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Category: Early Childhood Education

Supporting Learning Through Play
11 December 2024
A Play Commission Submission by Dr Soizic Le Courtois, Manogya Sahay and Qiming Liu

Common elements approaches to support early childhood development
3 December 2024
In this PEDAL Conference 2024 recording, Prof Sara Baker, CEI's Dr Stephanie Smith and Emma Cook from Department of Health and Social Care present: Common elements approaches to support early childhood development.

Innovative approaches to support language development and the home learning environment
3 December 2024
In this PEDAL Conference 2024 recording, Prof Jenny Gibson presents her research findings that demonstrate the connections between a high-quality early language and communication environment in the home and children’s later school readiness and literacy outcomes in key stage 2.

What is a common elements approach?
27 November 2024
This short animation explains what a common elements approach is, and why PEDAL are using it in our research.

Book sharing videos for caregivers and EY practitioners
19 November 2024
As part of PEDAL's Playtime with Books project, we created two videos for our YouTube channel that explain what book sharing is, how to do it, how it benefits children and what it might look like.

Learning through play in Global Majority countries: Reflections from the PEDAL Centre on understanding and adapting the concept in four different contexts
9 September 2024
This paper in the International Journal of Play interrogates the concept of learning through play in different global contexts.

Staying self-regulated in the classroom: The role of children’s executive functions and situational factors
24 July 2024
We wanted to explore how an individual child's self-regulation might vary between different activities.

Creating Classrooms for Change: Developing cognitive flexibility in schools in Rwanda
1 March 2024
This research looked at how schools in Rwanda foster students’ skills for adaptability - their capacity to create, innovate and adjust to shifting circumstances. It uses the psychological lens of cognitive flexibility.

Supporting play for neurodivergent children
5 December 2023
In this PEDAL Conference 2023 recording, we hear from Kerry Murphy (Goldsmiths, University of London) and Dr Gina Gomez de la Cuesta and Abi Dodson (Play Included) share their expertise on play and its significance in diverse child development.

The complex possibilities of play in schools
5 December 2023
In this PEDAL Conference 2023 recording, Dr James Biddulph and Aimee Durning (University of Cambridge Primary School) discuss play's place in the curriculum, and how they have used play to nurture and promote mental wellness for some of the most vulnerable children within their school community.