Join Foundations, Inc.’s Beyond School Hours 2021 National Education Conference online and watch Kathy’s keynote speech on February 17, 2021!

We’re excited that Playful Learning Landscapes was selected as one of the Placemaking Winners of the Real Play City Challenge based on the Urban Play Framework!

Join Playful Learning Landscapes Action Network, Playful Pittsburgh Collaborative, and Trying Together for a virtual conference bringing together educators, researchers, policymakers, and practitioners to discuss and share best practices to […]

The Society for Research in Child Development  announced the results of our 2020 election.

Susan Engel’s exquisitely written book, “The Intellectual Lives of Children” (2021) demonstrates how #playful learning sparks curiosity, creativity and 21st century skills. It is the pedagogy for our time! Read […]

The situation is dire. American education is slipping: Only 35 percent of fourth grade students were at least proficient readers on the 2019 National Assessment of Educational Progress, a serious […]

We congratulate Miguel Cardona, Connecticut’s current education commissioner, on his nomination to serve as secretary of education under President-elect Biden. Following Senate confirmation, it will benefit children, teachers, and families […]

Obstacle courses, scavenger hunts, and other possibilities to help the little ones during these challenging times… Kathy chatted with CGTN…

Experts voice concern over how children are relating to the world outside their homes during the pandemic, as well as the stress they are feeling from their parent’s COVID-related financial […]

There’s growing concern among parents that the pandemic will impact development for their kids. “It hasn’t just been COVID, right? We’ve learned, you know, our youngest children have learned to […]

Covid-19 has meant the youngest children can’t go to birthday parties or play dates. Parents are keeping them out of day care. What is the long-term effect of the pandemic […]

Kathy and Helen Hadani talk about their Big Ideas paper in the Brookings Policy 2020 series titled, “A new path to education reform: Playful learning promotes 21st-century skills in schools […]

In Early Learning Nation, Mark Swartz writes about the Playful Learning Playbook…

Kids miss out on a lot during a pandemic. Luckily, question-asking doesn’t need to be one of those things….

On November 12, 2020, the online, open-access journal of the American Medical Association published an article penned by the esteemed Dr. Dimitri Christakis and colleagues suggesting that school closings created […]

On November 19, 2020, Playful Learning Playbook in Action introduced its new Playful Learning Playbook — A beautiful way to build playful communities and reduce inequality!

Early Learning Nation explores the world of early learning by connecting with advocates, community leaders, early learning professionals, parents and caretakers, national policymakers and scientists. In their new series, six […]

The American education system is not preparing all children to thrive. Amidst a national movement to dismantle systemic racism, our schools risk propagating educational inequity by design.

How has the science of learning evolved, and have schools done enough to keep up? How does play promote executive functioning? How does the human brain depend on relationships for […]

On October 20, 2020, Kathy and other speakers addressed various issues and solutions inequity in educational institutions, pedagogy, and practices….

If you’re familiar with Maxeme Tuchman’s background, you wouldn’t be surprised to hear she runs a company that promotes reading and education among children… Read More…

In her latest Blog Post for the Brookings Institute, Kathy and co-authors comment, “The staggering impact of COVID-19 on American lives and the economy was understandably the central issue in […]

Screens are a fixture in children’s lives from a young age, but giving them access to television, tablets or phones doesn’t always mean it will have a negative impact on […]

Move This World (MTW), a leading provider of social emotional learning programs for PreK-12, is excited to announce the launch of the Move This World Audio Network introducing the podcast, The Saracast: Conversations […]

QUILS is featured in “Early Learning Distance Resources: 2020-2021 Educational Technology Resources” by the Early Learning Innovation Network!

Learning doesn’t have to happen in a classroom, and in fact, the most valuable learning experiences take place far from the four walls of a classroom. Kids learn and retain […]

It sounds so simple: all we need to do is show people the science and evidence-based research for how to stay safe, stay healthy, save the environment, and more, and […]

With a rocky year of pandemic-related educational disruptions ahead, many parents are looking for ways to help their kids learn at home. Toys advertised as teaching STEM might seem like […]

There’s a group behind efforts to get existing educational lessons from local institutions in front of educators and students. Michigan Future, Inc. is a non-partisan, non-profit organization that collaborates with […]

Many toys are labeled as “STEM toys,” with claims that they teach kids science, technology, engineering and math. But very few toys that hold these claims are actually studied. Some […]

What’s the right balance between screen time and digital equity? Researchers and K-12 educators grapple with the complex landscape of educational technology and access. Amy Burroughs spoke to  four experts […]

Millions of kids nationwide are spending hours at home now completing lessons online at their own pace or in virtual class settings. But could this interruption in traditional learning lead […]

Screen time for school-aged children decreases their ability to imagine the world, or the so-called ‘mental imagery’ skills. But as Melissa Hogenboom explores, we have the ability to help them […]

Canned vegetables aren’t as good as fresh vegetables. But they’re better than none. That’s the premise some experts share about the merits of online prekindergarten, although most agree in-person is […]

Ever get the feeling like you are babbling more than your baby? It turns out that going gaga over your baby actually serves a purpose. It helps them with language […]

A short piece on “Avoiding the COVID Slump” chalk full of tips for overworked, overtired parents… Watch Here….

