LEGO Foundation offers free course to help parents teach children through play

The LEGO Foundation is offering teachers and parents a free course to help them support kids by learning through play.

It’s teamed up with social learning platform FutureLearn to deliver the course, which will focus on helping young people to cope with the consequences of the ongoing pandemic.

“Coping with Changes: Social-Emotional Learning Through Play” has been designed with two aims in mind. First, it will help primary caregivers – parents and teachers – better respond to new and uncertain situations. Second, it will help kids improve their social and emotional wellbeing, using the LEGO Foundation’s mantra of learning through play.

Amy Jo Dowd, Head of Evidence at the LEGO Foundation, said the organisation’s mission is “one of the key vehicles to help children, and adults, cope with these effects, as well as build upon their social and emotional skills, which are especially important during times of challenge and crisis.”

Here’s the full description of the course:

Discover mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) and SEL strategies
COVID-19 means children around the world must adjust to school closure, social distancing, school reopening (but looking different), and the probability of more school closures in future.

These changes will impact children’s academic outcomes as well as challenge their mental health and socio-emotional wellbeing, which forms the basis of their ability to learn.

On this course, you’ll explore the practical and emotional challenges facing children and discover learning through play and stress management strategies that can help.

You’ll also consider the potential long term effects of crises on a child’s social, emotional, and cognitive development.

It’s comprised of nine two-hour sessions, and you can start whenever you like. You can also learn at your own pace, whether that’s daily, weekly, or something in between. While it’s designed primary for teachers and parents, the LEGO Foundation suggests it will also be of interest to humanitarian workers, artists and social workers.

Head over to the LEGO Foundation’s website to access the course, free of charge.

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