Power of Play Overview
Play is at the heart of what we do and why we do it. Play helps to develop children (and adults) into healthy people—physically, mentally, and socially. We know now, with modern research, that play has tremendous implications for social-emotional learning and well-being, and plays a critical role in developing the whole person. This introductory training focuses on experiencing play in a safe and healthy way and facilitates conversations around the benefits and barriers to play, along with best practices for implementing safe and healthy play in a variety of contexts.
Module Instructions
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- Review module and training objectives.
- Review the “BGCA Power of Play Outline”.
- Review “The Power of Play Observation Form”.
Module and Training Objectives
Learners will be able to:
- Understand foundational games and strategies for implementing safe and healthy play
- Verbalize how play contributes to youth development
- Identify and utilize strategies to facilitate successful training
Resource 1
Resource 2
Power of Play Observation Form
Before the Training (Optional)
The trainer introduction is a critical part of training. It gives context for the learning, sets a tone of confidence and rapport-building, and helps to cast a shared vision for the work to be accomplished in the training. For this optional preparation for the training of trainers, practice your “Self, us, now” introduction. Review the following document for more on creating a compelling narrative: Self, Us, Now. This may take between 30-60 minutes to thoroughly prepare.
Continue to Module 3: Group Management 1