University of Iowa, children’s museum pair up for Play Fair event

One-by-one, 4-year-old Ellie Mozena of Iowa City fills a pronged canvas with Lego blocks. She's building without a particular design in mind, instead allowing her imagination to guide her. She may not realize it, but this activity is more than just a fun game; it's a learning opportunity.

Get Ready Iowa, an initiative of the University of Iowa's Development and Learning from Theory to Application (DeLTA) Center, partnered with the Iowa Children's museum Wednesday to host the Play Fair to teach the importance of playtime in children's development.

Time given to children for playtime in preschool years is steadily decreasing, said Karla McGregor, director of the DeLTA Center. She hopes people will realize the power of play in children's lives, especially after hearing the event's keynote speaker, Dr. Kathryn Hirsh-Pasek, present her evidence on the value of playful learning.

Hirsh-Pasek, a developmental psychologist and director of the Infant Language Laboratory at Temple University in Philadelphia, spoke to an audience of approximately 40 professors, grad students and other development professionals at the North Ridge Pavilion in Coralville. Her research in language, literacy and playful learning -- a blend of 'free play” and 'guided play” - shows the importance of playing in both the academic and social development of children.

'Playful learning is when the child takes the initiative and is in an environment that adults set up so that the child can learn while actively engaged, and where the adult - like a coach, not a director - is supporting that learning,” said Hirsh-Pasek.

While free play gives children the freedom to explore and discover on their own, guided play allows for similar freedom, but with enough direction to keep a specific learning goal in mind.

For a number of years, there has been a debate in developmental psychology as to whether teaching with direct instruction with a strong curriculum is better for children's learning than using free play to give children the freedom to learn on their own, she said. Guided play lies somewhere in the middle.

'It takes the best from both worlds,” said Hirsh-Pasek. 'It gives the child the initiative and the agency to create and discover, but at the same time it enforces a learning goal so that we focus on the right sorts of things that children really need to learn.'

For children to learn more effectively, adults need to offer ways of learning that are active, engaging, meaningful and socially interactive, she said. This type of learning is not only fun, but also, 'sticky.” Rather than short-term learning, children will retain information longer, so that they can later solve problems that we don't yet know how to solve.

'America became great because we allowed ourselves to be bold and to go where no people had gone before,” Hirsh-Pasek said. 'If we are going to retain our prominence at the frontier of ideas, we have no choice but to learn in creative and innovative ways.”