Play-and-learn spaces: Leveraging library spaces to promote caregiver and child interaction

Fraction Ball impact on student and teacher math talk and behavior

We assessed the impacts of Fraction Ball-a novel suite of games combining the benefits of embodied guided play for math learning-on the math language production and behavior of students and teachers. In the Pilot Experiment, 69 fifth and sixth graders were randomly assigned to play four different Fraction Ball games or attend normal physical education class. The Efficacy Experiment was implemented to test improvements made through co-design with teachers with 160 fourth through sixth graders. Researchers observed and coded for use of math language and behavior. Playing Fraction Ball resulted in consistent increases of students' and teachers' use of fraction (SDs = 0.98-2.42) and decimal (SDs = 0.65-1.64) language and number line arithmetic, but not in whole number, spatial language, counting, instructional gesturing, questioning, and planning. We present evidence of the math language production in physical education and value added by Fraction Ball to support rational number language and arithmetic through group collaboration.

A hop, skip and a jump towards evaluating social interaction and learning through play at a child and adolescent inpatient treatment program

BACKGROUND

The number of inpatient mental health facilities for children and adolescents in the United States is growing rapidly. While undergoing inpatient treatment, children and adolescents can benefit from innovative play opportunities designed to foster social interaction and learning.

METHODS

The Playful Learning Landscapes (PLL) initiative is a group of projects designed to transform everyday spaces into opportunities for playful learning. As a part of this initiative, two designs-Lifesize Ruler and Jumping Feet-were installed in an inpatient mental health facility for children and adolescents in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States.

RESULTS

Results of pre-installation and post-installation naturalistic observations suggested that social interactions, the use of STEM-related language and 21st century skills, including confidence, increased after interacting with the installations.

CONCLUSIONS

While previous research on PLL projects has demonstrated the efficacy of transforming public spaces into places for playful learning, this research provides support that, even in private, targeted settings, using a trauma-informed approach, children and adolescents, can reap the benefits of playful learning.

Linking Language to Action: Enhancing Preschoolers' Communicative Abilities Within Language Stimulation

PURPOSE

Children's vocabulary and syntactic skills vary upon school entry in depth and breadth, persistently influencing academic performance, including reading. Enhancing early communicative abilities through multisensory, playful, and conversational experiences is essential and will benefit children's school readiness. This study investigated whether a language-to-action link created during language stimulation, which combines multisensory input, play, and conversation using clay, improves preschoolers' communicative abilities in terms of vocabulary, syntactic, and pragmatic language abilities more than traditional toy-based language stimulation.

METHOD

Language skills were examined in a pre- to posttest design in which 43 typically developing participants, ages 3-5 years, were randomly assigned to clay-based (n = 24) or traditional play-based (n = 19) language stimulation for 8 weeks.

RESULTS

Receptive and expressive vocabulary knowledge for items introduced in the language stimulation program, mean length of utterance (MLU), and conversational initiations improved for participants in the clay condition, whereas significant language skill growth was not observed for participants in the traditional play-based stimulation condition with toys.

CONCLUSIONS

A language-to-action link is created when children engage with open-ended materials, such as clay, as they craft target objects hands on and step by step, affording additional opportunities for language input and output. Results preliminarily suggest that using open-ended materials may enhance children's communicative abilities in receptive and expressive vocabulary, syntax/MLU, and pragmatics (i.e., conversational initiations) more than prefabricated toy objects during language stimulation.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.24093780.

Promoting caregiver involvement at the public library: An evaluation of a math and science storytime program for young children

Introduction

Public libraries are asset institutions that provide important spaces for families to engage in meaningful, authentic STEM learning. However, limited budgets and a model centered on open-access and broad inclusion makes conducting rigorous evaluations in these spaces, such as randomized control trials, challenging. There is a need to consider evaluation designs that consider both rigor and feasibility. The aims of the present study were to: (1) describe an innovative interactive parent-child interactive storytime program, Fun with Math and Science (FMS); and (2) conduct a preliminary evaluation of FMS in a large, urban public library setting, using a quasi-experimental static group comparison design.

Methods and Results

Post-test scores for caregivers who completed the program in the fall or winter (n = 80) were compared to pre-test scores for caregivers who completed the program the following spring (n = 35); Fall/winter caregivers scored higher on program items related to concrete behaviors to support math and science learning, but significant differences were not found on items related to caregiving beliefs or general caregiving practices. Demographic differences were also found related to program outcomes.

Discussion

Results are discussed both in terms of implications for the development and implementation of caregiver-child interactive programming, as well as the use of innovative analytic approaches to program evaluation in community settings.

