Sports and Play Promotes Social Emotional Learning and Character

Source: Coaching Corps

By Sam Piha

 

The research says there is a strong connection between organized sports and play and the development of SEL and character. Yet the rising costs of “participating in organized youth sports is making these activities unaffordable for many families, essentially barring kids and teens from important opportunities to improve their physical health, develop social-emotional skills, and build relationships.” [i] However, there is also a trend in schools to increase time for reading and math by eliminating time for play, including recess. 

Source: CASEL

That’s where OST programs come in. “They can play a vital role in making access to organized sports more equitable, according to the 2023 State of Play report from the Aspen Institute, a think tank.” [ii]

“You can also just have programming after school that is teaching and exposing kids to the sports. Some of the best ways to do that is by bringing in partners from your community. It’s a great opportunity as well for the community programs. Take youth soccer as an example: youth soccer associations that want to grow the sport, why would you not want to come into schools and find ways to subsidize this?” [iii] - Jon Solomon, the editorial director of the Sports & Society Program at the Aspen Institute 



SHRINKING ACCESS TO YOUTH SPORTS

“I think more and more people recognize that you have to provide sports opportunities within the school setting because that’s where most kids are. These are kids who have less money, or their parents are working multiple jobs and can’t get them to practices and games.” [iv] - Jon Solomon, the editorial director of the Sports & Society Program at the Aspen Institute 

 

According to Arianna Prothero, “Sports participation is much lower among children from low-income families than among those from high-income families. A quarter of kids from families earning less than $25,000 a year participate in regular sports, compared with 39 percent of kids in families earning more than $100,000 a year, according to the report. 

 

While sports participation among 6- to 12-year-olds from low-income families has gone up over the past four years, participation among 13- to 17-year-olds in that income bracket continues to decrease, dropping from 38 percent in 2012 to 27 percent in 2022.” [v]

 

SPORTS AND SEL

“While organized sports are excellent SEL skill-builders, uniforms, referees, and rulebooks are not required for children to reap the social and emotional benefits of play. Like organized sports, all types of play offer opportunities to explore, imagine, and create. When children play with others, they practice cooperation, communication, and conflict resolution. Construction play, like building with LEGOs, activates children’s problem-solving skills. And through dramatic play, children take on the perspectives of others and practice empathy. So, get out there and play!” [vi]

Source: Edutopia

 

COACHES TRAINING

If we want to see playing organized sports as contributing to character and social emotional learning, sports coaches require training. There are organizations such as the Positive Coaching Alliance that specialize in this kind of training for coaches. 

 

“Are we as coaches concerned most with hoisting the championship trophy in the air at the end of the season, or raising up stronger character in our youth?” [vii] - Pete Paciorek

 

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES ON PLAY 

There are many resources on the topic of play. We cite a few below. 



Websites 

• The power of play – Part 1-5: This is a 5-part series from Michigan State University The Power of Play
• The Genius of Play has created easy to use activities, provides expert advice and more. And it's all FREE for anyone to use.

Videos

There are many TED talks and other videos on play. Below are some that we like. 

• TED Talk by Stuart Brown entitled “Play is more than just fun” 
• TED Talk by Peter Gray entitled “The decline of play”

 

Articles

• Embracing Learning Through Play by Elizabeth M. Ross
• Teaching Leadership Skills With PE Games by Donna Paul
• The Importance of Play for Adolescents by Heather Hayes

 

LIAS Blogs

You can also view previous LIAS Blogs on the topic of play here and on the topic of sports here. 

For a full briefing paper on the importance of play, click here.

Check out our upcoming webinar on The Importance of Play in Afterschool. To learn more and register, click here.

END NOTES:

[i] Arianna Prothero, Kids Are Getting Priced Out of Youth Sports. How Schools Can Help

[ii] IBID.

[iii] IBID.

[iv] IBID.

[v] IBID.

