Browsing by Author "Hassinger-Das, B."

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Open Access
The language of play: developing preschool vocabulary through play following shared book-reading
(Elsevier, 2018) Toub, T. S.; Hassinger-Das, B.; Nesbitt, K. T.; Ilgaz, Hande; Weisberg, D. S.; Hirsh-Pasek, K.; Golinkoff, R. M.; Nicolopoulou, A.; Dickinson, D. K.
Two studies explored the role of play in a vocabulary intervention for low-income preschoolers. Both studies presented new vocabulary through book-readings. Study 1 children (N = 249; Mage = 59.19 months) were also randomly assigned to participate in Free Play, Guided Play, or Directed Play with toys relating to the books. Guided and Directed Play conditions involved different styles of adult support. Although children in all conditions showed significant gains in knowledge of target vocabulary words, children in both adult-supported conditions showed significantly greater gains than children experiencing Free Play. In Study 2, classroom teachers implemented our procedures instead of researchers. All children (N = 101; Mage = 58.65 months) reviewed half the vocabulary words through a hybrid of guided and directed play and half the words through a picture card review activity. Children showed significant pre- to post-test gains on receptive and expressive knowledge for both sets of taught words, but they also showed significantly greater expressive vocabulary gains for words reviewed through play. These results suggest that there are unique benefits of adult-supported play-based activities for early vocabulary growth.
Open Access
Making the case for playful learning
(Springer, 2018) Ilgaz, Hande; Hassinger-Das, B.; Golinkoff, R. M.; Hirsh-Pasek, K.; Fleer, M.; van Oers, B.
Play is one of the natural strengths of childhood through which children acquire and also practice critical language, cognitive, and socio-cognitive abilities. This long-standing belief has widely shaped curriculum in early childhood, mainly in the form allotting time and space for free play. However, lately the effectiveness of play for early childhood development and consequently its place in the early childhood curriculum are under attack especially in the USA. Policy makers are substituting playtime with didactic instruction aimed at imparting decoding skills that speak to a narrow set of literacy and school readiness skills. Their decision to make the early childhood classroom a more didactic, adult-directed teaching environment is seemingly supported with recent reviews of play research that show minimal or inconsistent effects. We propose that playful learning deserves careful consideration before we discard play as a learning and instruction strategy. In this chapter, we review some of the newly emerging evidence for the effectiveness of guided play, a form of play that is situated on a continuum between adult-directed didactic instruction and child-directed free play. In the light of reviewed evidence, we propose that playful learning should be implemented to target specific learning objectives such as numeracy, vocabulary, narrative competence, and knowledge of science concepts. We discuss the need for comprehensive playful learning programs that complement free play and didactic programs. Finally, we emphasize the need to share playful learning techniques with educators that will enable them to integrate curricular objects in playful learning activities.