Parent–child interaction during a home STEM activity and children’s handwashing behaviors

We examined correlations between a home-based STEM activity illustrating the importance of soap use during handwashing and children’s (4-to 7-year-olds, N = 81, 42 girls, 39 boys) use of soap when washing their hands. Parents and children either participated in or watched the activity. Children reflected on the activity immediately afterward and a week later. Parent–child interaction during participation related to the frequency of unprompted soap use during handwashing, controlling for performance on other, related cognitive measures. Children whose parents were more goal-directed, and set goals for the interaction, were less likely to use soap spontaneously when handwashing in the subsequent week. The amount of causal knowledge children generated when they reflected on the experience immediately afterward also influenced whether children used soap when washing their hands. Reducing the autonomy children believe they have during a STEM-based activity potentially leads them to not engage in a behavior related to the activity on their own. Overall, these data suggest that parent–child interaction during STEM activities can influence the ways children encode and engage with those activities in their everyday lives. Given that the ways children wash their hands might mitigate the spread of disease, interventions that focus on providing children with the belief that STEM activities are for them might be broadly beneficial to society.

Playful stories: Exploring the use of dramatic play in storytimes

Research in early childhood development widely supports play as a vital learning mechanism for young children. Consequently, many libraries are beginning to embrace play as an intentional strategy for meeting targeted early learning outcomes. However, sufficient research on how play can be incorporated into storytimes to support children’s early development has yet to be conducted. This study begins to address this need by exploring how two other informal learning environments—a museum and a zoo—use educator-led dramatic play experiences in storytimes with the goal of understanding how libraries might be able to incorporate dramatic play experiences in their storytimes to create a more in-depth playful learning experience. To elucidate the nature of the museum and zoo’s educator-led dramatic play experiences, this study explored (1) characteristics of their educator-led dramatic play experiences, and (2) the learning behaviors that children were exhibiting while participating in the dramatic play. The results revealed that the educator-led dramatic play episodes in both environments consisted of one long, immersive oral story with other types of play interspersed within the larger story structure. The data also revealed that the children were exhibiting many different types of learning behaviors while participating in the dramatic play experiences. Based on these findings, implications, and recommendations are provided for libraries around designing and using dramatic play in their storytimes to help transform the traditional library storytime structure into a more in-depth playful learning experience.

Translating cognitive science in the public square

Public space interventions offer one example of how to translate cognitive science into the public square. Here, we detail several successful projects and the six principles of learning that underlie them that support caregiver-child engagement, interaction, and the use of content area-specific language. Policy and community implications are also discussed.

Brief Interventions Influence the Quantity and Quality of Caregiver-Child Conversations in an Everyday Context

Reading and arithmetic are difficult cognitive feats for children to master and youth from low-income communities are often less “school ready” in terms of letter and number recognition skills (Lee and Burkam, 2002). One way to prepare children for school is by encouraging caregivers to engage children in conversations about academically-relevant concepts by using numbers, recognizing shapes, and naming colors (Levine et al., 2010; Fisher et al., 2013). Previous research shows that caregiver-child conversations about these topics rarely take place in everyday contexts (Hassinger-Das et al., 2018), but interventions designed to encourage such conversations, like displaying signs in a grocery store, have resulted in significant increases in caregiver-child conversations (Ridge et al., 2015; Hanner et al., 2019). We investigated whether a similar brief intervention could change caregiver-child conversations in an everyday context. We observed 212 families in a volunteer-run facility where people who are food-insecure can select food from available donations. Volunteers greet all the clients as they pass through the aisles, offer food, and restock the shelves as needed. About 25% of the clients have children with them and our data consist of observations of the caregiver-child conversations with 2- to 10-year-old children. Half of the observation days consisted of a baseline condition in which the quantity and quality of caregiver-child conversation was observed as the client went through aisles where no signs were displayed, and volunteers merely greeted the clients. The other half of the observation days consisted of a brief intervention where signs were displayed (signs-up condition), where, volunteers greeted the clients and pointed out that there were signs displayed to entertain the children if they were interested. In addition, there was a within-subject manipulation for the intervention condition where each family interacted with two different categories of signs. Half of the signs had academically-relevant content and the other half had non-academically-relevant content. The results demonstrate that the brief intervention used in the signs-up condition increases the quantity of conversation between a caregiver and child. In addition, signs with academically-relevant content increases the quality of the conversation. These findings provide further evidence that brief interventions in an everyday context can change the caregiver-child conversation. Specifically, signs with academically-relevant content may promote school readiness.

We’ve been Offering It for Years, But Why Do They Come? The Reasons Why Adults Bring Young Children to Public Library Storytimes

While storytime programs for preschool children are offered in nearly all public libraries in the United States, little is known about why adults choose to bring children to participate. This survey study gathered information from 346 parents and caregivers who attended storytime programs at 35 public libraries in three states. Parents and caregivers indicated child enjoyment of hearing stories and participating in activities and the opportunity for children to interact as the primary reasons for attending; however, differences in motivation to attend were noted by community density, relationship to the child, educational level of the adult, and length of attendance. In addition to identifying those aspects of storytimes that resonate most for children and building upon them, librarians should integrate cooperative activities that facilitate interaction. Further, librarians should take stock of their own contexts and modify programs to best address the needs of their specific community.