Throughout most of human history and in most of the world, that paradigm of children playing outdoors as a part of childhood has been so integral as to be transparent. Not so in the U.S., where, according to the Child Mind Institute, the average American child spends four to seven minutes a day in unstructured play outdoors and more than seven hours a day in front of a screen. Washington State is changing that.
Self control. Attention. Focus. These foundational skills make up a key area of early childhood development: Self-regulation. So what can teachers, parents, caregivers –even children themselves – do to help those skills grow? Oregon State University Professor Megan McClelland explains the science and the practical things we all can do. Filmed for Early Learning Nation’s Mobile Studio at the Society for Research in Child Development’s biennial meeting in Baltimore, MD, on March 22, 2019. #SRCD19
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