For our landscape architect friends, we are excited to announce the REBOOT of our Online LACES Play Series!  Earn up to 9 LACES credits online and ON DEMAND through August 10, 2022.

Thank you to our partner – the South Carolina Chapter American Society of Landscape Architects. These fine folks work hard to ensure we can provide LACES CEUs for the relevant conference sessions. Glad to have you on our Play Team, ASLA-SC!

Check out the list of LACES approved sessions:

• “All Ages, All Abilities, All the Time” – Jill Moore White
  Parks today face the challenge of providing environments where all visitors can feel safe, secure and fully engaged. Universal design increases usability, safety, health and social participation. In this presentation, participants will discover how applying the principles of universal design ultimately contribute to social equity and social sustainability in parks.
• “Designing Everyday Spaces for Children” – Shweta Nanekar, PLA, LEED AP (BD+C)
  How do we modify current approaches to the design of everyday spaces to make them more child-friendly? Available literature on child-friendly environments is reviewed to identify empirical research and project examples that can help designers and planners to create spaces that cater to the “Whole Child.”
• “Future of Play: Technology Integration” – David Flanigan, CPSI
  We all know that kids are spending countless hours in front of a screen, not only for gaming and social media, but due to COVID, many kids are attending school virtually. What will the future be like for kids if they are addicted to their screens and don’t want to go outside and play?
• “Healthy Communities, Parks and Splashpads” – Sarah Shepherd
  As demographics, inclusiveness and health concerns evolve, aging facilities need to step up their game to keep communities engaged and active.  Explore effective community infrastructure through the lens of aquatic play. Discover how Splashpads increase park usage, promote inclusion and build social capital that help communities grow and flourish.
• “The Importance of Failure in Play” – Melinda Pearson
  Failure is an inevitable part of life. By creating play spaces that push boundaries in thinking and stretch the limitations of our bodies we create a safe play to explore our failures and learn great things about our growing selves and our budding potential in the process.
• “Inclusive Playground Design:  A Case Study of Three New England Playgrounds” – Ingrid Kanics
  This presentation will share the research results of interviews with parents of children of all abilities around the design of three New England Inclusive Playgrounds. We will share what design features they feel make a playground inclusive and how these playgrounds impact the life of their communities, families and children.
• “Making Connections: People, Places, and Physical Activity” – Ines Palacios, PhD
  Discover planning and design considerations to increase community connectivity, offer more enjoyable ways to be physically active outdoors, and create multigenerational destinations that promote people’s health, happiness, and well-being. Effectively champion and advocate for solutions to provide more affordable, accessible ways to activate healthy lifestyles and increase economic vitality.
• “National Study of Playgrounds (2020)” plus a 2022 update! – Meghan Talarowski, MLA, CPSI, and Deborah A. Cohen, MD
  The National Study of Playgrounds (NSP), a joint research project of Studio Ludo and Dr. Deborah Cohen, is the first observational study of playgrounds to compare the impacts of playground design on play behavior and physical activity across gender, age group, and socio-economic status.
• “Prototyping: Play Applied” – Aaron Goldblatt, Dana Schloss, Meghan Talarowski, Christopher Kircher
  Designers of all stripes occasionally use prototyping to test ideas and physical realities. This discussion advocates for moving the act from occasional to central to a practice and to understand it as an act of play. Designing through joyful exploration makes better spaces for everyone.

The LACES series is part of the online reboot of the 2022 Conference on the Value of Play: THE NATURE OF PLAY.

For our landscape architect friends, we are excited to announce our 2021 Online LACES Play Series!  Earn up to 9 LACES credits online and ON DEMAND through December 31, 2021. The LACES series is part of the 2021 Virtual Conference on the Value of Play: PLAY IS SURVIVAL.

Thank you to our partner – the South Carolina Chapter American Society of Landscape Architects. These fine folks work hard to ensure we can provide LACES CEUs for the relevant conference sessions. Glad to have you on our Play Team, ASLA-SC!

