An imaginary companion is a friend whom a child creates, talks about, and interacts with on a regular basis. Young children use imaginary companions as a tool to help them make sense of the world.
One of the most popular and enduring types of games are board games. Board games offer an opportunity for people to interact with each other in an entertaining way, as well as exposing children to real life situations that expand their knowledge.
The US Play Coalition is a partnership to promote the value of play throughout one's life. It consists of individuals and organizations that recognize play as a valuable and necessary part of a healthy and productive life.
The way the nervous system receives messages from the senses and turns them into appropriate motor and behavioral responses is referred to as sensory processing. Sensory input is received and understood through sights, sounds, touch, tastes, smells, movement, balance, body position, and muscle control.
Loris Malaguzzi was an early childhood educator who founded the educational philosophy known as the Reggio Emilia Approach, which views children as strong, powerful, and competent to learn through their own exploration. Children are encouraged to develop their own theories about how their environment works through discovery.
The playground movement in America began as an answer to the industrial revolution realities of crowded cities and long work days. Hand-in-hand with the settlement houses being formed in the late 19th century, the playground movement sought to save the poor, immigrant, and homeless children from unhealthy crowded tenement neighborhoods.
After more than 50 years of teaching, consulting, and writing about child development and play, Dr. Joe Frost was acknowledged as the contemporary father of play advocacy. Dr. Frost's academic studies centered on child development and culminated in a Doctorate degree from the University of Arkansas.
Symbolic play is the ability of children to use objects, actions or ideas to represent other objects, actions, or ideas as play. A child may push a block around the floor as a car or put it to his ear as a cell phone. At around 8 months of age, as their symbolic thinking develops, children become familiar with objects, actions, and ideas through observation and exploration.
PlayMark (formerly known as Eagle Play Structures) manufactures and installs commercial playground equipment as well as site furnishings and shade shelters in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States.
Play for All Guidelines: Planning, Design and Management of Outdoor Play Settings for All Children is an industry standard for planners, designers, and managers of outdoor play settings. It is a comprehensive design resource available for integrating children of all abilities in the same play area.
