Big Body Play

Children Need to Engage in Risky and Rowdy Play

Big body play—the sometimes rowdy, always very physical running, rolling, climbing, tagging, jumping, grabbing, and wrestling that most children love and many adults try to shut down—can and should be an integral part of every early childhood setting. To develop to their full potential, children need to experience proper risks and challenges. When the risk in play is limited, play begins to be limited. And when we limit play, we limit learning.

Drawing from evidence-based practice and the latest research, this book explains the multitude of benefits of big body play for young children's physical, cognitive, and social and emotional development.

This updated and expanded second edition explains why big body play is a valid play style for young children and how it is supported by play theorists

• Discusses the role that risk plays in child development and why big body play is such an excellent vehicle for said risk
• Overviews the facts about big body play and dispels many myths and misperceptions about it
• Acknowledges implicit and explicit biases against big body play and how to combat them
• Explores the teacher's role in implementing big body play, including how to support prosocial behavior, set up boundaries and expectations, and create and maintain supportive environments indoors and out
• Shows how to adapt big body play for all children, including information on supporting nonverbal language skills and children with disabilities and delays
• Provides information on how to support nonverbal language skills, which in turn support children's big body play
• Discusses how educators can work as a collaborative team to create and sustain a meaningful big body play program

Frances Carlson is a former early childhood education program administrator. She worked for 20 years for a variety of programs, including the Department of the Army, Internal Revenue Service, Wachovia Bank (now Wells Fargo), Sheltering Arms, Turner Broadcasting Systems (via Bright Horizons Family Solutions), and the Technical College System of Georgia/Chattahoochee Technical College. While working as the center administrator, she successfully led four programs through the process of NAEYC program accreditation. In 2002, she began a higher education career where she taught Early Childhood Care and Education to students pursuing associate degrees at Chattahoochee Technical College. While working in that position, she successfully led the program through the NAEYC Commission on the Accreditation of Early Childhood Higher Education Programs associate degree accreditation where it was the first accredited associate degree program in Georgia. After teaching adults for fourteen years, Carlson returned to administration where she began a position as Associate Dean of Professional Services and Design in 2016. She worked in that position until her retirement in January 2024.

She has authored two books Essential Touch (NAEYC, 2006) and Big Body Play (NAEYC, 2011) as well as articles in a variety of early childhood education publications, including Young Children, Teaching Young Children, Exchange Press, Child Care Bridges, and Interactions. She has also directed and produced two DVDs An Afternoon with the Experts: Dan Gartrell on GUIDANCE (2014) and Expect Male Involvement: Recruiting and Retaining Men in Early Childhood Education (2009).

She has presented at various association conferences, including those hosted by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), the Professional Development Institute (PDI), the Southern Early Childhood Association (SECA), and the Georgia Association for the Education of Young Children (GAEYC). She has also presented keynotes and training across the country and the world.

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