Index
Everything on this site
34 articles across four sections, plus the reference pages. Paths marked as preserved existed on the previous version of this site and have been kept at their exact original address.
Development
- How play builds motor skills, from reaching to climbing (preserved path)
- Language development through play: what actually moves a child forward (preserved path)
- Social skills through play: negotiation, repair and the things adults cannot teach directly (preserved path)
- Sensory play: what it is for, and what it is not for (preserved path)
- Milestones through play, and how to read a milestone properly (preserved path)
- Play-based learning explained, without the slogans (preserved path)
- Creative play and imagination: what is actually developing (preserved path)
- Pretend play and self-regulation: why a child behaves better as a soldier than as themselves
- Sensory processing, in plain terms: the eight senses and what difficulty means
- The EYFS and play: what the framework actually says
How play works
- Schemas of play: the repeated patterns underneath apparently random behaviour
- Stages of play, from solitary to cooperative, and why they are not a ladder
- Loose parts play: why undefined materials produce more play than defined ones
- Balancing structured and free play without turning it into a timetable (preserved path)
- Encouraging independent play: what actually builds the capacity (preserved path)
- Play dates, and what they are actually for (preserved path)
- How adults support play without taking it over
- Music and movement: what it contributes, and what it does not (preserved path)
- Fathers and play: what the research says, and what it does not (preserved path)
- Grandparents and play: what has actually changed, and what has not (preserved path)
Outdoors and risk
- The importance of risky play, and what the sector actually means by risk (preserved path)
- Nature play: what outdoor environments add, and what the evidence supports (preserved path)
- Outdoor play and physical fitness: what childhood activity actually builds (preserved path)
- Rough and tumble play: how to tell it from fighting, and what it teaches
- Outdoor time and eyesight: one of the better evidenced benefits of being outside
- Physical activity guidelines for under fives: what the numbers mean
Wellbeing
- Play and mental health: what is supported, and what is asserted (preserved path)
- Emotional resilience through play, and what the word conceals (preserved path)
- When play situations make a child anxious (preserved path)
- Play and temperament: why the same room suits one child and not another (preserved path)
- Sibling conflict during play: why the same argument keeps returning (preserved path)
- Play and neurodivergence: difference described without diagnosis
- Screen time and play: what the evidence supports, and what it does not (preserved path)
- What the play evidence actually shows, and where it is thin
Reference pages
The fortnightly letter
One piece of evidence, explained properly, every fortnight
What a piece of research on children and play actually found, what it did not find, and whether it should change anything. No product recommendations, because this publication does not make any.
One sponsored line per issue, marked as sponsored, at a published rate. Nothing else is sold. See newsletter and sponsorship for the rate and for the list of things it cannot buy.