Welcome to week 2: Foundations of Learning through Play

Hi everybody and welcome to unit two of our course. In this unit, we’re going to dive into what it means to learn through play When kids and even adults are engaged in play, they’re actually learning the whole time. Play is incredibly important not just for child development, but for human development and not just on the weekends or on vacation, but even during times of crisis. We’re going to be joined by experts from the Lego Foundation, who will help us identify the characteristics of meaningful play and the holistic skills that develop during play. And you will be asked to play along at home, so get ready.

To start us off in this step, we are going to talk about the characteristics that are seen in meaningful play experiences. With me in Denmark are two experts on the subject. We’ve got Dr. Bo Stjerne Thomsen Who is the Lego Foundation Chair of Learning through Play and knows absolutely everything there is to know about what happens when children and adults play. And we have Paul St John Frisoli, who is the senior program specialist working in humanitarian crisis at the foundation. Paul has done work with children and teachers and caregivers on improving their social and emotional wellbeing during challenging times. Paul…Bo, I see that you are both playing. Quick question. I’m curious at what point will we get to the learning?

Well, this is learning Carly. You know, as adults we just need to keep on learning and the best way to do that is to play. So you know, we need to be more creative. We need to problemsolve. We need to collaborate and you know, as a matter of fact, I really, truly enjoy what I’m doing right now. And it is about being completely immersed in testing and trying out things. Yes, Learning through Play is a vehicle for children’s social emotional development, especially in challenging times. And we all know that challenging times arise. And social emotional learning. These are things that we use in everyday life.

They help us manage our emotions, focus, pay attention, get along with others, problemsolve Really helpful things, that sometimes we don’t even pay attention to, but that are really important.