[vi] The Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL), Connections, July 2024

[vii] Dr. Arthur Schwartz, What does the research say about the connection between sports and character?

 

How to Help Girls Develop Through Sports and Role Models

Source: www.pexels.com

By Sam Piha

There is an exploding interest in girls’ sports, as our understanding of the benefits grow. Through girls’ sports afterschool programs can promote leadership, engagement and personal empowerment.

“We know that sport is empowering, particularly for girls, and challenge gender norms. Sport participation offers girls an opportunity to build their self-esteem, courage and self-efficacy. It is a place where they can take up leadership positions and through sport programs girls' belief in their own ability increases. This translates into everyday life – it encourages them to take initiative, raise their voices and attempt things they never assumed were possible.

When community members see girls achieve in sport, they often recognize their potential to achieve in other domains.  Lastly, sport is a powerful tool and platform to strengthen social ties, networks, engage the community and promote positive messages. In short, wins on the field translate into wins off the field – One Win Leads to Another.” [1]

 

TIPS FOR DEVELOPING LEADERSHIP

According to Women Win, “Girls’ leadership can and should be an important part of program design. Developing the leadership abilities and opportunities within a program for the adolescent girl participants creates a pool of potential coaches, facilitators and female leaders for your sport programs. This, in turn, increases the potential for these girls to grow as leaders in their communities.

One of the most powerful ways to build leadership qualities in girls is to put girls in leadership roles. When girls are expected to lead others, they find power within themselves they might not know existed. This can come in the form of formal positions or informal relationships between girls. Creative program leaders and coaches find subtle ways to facilitate this process and support all forms of leadership.

• Be patient. Leadership is a skill that is developed over time. Ask girls what they are good at and how they want to build their skills and confidence. Encourage them to lead their own development.
• Allow girls to elect their own leaders.
• Highlight examples of good leadership.
• Let girls train others in sport-specific, practical and life skills.
• Show girls you value their opinions.
• Explicitly talk about and encourage discussions about leadership values to girls regularly.
• Lead by example as a coach or program leader.
• Support positive role modelling.
• Allow girls to choose if they want to fill leadership roles.
• Encourage girls to go out in community and be recognized.
• Reward acts of leadership with outward praise and formal honors.
• Reward exceptional performance with leadership roles.
• Give all girls opportunities to lead during practice, not just older, talented, non-disabled or more natural leaders.
• Constantly encourage goal setting and evaluation.
• Target inhibitors of leadership and address them, such as lack of confidence, peer pressure or poor mentoring.
• Seek to help every girl develop to her highest personal potential, as opposed to constantly criticizing or comparing girls to one another.
• Recognize quiet leadership in girls, those who are not outspoken or loud, but rather, those who will always run the extra lap with the slowest girl on the team.
• Create standards of what it takes to be a leader from both girls with and without disabilities

Personal empowerment and control are closely linked. Program partners report that when a girl feels like she has control over her body, her future and her environment, she begins to feel strong and powerful. It is important to give participants in your program some degree of control over the design of the program, especially when the intent of the program is to increase girls’ self-esteem. Girls are more likely to fully engage in activities that they help design.” [2]

Source: www.pexels.com

PROGRAM DESIGN: HOW TO ENGAGE GIRLS IN SPORTS 

• “Allow girls to choose paint colors and make decorations for the space where their sessions are held.
• Ask girls to vote on how they would like to be grouped for competitions, for example, by age, by region or by skill level.
• Give girls the choice of uniform colors and team names.
• Consult with girls and their families about time and duration of practices and training sessions
• Ask girls to create rules of conduct for sessions and penalties for breach of conduct.
• Pick a group of girls to interview and evaluate potential coaches.
• Ask girls which sport they would like to play.
• Ask girls which life skills topics they would like to discuss.” [3]

THE IMPORTANCE OF ROLE MODELS FOR GIRLS 

According to Women Win, “Girls are exposed to both positive and negative role models every day: a strong mother who stands up against domestic abuse or a female celebrity that uses her sex appeal to be popular. All of these people affect how a girl views her own potential. These are the people who girls use as references for whom they will become and whose behavior they will emulate.

