Recent studies even show play has learning benefits well beyond childhood. Young adults (aged 19–25) who engage in regular ...

Re-engineering recess. Because it creates “joy, relief and a chance to connect,” every child should have access to recess, Cushing says. Unfortunately, she adds, not every child does.

Yet in 1993, when Sutton-Smith penned an introduction to a volume on the topic of parent-child play, he wrote that he looked back at the couple’s earlier book and thought it was very ...

Free play is nature’s means of teaching children that they are not helpless. In play, away from adults, children really do have control and can practice asserting it.

One-quarter of children who start school aren’t developmentally ready. Play-based learning in the early years of school can help with the transition, as well as providing a host of other benefits.

Outside play at school can boost students' cognitive, social, emotional and physical abilities in ways in-class education cannot, pediatricians say. And these games help the process along.

Play has long been a vital and recognized way that children grow and learn, says Katherine Green, who serves on the affiliate faculty at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology.

If you know your child is struggling in school, Dr. Lavin said, “make an appointment, sit down with your pediatrician, say, ‘I need your help, I hear from the A.A.P. that you’re the person I ...