Amy Robach spoke to Kathy on ABC News Live on May 7, 2020. Watch Here….  

“During the current COVID-19 crisis, children’s play has necessarily evolved to accommodate school shutdowns, social distancing guidelines, and parents’ at-home work schedules. Parks and playgrounds are off-limits… Which of these […]

On her podcast, Dr. Aliza Pressman spoke with Kathy  about conversations with babies, the music of language, and how it all helps with language development! Check it out….

Children and Screens has teamed up with some of the top experts in the fields of parenting, education and child psychology to bring you a series of helpful hints and […]

The approach, stress and rigidity that often accompanies modern lesson plans may cause young children to feel frustrated or disengaged. …The school routines of kindergarteners have changed… Over the 12 […]

As families adjust to the new landscape of the pandemic — home — some are finding it impossible to go without outside help from their extended families, nannies or caregivers… […]

“Isolation might seem more damaging for kids without siblings. But it doesn’t have to be… Watching my 3-year-old become a geography expert over the last few weeks has taken my […]

“It is a well-established fact that babies’ brains develop at warp speed in the first three years of life, laying critical cognitive, emotional, and social foundations. But what happens when […]

When a baby peers into the face of an adult making the kind of goofy faces and noises most of us make when looking at an infant, they’re doing more […]

On Wednesday, February 26, the Center for Universal Education and the Bass Center for Transformative Placemaking at Brookings hosted an event introducing Playful Learning Landscapes, an interdisciplinary project aimed at […]

“A Washington state district made an entire school just for kindergarteners where joy and play are the focus… On a sunny winter morning in Sara Stevens’ kindergarten classroom at Pathfinder […]

The building block has been such a fact of American childhood for so long, it’s easy to dismiss the humble little cube as irrelevant, particularly in light of fancy newer […]

Head Start, the childcare program designed more than half-a-century ago for low-income families in the US, has an unusual problem: It is both oversubscribed and under-attended. Created in 1965 as […]

And as we start 2020, Quartz offers a resolution for all of us to put our phones down in front of the kids. Good advice… “Holidays can be a stressful […]

We all want to raise smart, successful kids, so it’s tempting to play Mozart for our babies and run math drills for kindergartners. After all, we need to give them […]

You know what they say — all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. And science seems to confirm that statement, with findings that play is as important […]

Ever since modern society has become obsessed with data, each week seems to bring a new invention that makes us wonder – do we really, actually need this? This time […]

The more words autistic children hear as infants — and the more verbal interactions they have with their caregivers — the better their language skills at age 2, a new […]

Many parents are worried about how much time their children are spending on screens – for teens it averages around nine hours a day, for 8 to 12 years olds […]

For many weeks, Lindsey Smith’s infant daughter slept well. She’d randomly wake up hungry in the middle of the night, as many infants do, but after nursing she’d doze right […]

Seven-year-old Emma McGee used to hate coming to the laundromat. It was boring, and seemed to take forever. In fact she would always ask—unsuccessfully—to stay home with her older brother, […]

ABC News’ Diane Sawyer shares some of the findings of her six-month investigation into the effects of screen time on adults and children.

Talking to your baby in an annoying, higher-pitched voice is not a symptom of parenthood slowly melting your brain. It’s a normal and scientifically backed way to communicate with infants utilized […]

If the judgy stares from strangers at restaurants aren’t enough to discourage you from giving your kids smartphones and tablets, the constant stream of news stories and studies on why […]

Techies pride themselves on their optimism. It couldn’t be any other way. After all, Silicon Valley was built on the idea that technology is a force for good. In the […]

This might sound strange, but I found talking to my dog much less stressful than talking to my babies. They had a lot in common: Both were non-verbal, both relied […]

“Play has become a four-letter word.” So says Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, a psychologist at Temple University and one of the authors of a new paper about the importance of play in children’s […]

Imagine a drug that could enhance a child’s creativity, critical thinking and resilience. Imagine that this drug were simple to make, safe to take, and could be had for free. […]

Turn on your TV and surf the stuff meant for kids. I dare you. You’ll likely find a surfeit of fast action and fart jokes. And that’s what makes Esme & […]

“Why are traffic lights red, yellow and green?” When a child asks you a question like this, you have a few options. You can shut her down with a “Just […]

Smartphones have by now been implicated in so many crummy outcomes—car fatalities, sleep disturbances, empathy loss, relationship problems, failure to notice a clown on a unicycle—that it almost seems easier to list […]

