Rachel Grob, MA, PhD, is a Alliance for Childhood, PhD, is the H. Rodney faculty member in the a public education and Sharp Professor of Health Advocacy advocacy group that Education at the Program and directs addresses issues University of Delaware, the Child Develop- affecting children’s overall health and winner of the prestigious John ment Institute at Sarah Lawrence and well-being. The Alliance is Simon Guggenheim Fellowship and College. Activities of the Institute focusing on restoring play in the James McKeen Cattell prize. include research on play, a kindergartens and other early Her research is funded by federal week-long summer institute on childhood settings, as well as in grants and she has written and facilitating play, and collaboration the lives of all children. Materials co-authored dozens of scientific on a series of films for public can be found on their website at journal articles and 12 books television. Dr. Grob is author of www.allianceforchildhood.org. For including: Play = Learning: How articles on parenting and over 30 years, Joan was a Waldorf Play Motivates and Enhances childhood; her book from kindergarten teacher, teacher- Children’s Cognitive and Social- Rutgers University Press 2012 is educator, and consultant to Emotional Growth, and A Mandate titled Testing Baby: The Waldorf schools worldwide. She for Playful Learning in Preschool, Transformation of Newborn has written numerous articles and which makes the case for play and Screening, Parenting and chapters on early childhood, play, playful learning so children can Policymaking. Her children, and imagination. thrive both socially and Jonah and Talia, play and write academically. poetry at the Blue Rock School Kathryn Hirsh-Pasek, PhD, is in West Nyack, N.Y.. the Stanley and Debra Larry Schweinhart, PhD, is Lefkowitz Professor in an early childhood Francis Wardle has a PhD in the Department of program researcher Early Childhood Psychology at Temple and speaker. He has Education from the University, where she serves as conducted research University of Kansas. Director of the Infant Language at HighScope Educational He has been a Head Laboratory and was the recipient Research Foundation Start director and national of the Great Teacher and Eberman (www.highscope.org) since 1975 education director for Children’s Research Awards. She has written and served as its president since World Learning Centers. 11 books and her work has 2003. He has directed the Currently he teaches at the appeared in over 100 publications. HighScope Perry Preschool Study University of Phoenix and Red Visit her website at through age 40, the HighScope Rocks Community College. Dr http://kathyhirshpasek.com. Preschool Curriculum Wardle has authored several Comparison Study through age books, including Play, Katrina Ferrara, BA, is the 23, evaluations of Head Start and Development, and Early Infant Lab Coordinator at Michigan School Readiness Education (with Johnson Temple University. Special thanks programs, and the validation of and Christie) and many articles for putting together the chapter the HighScope Child Observation on play. He is a member of on Block Play. Record. He received his PhD in Partners of the Americas, and Education from Indiana a founding board member of University in 1975. He and his the Starfish Educational Institute, wife have two children which organizes an annual and five grandchildren. teacher training conference in Maceio, Brazil.

23 Resources

Recommended Reading The Power of Play: Learning What Comes Naturally David Elkind, Cambridge: Da Capo Press, 2007 The Case for Make Believe: Saving Play in a Commercialized World Secret Spaces of Childhood, Susan Linn, New York: The New Press, 2008 Elizabeth Goodenough (Ed.), Ann Arbor: Michigan University Press, 2003 Childhood and Nature: Design Principles for Educators David Sobel, Portland: Stenhouse Publishers, 2008 Several Perspectives on Children’s Play: Scientific Reflections for Practitioners Crisis in the Kindergarten: Why Children Tom Jambor & Jan Van Gils (Eds.), Need to Play in School Philadelphia: Garant, 2007 Edward Miller & Joan Almon, College Park: Alliance for Childhood, 2009 Organizations The Geography of Childhood: Why Children Alliance for Childhood promotes policies and practices Need Wild Places that support children’s healthy development, love of Gary Paul Nabhan & Stephen Trimble, learning, and joy in living. Their public education Boston: Beacon Press, 1994 campaigns bring to light both the promise and the Introduction To Early Childhood Education: vulnerability of childhood. They act for the sake of the A Multidimensional Approach To Child-Centered children themselves and for a more just, democratic, and Care And Learning ecologically responsible future. Visit the website at Francis Wardle, Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2003 www.allianceforchildhood.org. Knowledge Under Construction: The Importance of Play The US PLAY Coalition is a partnership to promote in Developing Children’s Spatial and Geometric Thinking the value of play throughout life. Its purpose is to bring Daniel Ness & Stephen J. Farenga, together individuals, organizations, and businesses that New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2007 recognize play as a valuable and necessary part of a healthy Last Child in the Woods, and productive life. The first play movement started in Richard Louv, Chapel Hill: Algonquin Books, 2006 the early 1900’s. Now, given the many problems with obesity and other social ills that have occurred with the Lifetime Effects: The HighScope Perry Preschool Study erosion of play opportunities, it is time for a second great through Age 40 play movement. The US Play Coalition is housed within Larry J. Schweinhart et al., Ypsilanti: HighScope Press, 2005 Clemson University’s College of Health, Education and Loose Parts: Inspiring Play in Young Children Human Development. Lisa Daily & Miriam Beleglovsky, Learn more at http://usplaycoalition.clemson.edu St. Paul: Redleaf Press, 2015 International Play Association, USA (IPA/USA) is the A Mandate for Playful Learning in Preschool national affiliate of IPA World, an international non- Kathryn Hirsh-Pasek, Roberta M. Golinkoff, Laura E. Berk, & governmental organization, founded in Denmark in Dorothy G. Singer, New York: Oxford University Press, 2009 1961. The purpose of the IPA is to protect, preserve, and Natural Learning: The Life History of an promote the child’s right to play. Specific interests include Environmental Schoolyard environments for play emphasizing universal access, leisure Robin C. Moore & Herbert H. Wong, time facilities, programs that develop the whole child, play Berkeley: MIG Communications, 1997 leadership training, toys, and play materials. Check out the website: www.ipausa.org. Play, Development and Early Education James E. Johnson, James Christie, & Francis Wardle, Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2005

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