Local examples provide more easily imaginable visions of success. A key component to presenting girls with role models is to make sure the success experienced by the role models is attainable and replicable in their minds. Research has shown that when individuals feel that the role model in front of them has attained a status unreachable to them, their presence can actually be demoralizing. If possible, find role models who exemplify an area in which girls have an interest and where they need help in personal development. Find a person who can share their personal experience with personal growth in that area. Men can certainly serve as positive role models; however, there is an inherent value in same-gender role modelling.” [4]

Source: www.pexels.com

Role Models: Some Tips

“A girl needs to see confidence, leadership and accomplishment in other women in order to envision herself with those qualities. A program designed to empower girls must provide powerful, positive role models. As program directors, it is helpful to expose girls to a diverse set of role models as consistently as possible. Strong role models can be women who are older, skilled athletes, coaches, community leaders, successful business people, celebrities, politicians, religious leaders, confident peers or any strong woman whose presence will resonate with the girls. Although there is power to showing girls women who are international heroines, there is also a power to exposing them to local people.” [5] -  Women Win

Women Win offers these tips to promote women role models: 

• “Organize events where role models speak to girls about their experiences.
• Try to pair up individual girls with older mentors with the intention of creating long-lasting relationships.
• Take girls to see athletic events with older participants. Arrange a meet-and-greet afterwards to allow girls to interact with players.
• Set up guest coaching sessions with successful coaches from your region.
• Ensure that all those in positions of power within the organization are serving as positive role models for participants.
• Seek role models outside of the sport arena. Invite a successful businesswoman or female politician to come to the program and speak to the girls.
• Consider inviting men or women with a disability to come speak, as they often have a powerful impact on girls with and without disabilities.
• Discuss the concept of “negative role modelling” with girls, i.e., simply because a person is successful does not mean that they are worthy of being a role model. Challenge girls to evaluate virtues, values and expectations related to these role models.” [6]

RESOURCES TO LEARN MORE

In addition to the resources that are cited in the end notes (below), we also recommend a few additional resources.

• Women’s Sports Foundation- Designing a Quality Girls’ Sports Program
• Women Win- Engaging Girls in Sport
• Women Win- Guides

END NOTES

[1] Women Win, Empowering Girls Through Sport

[2] Women Win, Developing Girls’ Leadership

[3] Women Win, Girl-Led Design

[4] Women Win, The Power of Role Models

[5] IBID.

[6] IBID. 

Tips for Volunteering with Kids

Source: www.pexels.com

By Sam Piha

According to Bright Horizons Foundation for Children, “There are many charitable organizations that rely on volunteers to accomplish their missions. Talk to children about what issues really matter to them and what causes they would like to support. Are they concerned about the environment and pollution? Do they want to help rescue abused or abandoned animals? Do they feel sad about elderly people who have no children or grandchildren nearby to visit them? Do they want to make children in the hospital smile and not feel so scared? Is homelessness and poverty a great concern for them? Do they want to find a cure for a particular disease that someone in your family may have?

After identifying one or two particular causes, children can do research together to identify organizations that need and welcome volunteer support from children. Here are a few ideas for finding volunteer opportunities:

• Start volunteering locally. Go to a local church, temple, other religious organization, community center, school, or library to ask about local groups that support the cause(s) you’ve identified. Talk to friends, family members, co-workers, and neighbors about your area of interest. Perhaps you already know someone who is volunteering for a charity that would be a good fit for your family. Local United Ways often have volunteer listings.


• Try national volunteer organizations. Most national organizations have websites that will connect you to local chapters and outline their specific needs and activities that support their cause. There are also some volunteer websites where you can search for child-friendly volunteer opportunities. Here are just a few suggestions: Big Hearted Families, GenerationOn, Points of Light, Volunteer Match, and Idealist.