What can you do to help your kids play happily this summer while still learning and building skills? Educational researchers have documented the phenomenon known as summer slide, in which many students […]

If children were to run, climb, slide, or scale a wall at a normal library, they would likely get annoyed glances from patrons before being hushed by a librarian and […]

What if parents didn’t have to take kids to a playground to get in some fun activity — but instead, the play space came to them? That’s the idea behind […]

Deb Roy and Rupal Patel pulled into their driveway on a fine July day in 2005 with the beaming smiles and sleep-deprived glow common to all first-time parents. Pausing in […]

When I was a child in small-town West Virginia, there weren’t many options for entertainment after school or on weekends: I could walk to a friend’s house. I could watch […]

Children from the poorer strata of society begin life not only with material disadvantages but cognitive ones. Decades of research have confirmed this, including a famous 1995 finding by psychologists Betty Hart […]

To learn the word “the,” Kristen Bauter’s kindergartners used to sit at their desks with a worksheet and circle words scattered across the page. Now, the 5-year-olds stand at a […]

A baby lab is installing games in urban spaces to teach problem-solving and creativity. Kathy Hirsh-Pasek has a vision: she would like to see children all over the world waiting […]

Play is a universal, cross-cultural and necessary attribute of childhood, essential for development and essential for learning. Experts who study it say that play is intrinsic to children’s natures, but […]

I often have my phone in my hand while breastfeeding my one-year-old daughter. This isn’t a confession, because I don’t feel guilty about it. Even though there are lots of […]

Becoming too connected used to be an issue kids had with stuffed animals and pacifiers. Now it’s a matter of smart phones and tablets. And whether this is a positive […]

The results are in. Seventy-eight percent of Trump supporters and 97% of Clinton supporters strongly endorse the need for universal access to affordable early childhood education (First Five Years Fund).  […]

Active learning, playful learning, flipped classrooms, team-based learning – this plethora of new terms highlights an effort designed to align the way we teach with the science of how children learn. […]

Picture this: You’re in the supermarket with your hungry preschooler in tow. As you reach into the dairy case, you spot a sign with a friendly cartoon cow. It reads: […]

Cities can create outside-the-classroom learning opportunities for low-income children by encouraging communities to reimage everyday locations in their neighborhoods as places for playful learning. What if a bench were not […]

In this podcast, Hirsh-Pasek and Golinkoff discuss ways to reimagine what successful learning looks like in a global world using six major skills that will help kids succeed beyond traditional […]

Dr. Kathryn Hirsh-Pasek and Dr. Roberta Golinkoff’s book, Becoming Brilliant: What science tells us about raising successful children just launched at The Brookings Institution.  Click here to learn more about this achievement!

“Why are traffic lights red, yellow and green?” When a child asks you a question like this, you have a few options. You can shut her down with a “Just […]

Reading to very young children is crucial to help them eventually learn to read. But researchers studying how kids begin to understand that text conveys meaning differently than pictures — […]

Parents want to give their kids the best chance to learn and grow – even from a very young age. But it can be difficult to know if that ipad […]

Baby laptops, baby cellphones, talking farms — these are the whirring, whiz-bang toys of the moment, many of them marketed as tools to encourage babies’ language skills. But in the […]

A small survey of parents in Philadelphia found that three-quarters of their children had been given tablets, smartphones or iPods of their own by age 4 and had used the […]

Tens of thousands of supposedly educational apps aimed at young children are little more than “digital candy” that offer few benefits for youngsters, according to a new study. The research, […]

Imagine someone telling you that a new technology would be available in five years that has the potential to revolutionize childhood and early education. But the downside is that you […]

It has been nearly 20 years since a landmark education study found that by age 3, children from low-income families have heard 30 million fewer words than more affluent children, […]

Clifford the Big Red Dog looks fabulous on an iPad. He sounds good, too — tap the screen and hear him pant as a blue truck roars into the frame. […]

Every age of parenthood — and parenthood at every age — yields some discouraging metric, some new rating system on which parents can be judged and found wanting. We endlessly […]

GoldieBlox kits aren’t like other construction toys. Instead of coming in primary colors, or in drab military tones, the kits are pastel: a platform the shade of a robin’s egg, […]

I had no idea that my daughter was watching me, that she’d followed me into the attic, that she was standing right there. I’d gone up last fall to wrap […]

With the advent of tablet apps for children, parents may be tempted to forgo purchasing those blocks and puzzles that have been staples in children’s toy chests for centuries. A […]

Students today may have less time for free play, but new research suggests their imaginations have actually sharpened compared with children two decades ago. In an analysis published in May […]

Children’s play is threatened, say experts who advise that kids – from toddlers to tweens – should be relearning how to play. Roughhousing and fantasy feed development. Havely Taylor knows […]

Thousands of children, from toddlers to 12-year-olds, did something yesterday that seems almost novel in the age of computers and digital games: They went outside and played. In the chilly […]