Season's Greetings and a happy and playful new year from all at PEDAL. We're taking a little break to enjoy the festivities and will be back in the new year!

Our paper on the use of AI in child development checks is available now on the Early Childhood Education Journal:

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

@drjennyg.bsky.social

Mark your calendars: The #PEDALConference2026 is coming on Thursday 11th June 2026, #InternationalDayOfPlay 🧸

More details to follow...

The Thriving Together framework sets out the key skills that are at the heart of everyday moments between caregivers and babies or young child (0-5 years old) and supports children’s social and emotional wellbeing, mental health, and related areas of development.

Our Thriving Together Framework is here!
www.pedalhub.net/wp-content/u...

@nihr.bsky.social @ukri.org

How are children playing with them? Will they be beneficial or harmful to children's development? And might they actually take the place of a child's favorite stuffed animal?

In this interview, Emily offers insight into her current research on the world of generative AI toys.

AI toys are the future of play. I'm a researcher trying to figure out if that's a good thing for kids. Researcher Emily Goodacre is exploring how AI-powered toys impact kids. Here's what she wants parents to consider.

"These toys might be providing some kind of social interaction, but it's not human social interaction" says @ejgoodacre.bsky.social, PEDAL postdoc researcher in conversation with Priscilla Blossom for @yahoolifeuk.bsky.social 🤖

uk.style.yahoo.com/ai-toys-are-...

This ultimate resource equips parents, teachers, leaders and policymakers with a clear framework to guide the crucial choices they make for young people.

The Hesscairn Guide to Learning: Transforming Education. The essential The Hesscairn Guide to Learning delivers the essential manual we never had, challenging foundational ideas about education. This ultimate resource equips parents, teachers, leaders and policymakers wi...

The Hesscairn Guide to Learning: Transforming Education written by PEDAL PhD student and school principal @stuartmacalpine.bsky.social was published this week!

It delivers the essential manual we never had, challenging foundational ideas about education.

www.ingrovepress.com/products/the...

PEDAL PhD student @tomrance.bsky.social, Kathryn Hesketh (UCL) and PEDAL's @paulramchandani.bsky.social have published an article in Archives of Disease in Childhood entitled Risky play: our children need more:

adc.bmj.com/content/110/...

Innovative methods to centre children in research: celebrating 10 years of play with the PEDAL Research Centre Centring children in play research is fundamental for both children and researchers. It also offers the opportunity to gain important insights that would otherwise remain hidden from view for other...

New publication celebrating 10 years of @pedalcam.bsky.social! 🌟

Featuring reflections from our first decade, including...
🗨️ children's self-reported playfulness
🤝 children as advisors on research
📹 child-driven creative methods

🔓 Open access: doi.org/10.1080/2159...
@paulramchandani.bsky.social

PEDAL's @ejgoodacre.bsky.social, Laura Oxley, Zhiyu Zhao, Rebecca Reid, Alejandra Vijil Morin & @paulramchandani.bsky.social have published a paper in the International Journal of Play exploring innovative methods to centre children in research:

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

@michellefson.bsky.social - Developing executive functions tasks to use in classrooms around the world

@drjennyg.bsky.social - Exploring links between play, communication and wellbeing in human development

Prof Sara Baker - Learner competencies as states, not traits

Please join us on Monday 10 November for a Trio of A Trio of Inaugural Professorial Lectures from the Psychology and Education Group at @camedfac.bsky.social.

All welcome, register here for in-person and online:
forms.office.com/pages/respon...

@michellefson.bsky.social @drjennyg.bsky.social

In episode one, Sir David Bell, Former Permanent Secretary at the Department for Education, talks to Sally about research, politics and the critical role that civil servants play in helping Ministers to navigate evidence.

The Mobilise Podcast - PEDAL Mobilise is a podcast mini-series where we talk to leading policymakers and politicians from across the UK about how research can be used in policy to improve children's lives.

Did you know that PEDAL launched the Mobilise Podcast mini-series in 2024? 🎧

PEDAL's former Senior Policy Fellow @salhogg.bsky.social talks to leading UK policymakers and politicians about how research can be used in policy to improve children's lives.

www.pedalhub.net/projects/ite...

Descriptions of autistic play have typically focused on “deficits” and are based on comparisons to neurotypical “norms”. According to the neurodiversity paradigm, it is important that autistic voices are highlighted and that difficulties, differences, and strengths are explored.

Diversity in Autistic Play: Autistic Adults' Experiences | Autism in Adulthood Background: Play is important for mental health and well-being. Descriptions of autistic play have typically focused on “deficits” and are based on comparisons to neurotypical “norms”. According to…

In this piece from the #PEDALResourceLibrary archives, PEDAL's @emmapritchard95.bsky.social, Carmen de Lemos, Katie Howard and PEDAL's @drjennyg.bsky.social focus on the experiences and perspectives of autistic people concerning the topic of autistic play:

www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/...

You can also find PEDAL on X (Twitter) LinkedIn, YouTube and Instagram!

We're @PEDALCameverywhere, or you can click the icons at the top of the LinkTree in our bio:

linktr.ee/pedalcam

Dr Nikhit D’Sa: Leveraging alternative systems to support children’s development amid crisis YouTube video by Play in Education, Development and Learning

In this talk from the #PEDALConference2025, Dr Nikhit D’Sa shares lessons from four years of research with communities in Haiti including lessons for similar initiatives in other contexts around the world:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RvB...

In this piece from the #PEDALResourceLibrary archives, former PEDAL PhD student Paulina Pérez-Duarte Mendiola summarises a study published in the Journal of Child Health Care which identifies strategies used by Health Play Specialists to effectively communicate with hospitalised children 🧸

How to communicate with children, according to Health Play Specialists in the United Kingdom: A qualitative study - PEDAL Paulina Pérez-Duarte Mendiola

How to communicate with hospitalised children, according to Health Play Specialists:

www.pedalhub.net/resource-lib...

However, little work has been done to describe the approaches to teacher training programs that are supposed to promote play and play-based learning.

This scoping review includes 45 studies that contain training programs for pre- and primary school teachers to promote play and play-based learning.

Accumulating evidence shows that play is important for children’s learning and development and an increasing number of countries are adopting playful pedagogy in pre- and primary school.

Past and present PEDAL colleagues Janina Eberhart, Carolyn Mazzei, Dina Fajardo Tovar, Zhen Rao and Sara Baker together with Allison Haack have published a paper in the Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education:

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Understanding how certain personality traits impact children’s enjoyment of school and teachers’ perceptions of children’s behaviour - PEDAL Read a summary of this recent paper published by Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties which used data from the Healthy Start, Happy Start study.

How do children’s personality traits - especially callous-unemotional (CU) traits like seeming less sensitive to others’ feelings - affect how teachers see their behaviour, and how do these traits change how much children enjoy school?

New project aims to understand how AI ‘smart’ toys affect disadvantage, development and play

Learn more about PEDAL's project with The Childhood Trust which aims to understand how AI ‘smart’ toys affect disadvantage, development and play here:

content.educ.cam.ac.uk/content/new-...

How will childhood be changed by AI toys? | Letter Letter: Our study is looking into how toys powered by AI can affect children’s development and their right to privacy, write Dr Emily J Goodacre and Prof Jenny Gibson

"It is our collective responsibility to understand how toys powered by artificial intelligence impact young children."

@drjennyg.bsky.social and @ejgoodacre.bsky.social in The Guardian:

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

More about @drjennyg.bsky.social and @ejgoodacre.bsky.social's research on AI toys and children's development here: content.educ.cam.ac.uk/content/new-...