Source: www.pexels.com

• Go straight to the source. If your children want to cheer up children in the hospital, visit or call a local children’s hospital with your child and ask what you can do. You may want to suggest specific activities like hosting a holiday party, doing arts and craft projects for children in the hospital, painting the fingernails of all the girls, dressing like a clown and painting faces, or whatever your child thinks of. If your child loves animals, you could visit an animal shelter together and offer to walk the dogs once a week. Be creative! If you are sincere and are suggesting something that doesn’t make more work for the employees or other volunteers, chances are you will get a warm reception.” [i]

DIFFERENT WAYS TO HELP

Source: www.pexels.com

To ensure that helping activities are meaningful to youth, it is best that they can identify which causes are most important to them. They can do some research on what the best way is to help. For instance, one program leader thought that donating canned goods would be a good way to support a local homeless shelter. However, after their own research, the young people learned that what they really needed were more jackets and coats. In another program in Minnesota, instead of donating clothing to poor children, the youth learned what was highly requested were ice skates. In response, they sponsored a drive to collect ice skates to distribute to others.  

Below, the Bright Horizons Foundation for Children offers these additional ways to help. Please note that this website offers advice to parents, but their remarks are also relevant to youth programs. They suggest:

• “Donating Money: Even if children are too young for volunteer activities, they can help to raise money for their favorite cause. They can organize a yard sale or car wash with signs letting everyone know that the proceeds will go to your preferred charity. Many charities have walk-a-thons and other fundraising activities that welcome the participation of children. 
• Giving Toys: Many children have more toys than they can possibly play with. Before gift-giving holidays and birthdays, children can go through their toys. Parents can help them pick out ones to give away to children who don’t have any toys.
• Donating Clothes: Go through clothes together. You can talk about how even though they don’t fit them anymore, donating baby and kid clothes is still very useful to smaller children who may not have the money to go buy new clothes. 
• Food Drives and Donations: Many local food pantries, soup kitchens, and homeless shelters welcome food donations. Children can organize a canned-food drive in their classroom (with your assistance and the teacher’s approval) and donate all the collected cans together. Some volunteer organizations even welcome holiday leftovers in large quantities. Take the youth to drop off the food so they can actually see where it’s going.” [ii]

For a full briefing paper on kids helping others, click here.

END NOTES:
[i] Bright Horizons, Teaching Children to Help Others
[ii] IBID. 

Neurodiversity in Education

Source: www.pexels.com

By Sam Piha 

According to Google AI, “Neurodiversity in education is important because it acknowledges and embraces the natural variation in how humans process information and learn. This approach encourages inclusive learning environments that cater to the diverse needs of all students, including those who may have conditions like autism, ADHD, or dyslexia. By embracing neurodiversity, educators can create more equitable and effective learning experiences for all students."

Here's why neurodiversity is crucial in education: 

1. Promoting Inclusivity and Acceptance: Neurodiversity helps to de-stigmatize different ways of thinking and learning, fostering a more inclusive and accepting environment for all students. It encourages empathy and understanding among students, as they learn about the unique perspectives and experiences of their neurodivergent peers. By valuing and celebrating differences, neurodiversity helps to create a more supportive and positive learning environment for all students, including those who may be neurodivergent. 
2. Enhancing Learning Outcomes: Neurodiverse students can benefit from a more flexible and personalized approach to learning that caters to their individual strengths and needs. By providing a variety of teaching methods and resources, educators can ensure that all students have access to the information and support they need to succeed. Neurodiversity can also help to foster innovation and creativity, as diverse perspectives can lead to new and more effective ways of problem-solving and learning. 
3. Supporting Neurodivergent Students: Neurodiversity provides a framework for understanding and addressing the challenges faced by neurodivergent students in the classroom. It encourages educators to implement accommodations and strategies that can help neurodivergent students to learn and thrive, such as providing sensory accommodations, clear instructions, and opportunities for self-advocacy. By recognizing and supporting their unique needs, educators can help neurodivergent students to develop their strengths, build confidence, and reach their full potential. 
4. Benefits for All Students: Inclusive classrooms, where neurodiversity is embraced, can benefit all students by creating a more engaging and supportive learning environment. Neurodiversity can also help to improve social and emotional development, as students learn to interact with and support one another. By promoting empathy and understanding, neurodiversity can help to create a more inclusive and accepting society.” 

