The design of a schoolyard can impact how students connect with each other - a connection that carries over into the rest of their school day. During the school day, children need regular opportunities to play, socialize, rest, and re-energize. These opportunities improve mood, well-being, resilience, and social harmony -...
TIMPANI toy study
Professor Trawick-Smith directs the TIMPANI toy study, which was a ten-year, empirical study that looked at how young children in natural settings play with a variety of toys. The study identified toys that best engage children in intellectual, creative, social, and verbal interactions in preschool classrooms.
Center for the Developing Child – Harvard University
This site has a great deal of valuable instructional information on what parents and caretakers of children can do to optimize their children's development. Be sure to check out, under the "Science" menu the "Key Concepts" topics, particularly the material on "Serve & Return" which explains how particular types of...
WINGS -Helping Kids Soar
Our mission is to equip at-risk kids with the skills they need to succeed in school, stay in school, and thrive in life. THE NEED Growing up is tough, growing up without the resources and support you need is even tougher. Low-income kids oftentimes experience significant trauma, are exposed to...
Challenge Success
Challenge Success is an organization based in Palo Alto, Calif., that helps schools make research-backed changes to improve children's mental health. OUR MISSION Challenge Success partners with schools, families, and communities to embrace a broad definition of success and to implement research-based strategies that promote student well-being and engagement with...
Defending the Early Years
Our mission is to work for a just, equitable, and quality early childhood education for every young child, by informing educators, administrators, and parents about how children develop and learn best and advocating for the active, playful, experiential approaches to learning informed by child development theory and evidence-based research. DEY's...
IPA – International Play Association – World
IPA is an international non-governmental organization founded in 1961. It provides a forum for exchange and action across disciplines and across sectors. IPA member groups initiate a wide variety of projects that promote the child's right to play, with members in close to 50 countries. These include seminars, conferences, study...
IPA – International Play Association – USA
IPA-USA carries forth the mission of its parent organization, IPA World. To accomplish the Vision, Mission, and Guiding Principles, IPA-USA does the following: Advocates for the ratification by the USA on the Convention of the Rights of the Child Acts as a resource for other national and international organizations and...
Learning Policy Institute
The Learning Policy Institute conducts and communicates independent, high-quality research to improve education policy and practice. Working with policymakers, researchers, educators, community groups, and others, the Institute seeks to advance evidence-based policies that support empowering and equitable learning for each and every child. Nonprofit and nonpartisan, the Institute connects policymakers...
Let Grow
We Are Leading the Movement for Childhood Independence Let Grow believes today's kids are smarter and stronger than our culture gives them credit for. We reject the idea that they are in constant physical, emotional or psychological danger from creeps, kidnapping, germs, grades, flashers, frustration, failure, baby snatchers, bugs, bullies,...
Longworth Education – New Zealand
Longworth Education is a small, passionate consultancy focused on supporting schools who want to implement learning through play into the primary education environment. Check out their blog for Teacher resources and publications https://longwortheducation.co.nz/about-us/blog/ Browse through our blog to find books, articles and publications about learning through play and associated topics...
Right To Play
OUR MISSION To protect, educate and empower children to rise above adversity using the power of play. OUR STORY For more than 20 years, Right To Play has worked in some of the most difficult and dangerous places on earth to help children to stay in school and graduate, resist...
TASP – The Association for the Study of Play
The Association for the Study of Play (TASP) is the premier professional organization in academia dedicated to interdisciplinary research and theory construction concerning play throughout the world. Presently the Association publishes a quarterly newsletter titled Play Review and an annual volume titled Play & Culture Studies. The Association's broad multidisciplinary...
The Alliance for Early Childhood
OUR MISSION The Alliance for Early Childhood is a collaborative, community organization that supports and guides families and educators to nurture the healthy, well-rounded development of children from birth to eight years old. OUR VISION As a community, we can "put the child back in childhood" and build a strong...
The Alliance for Self-Directed Education
Imagine what would happen if, instead of sending children to conventional schools where their natural ways of learning are curtailed, we provided them with the resources that would allow their curiosity, playfulness, and other natural ways of learning to flourish. That is "Self-Directed-Education" (SDE): education that derives from the self-chosen...
The Genius of Play
Our mission is to provide families with the information and inspiration they need to make play an important part of their child's day. Through our website and social media channels, parents can find facts, useful tips and expert advice on how toys and play can help kids build confidence, creativity,...
The National Accreditation on the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)
The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) is a professional membership organization that works to promote high-quality early learning for all young children, birth through age 8, by connecting early childhood practice, policy, and research. We advance a diverse, dynamic early childhood profession and support all who...