Check out the list of LACES approved sessions:

• “All Ages, All Abilities, All the Time” – Jill Moore White
  Parks today face the challenge of providing environments where all visitors can feel safe, secure and fully engaged. Universal design increases usability, safety, health and social participation. In this presentation, participants will discover how applying the principles of universal design ultimately contribute to social equity and social sustainability in parks.
• “Designing Everyday Spaces for Children” – Shweta Nanekar, PLA, LEED AP (BD+C)
  How do we modify current approaches to the design of everyday spaces to make them more child-friendly? Available literature on child-friendly environments is reviewed to identify empirical research and project examples that can help designers and planners to create spaces that cater to the “Whole Child.”
• “Future of Play: Technology Integration” – David Flanigan, CPSI
  We all know that kids are spending countless hours in front of a screen, not only for gaming and social media, but due to COVID, many kids are attending school virtually. What will the future be like for kids if they are addicted to their screens and don’t want to go outside and play?
• “Healthy Communities, Parks and Splashpads” – Sarah Shepherd
  As demographics, inclusiveness and health concerns evolve, aging facilities need to step up their game to keep communities engaged and active.  Explore effective community infrastructure through the lens of aquatic play. Discover how Splashpads increase park usage, promote inclusion and build social capital that help communities grow and flourish.
• “The Importance of Failure in Play” – Melinda Pearson
  Failure is an inevitable part of life. By creating play spaces that push boundaries in thinking and stretch the limitations of our bodies we create a safe play to explore our failures and learn great things about our growing selves and our budding potential in the process.
• “Inclusive Playground Design:  A Case Study of Three New England Playgrounds” – Ingrid Kanics
  This presentation will share the research results of interviews with parents of children of all abilities around the design of three New England Inclusive Playgrounds. We will share what design features they feel make a playground inclusive and how these playgrounds impact the life of their communities, families and children.
• “Making Connections: People, Places, and Physical Activity” – Ines Palacios, PhD
  Discover planning and design considerations to increase community connectivity, offer more enjoyable ways to be physically active outdoors, and create multigenerational destinations that promote people’s health, happiness, and well-being. Effectively champion and advocate for solutions to provide more affordable, accessible ways to activate healthy lifestyles and increase economic vitality.
• “National Study of Playgrounds (2020)” – Meghan Talarowski, MLA, CPSI
  The National Study of Playgrounds (NSP), a joint research project of Studio Ludo and Dr. Deborah Cohen, is the first observational study of playgrounds to compare the impacts of playground design on play behavior and physical activity across gender, age group, and socio-economic status.
• “Prototyping: Play Applied” – Aaron Goldblatt, Dana Schloss, Meghan Talarowski, Christopher Kircher
  Designers of all stripes occasionally use prototyping to test ideas and physical realities. This discussion advocates for moving the act from occasional to central to a practice and to understand it as an act of play. Designing through joyful exploration makes better spaces for everyone.

For our many architect and design play friends, check out  the AIA CEU approved sessions at the 10th Anniversary Conference on the Value of Play: PLAY FOR LIFE, March 31- April 3 in Clemson, South Carolina:

Play for All: Providing Accessible and Inclusive Outdoor Play and Learning Environments – Ji Hyun Oh

The purpose of this presentation is to share the study that examined provisions of playground environments in a preschool setting and to discuss how outdoor play spaces and play elements can support or hinder rich play experiences for children with and without disabilities.

Reframing the Playground: European Play Precedents at Tulsa’s Gathering Place – Chelsea Hoffman, Teri Hendy, Peter Heuken

European playgrounds provided the inspiration for the largest public playground in the United States, Tulsa’s Gathering Place. This virtual tour of precedents and the Tulsa installations explores how European-style play innovations can find a home on this side of The Pond.

Taking the idea of an inclusive playground past the label to true Universal Design – Alice Reese and Hannah Linter

Today’s buzzword in play is the accessible playground. Is a true inclusive playground limited by this label and idea? A true inclusive playground takes accessibility several steps further towards universal design.  The key to universal design is an environment that enables versus a play piece defining the user as disabled.

Blank Slate: Design for Learning, Exploration and Physical Growth – Paul Russell

Today’s buzzword in play is the accessible playground. Is a true inclusive playground limited by this label and idea? A true inclusive playground takes accessibility several steps further towards universal design.  The key to universal design is an environment that enables versus a play piece defining the user as disabled.