INTEGRATE SUPPORTIVE PRACTICES INTO CLASSROOM TEACHING AND AFTERSCHOOL PROGRAMS

Christina Frasher

According to Christina Frasher, visiting assistant professor in the School of Education, University of Pittsburgh, “There are a variety of practices one can integrate into their teaching repertoire that support all students and in particular those who identify as neurodiverse. These strategies include integrating inclusive teaching practices, offering transparency and clarity, including choice and flexibility, and humanizing the learning environment.

As in all inclusive teaching practices, the most important place to start is by beginning with one’s self. Ask, what are your own assumptions on what makes a good student? Consider critiquing neurotypical patterns of communication and presentation that may be normative in academic environments. Reflect on the different patterns of communication and presentation that display interest and engagement and assess them for validity.

Additionally, you may want to inquire as to what your triggers in the learning environment are and what you may perceive as 'negative' behavior. Many neurodiverse individuals struggle with feeling misunderstood in social interactions, due to the random nature of neurotypical social interactions (Belek, 2018) and this can create miscommunication in educational settings. Knowing our own perceived modes of communication can be a tremendous asset in developing affirming teaching strategies that support all students. 

• Inclusive Teaching Practices: Integrating an inclusive design into your courses can support all students. A helpful first step is considering offering elements of Universal Design for Learning. Consider ways to offer multiple methods of Engagement, Representation and Action and Expression.

Additionally, consider the diversity of content and perspectives, can you offer non-western, non-ableist perspectives for example? Inclusive teaching practices are foundational to supporting a learning environment where all students are supported and can thrive, to expand your inclusive teaching practice consider exploring the resources offered below.

• Transparency and Clarity: One ongoing practice you can integrate into your teaching is to offer transparency and clarity to your course structure and materials. Transparency includes offering explicit directives on the how, what and why of assignments and course responsibilities. This includes offering guidance on the “how to” aspects of the learning environment, such as what classroom participation looks like, what are office hours, group work responsibilities, etc. 

A simple first step is to revise what you already have for clarity and organization (reduce language, utilize spacing and bullet points constructively). Other options include offering clear and consistent communication, establishing routines, and creating predictability which increases students’ confidence in navigating your courses.

• Student Choice and Flexibility: Another pathway to bolstering students is to offer choice and flexibility in course assignments and activities. Consider offering flexible due dates or integrating the use of tokens. It is important to have due dates and offer structure however to support regulatory practices in learning. 

Source: www.pexels.com

Providing choice in assignments , such as ways to integrate their major or particular interests they may have, allows students to bring their unique experiences and interests into educational settings, which can be very affirming for neurodiverse students. Adding multiple ways to be successful (such as in assignments and participation) can support neurodiverse students in bringing their strengths and assets to the learning environment.

• Humanize the Learning Environment: Finally, consider humanizing the learning environment of your courses. Imagine ways in which you can integrate your own authenticity into the learning environment (Hamilton & Petty, 2023), ensuring that this offering supports student learning and success. 

Explicitly create social connections and offer activities that build community such as games, art-making, listening activities, etc. Consider alternative attention supports (knitting, fidget toys, movement) and changing different sensory aspects in your learning environment (reduce lighting, etc).” 2

For a full briefing paper on neurodiversity, click here.

To learn more and register for this upcoming webinar, click here.

 END NOTES:
[i] Google AI, Why is Neurodiversity Important in Education?

[ii] Christina Frasher, Supporting Neurodiversity in Learning Environments