An important incidental change that resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic has been our collective rediscovery of the outdoors. As we begin building back better, we have an opportunity to leverage this re-engagement to enhance our...Read more
It’s been a tough 18 months for Australian families and their children. We can’t underestimate the cumulative impact of parent and carer job losses, mental strain, working from home and remote learning. As developmental paediatricians...Read more
No parent would ever say ‘this is a great neighbourhood – but I won’t let my child walk to school or play in the local park’. Former Bogotá mayor Enrique Peñalosa grasped this insight when...Read more
Research into the impact of COVID on early-years classroom play in Northern Ireland points to a significant negative impact on children’s social skills and level of independence, but at the same time they have become...Read more
Being socially and emotionally competent from an early age is likely to help children win acceptance by their peers, build better relationships with teachers, and facilitate academic learning.Read more
Can parents and educators support opportunities for children to play, when so many of their activities are restricted by COVID-19?. That’s the question posed by Elizabeth Cushing, the president of Playworks, a US non-profit children’s...Read more
Play England has produced a webinar and new practical guide to help organisations adopt a play-based approach as they slowly emerge from the COVID-19 lockdown.Read more
The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted the education of at least 1.5 billion school students. That’s more than 90 per cent of the world’s children. Although many schools in the west, along with private schools in...Read more
Society has ‘an obligation to reclaim play in cities’ because of the ‘critical role’ it plays in child development and learning, says a global play rights alliance.
The Real Play Coalition says the evidence is overwhelming...Read more
If you live near a public playground it can be a convenient outdoor destination for short excursions and a life-saving source of pressure relief when the kids are too surly to bear inside the house....Read more
A generation ago, play was something most parents thought about. On a nice day, parents would send kids out into the neighbourhood in the morning, telling them to be back for dinner. That’s rare these...Read more