The AAP is the largest and oldest association pediatricians in the US.

I want to bring attention to this paper because almost every day someone writes to me asking for help in finding “data” or “research” or “evidence” that supports play-based learning. They are seeking to persuade nervous parents or dubious administrators that what they are doing in their play-based classrooms is the best practice when it comes to young children. Which is to say, giving children the permission and opportunity to follow our species’ biological heritage to direct our own learning through self-selected pursuits, driven by curiosity (i.e., play). And that the increasing academic “rigor” that has come to replace play for too many children is directly harming them.

This report includes links to all of that and more. I urge everyone to bookmark this report.

Of course, I’ve learned that “facts” alone are rarely persuasive when it comes to play-based learning. The scientifically unsupported mythology of modern schooling has too strong of a hold on our cultural mindset to be unsettled by mere data, research or evidence. You will still need to turn to emotional arguments as well.

That said, parents tend to listen to their pediatricians, especially when they say that academic preschools are intellectually, physically, socially, and emotionally harmful to their children. This report provides the evidence.

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I’ve been writing about play-based learning almost every day for the past 14 years. I’ve recently gone back through the 4000+ blog posts(!) I’ve written since 2009. Here are my 10 favorite in a nifty free download. Click here to get yours.

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