play Archives

What we mean by: Playful Parenting in the early years

The LEGO Foundation aims to build a future in which learning through play empowers all children to become creative, engaged, life-long learners. Parents are fundamental to that aim, as they are heavily invested in their children’s development and learning. While this is true across all ages of children, this leaflet has a critical focus on children from birth to three years old. The importance of parenting for infants and young children in this age group cannot be overstated.

This leaflet brings together our understanding of playful experiences that lead to deeper learning, with the international conversation around high quality parenting.

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Evidence Brief – Parents, Play and Emotional Wellbeing

The UK Government has recognised the impact that parents playing, talking to and reading to their children has on early language development. This is fantastic. But the benefits of play are much wider: it contributes to cognitive, motor, emotional and social development. Play should be thought of as a vehicle to improve a wide range of outcomes for children, as well as an important part of a happy childhood.

This evidence brief describes what we know about how early play between children and their parents contributes to emotional development and mental health. It also explains why and how policy makers might use this information in their work.

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Responsive caregiving, early learning and play, and children’s safety and security during COVID-19

This rapid review takes stock of emerging research on nurturing care for young children during the COVID-19 crisis. This review synthesizes 112 scholarly and scientific studies that have examined three pillars of nurturing care during the pandemic: responsive caregiving, early learning and play, and children’s safety and security.

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TOY for Inclusion Toolkit

Category: ECD and Services | Types of resource: Training | Year: 2018 | Age focus: Three to six |

The ‘TOY for Inclusion Toolkit – A step-by-step guide to creating inclusive Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) Play Hubs for all generations’, provides the necessary information to enable trainers and practitioners of different sectors to set-up and run play spaces for children, families and communities.

The toolkit pays particular attention to social integration, intercultural and intergenerational dialogue, and social inclusion in the context of ECEC.

If you want to have more information about the TOY for Inclusion approach or you want to set-up a Play Hub, please contact us.

The training materials (Power Points) mentioned in the Toolkit are available upon request.