Provocative articles on child's play

NPR and The New York Times Magazine played with "play" in two recent pieces that are very well done. Don't miss:

"Old-Fashioned Play Builds Serious Skills," by Alix Spiegel, which ran on NPR's Morning Edition on February 21.

"Taking Play Seriously," by Robin Marantz Henig, in the NYT Sunday Magazine on February 17.

Spiegel's story zooms in on research by Laura Berk, who figures in one of the chapters of my book. Berk's research on executive function, self-regulation and dramatic play is fascinating. I talked to Berk about whether what's on the screen can affect the way children engage in imaginative play after the TV is off. She had some great points about how children will act out what they have seen and observed in others -- and how children who have witnessed moments of aggression on TV may act that out later.

It's worth noting, too, that research on Barney shows the flip side: Yale University researcher Dorothy Singer has seen children play more cooperatively and kindly after watching a Barney episode than children who didn't see the show.