Temple University Students Design an Eco-schoolyard for Play and Learning at Greenberg Elementary – Lolly Tai

Temple University landscape architecture students assisted in the design of the eco-schoolyard for play and learning at Greenberg Elementary School in Philadelphia. Through a comprehensive design process and collaboration between university and school, Temple students demonstrated how their role impacted the initial impetus for creating a healthy and green schoolyard.

Playable Infrastructure – Meghan Talarowski

How do we make space for play? Through places, policies, and people. This session will discuss the role of the designer, the developer, and the community in fostering play for all ages through real world examples and step by step recipes of successful “playable infrastructure”.

The Conference on the VALUE of Play
The Play Conference, as it is commonly known, is an annual educational conference presented by the US Play Coalition. The latest research and practices in the field of play are presented at the conference, which brings together play researchers, park and recreation professionals, educators, health scientists, architects, landscape architects, designers, planners, business and community leaders, psychologists, physicians and parents from across the U.S. and beyond. The three day event includes keynote and featured speakers, round tables on critical issues and trends, research symposium for academics, educational sessions for practitioners, action and research grant opportunities, PLAYtalks and PLAYinstitutes, networking, EPIC play breaks and more.

For our many landscape architect play friends, check out all of the LACES approved sessions at the 10th Anniversary Conference on the Value of Play: PLAY FOR LIFE, March 31- April 3 in Clemson, South Carolina:

• Playable Infrastructure
• What type of play is that? Categorizing play-types to objectively evaluate outdoor play environments
• Socio-Environmental Barriers to Outdoor Play and Their Impact on Child Health Outcomes
• Free play and alternative education pedagogies
• Hardware or software in provisioning public play spaces for children: An analysis of forces at play
• Action Research on Play for Life: The Making of Transitional Play Unit for Two-Year-Old Classrooms
• Play for All: Providing Accessible and Inclusive Outdoor Play and Learning Environments
• A Field-Testing Study on Outdoor Play Environments: Findings and Lessons Learned
• Play by the River – Bringing natural, all-ages play to a new River Garden by the Mississippi
• Learning through doing: The benefits to learning through planning for inclusive play.
• I’m Tired of Saying “No”: Creating invitations for boisterous and adventurous play in the classroom
• Sensory Inclusive Play: Partnering with KultcureCity to become Sensory Inclusive Certified
• Reframing the Playground: European Play Precedents at Tulsa’s Gathering Place
• Traffic Gardens and Dramatic/Challenging Play: Engagement as a Means of Facilitating Risk Competence
• Developing Minds and Bodies Through Loose Parts Play
• Naturalized Outdoor Learning Environments in Childcare Facilities: A Review of Policies in 3 States
• Rotary PlayGarden: An Inclusive Play Success Story
• Approaches for Evaluating the Design of Natural Playspaces to Sup-port Children’s Outdoor Play
• The Role of a Playground Consultant
• Inclusive Play Panel
• “But, I have nothing to do in the park!” – Thinking about places for teens
• Elevating Lifelong Play to Create Healthy Communities
• Guerrilla Playfare:Lessons Learned From Parkour & Streetsport For Designing More Play-Friendly Cities
• Taking the idea of an inclusive playground past the label to true Universal Design
• Blank Slate: Design for Learning, Exploration and Physical Growth
• Temple University Students Design an Eco-schoolyard for Play and Learning at Greenberg Elementary
• How to Make Your Community Playful
• Creating Playful Learning Communities
• Lighting Play Environments for Today & the Future

The Conference on the VALUE of Play
The Play Conference, as it is commonly known, is an annual educational conference presented by the US Play Coalition. The latest research and practices in the field of play are presented at the conference, which brings together play researchers, park and recreation professionals, educators, health scientists, architects, landscape architects, designers, planners, business and community leaders, psychologists, physicians and parents from across the U.S. and beyond. The three day event includes keynote and featured speakers, round tables on critical issues and trends, research symposium for academics, educational sessions for practitioners, action and research grant opportunities, PLAYtalks and PLAYinstitutes, networking, EPIC play breaks and more.