“I was a teacher in a preschool classroom for five years and a toddler classroom for three,” Donna Servideo says of her early career. “And I was learning right along with the children.”

What, specifically, did she learn from her students?

“They taught me how to have fun again and find joy in my job.” 

Now, Servideo is taking fun and joy and fusing them into her work at Worcester Head Start—and as member of Strategies for Children’s Advocacy Network.

As Servideo explains, Worcester Head Start is one of two Head Start programs nationally that bases its approach on Reggio Emilia, a child-led, play-based curriculum that comes from Italy. In January, she started a new job as her program’s Center Coordinator, providing education coaching for teachers.

“I review lessons and observe classrooms to ensure that we’re using best practices, that teachers are interacting with children, asking open-ended questions, and letting children lead the activities. We focus on learning through play and on teachers building a curriculum around what children want to learn.”

“Three-, four- and five-year-old children need time to play,” Servideo adds. “They can learn skills through play. They can learn math, literacy, and social science through play.”

“I’m just really passionate about play.”

Advocating for Play

Like many educators, Servideo has been working hard to protect children from the effects and aftershocks of Covid—using, of course, fun and play.

Early in the pandemic, when she was teaching early math to 3-to-5-year-olds at Worcester Head Start, Servideo partnered with EDC’s Young Mathematicians program, which focuses on sharing “fun math experiences with teachers and families.”

Another item on Servideo’s post-Covid list is advocating for better mental health services in early education. 

“One reason I feel that we have so many mental health problems is because children aren’t allowed to be children anymore,” Servideo says. “They don’t have the play-based skills they need to succeed in life. So right now, I’m advocating for the right to play.”

Initially, Servideo thought she could facilitate change by explaining the importance of play to legislators.

“Then I thought, wait a minute, first I have to advocate to the parents. I need them to understand why play is important.”

For her Advocacy Network project, Servideo has launched a parent education campaign, holding “parent cafe” information meetings that highlight play and that share an important message: parents can also benefit from play. 

“The first meeting was an overview,” Servideo says. “I tied play to literacy because parents’ goals were to have their children learn more literacy skills. So I shared simple ideas about connecting play and literacy at home or while families are out shopping. It was an opportunity for parents to understand that you can learn skills with things other than flashcards.”

The feedback from parents? They wanted to know what, specifically, children were learning from the play they were doing in their Head Start program.

So Servideo had more meetings. In the second meeting, she explained the work children were doing with three-dimensional art using Magna-Tiles, and she invited parents into the classroom.

In the third meeting, parents got to play—and learn—alongside their children. This event was based on the book, “The Gingerbread Man,” by Mara Alperin, and parents and children had to engage in different activities without instructions. 

In one room, there were materials and the challenge to get a Gingerbread Man safely across a water table. How to do it? Experiment through play. In another room families were encouraged to make their own board game using dice and some gingerbread figures. How? Through play. Some families added a gross motor component: landing on a purple square meant doing ten jumping jacks. 

“That meeting was only supposed to be an hour, but it lasted for two-and-a-half hours because everybody was having so much fun!”

Among the lessons that Servideo hopes parents learned through the meetings are new ways to interact with their children and that families can have fun without relying on television and computer screens. 

The future of play

Servideo is deeply committed to spreading much more awareness about play.

Last year, she was part of a STEM Education Showcase at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, where she spoke on a panel that explored the question, “What does it look like when families and school educators authentically partner to come together in joyous learning?” 

Eventually, Servideo would also like to have legislators visit her program and play with the children there, and learn their own lessons.

Servideo wants to help parents, legislators, and everyone else to understand how play can improve mental health. As Unicef, cultural organizations, and academics all point out, the benefits of play include: 

• strengthening the parent-child bond
  
• helping children become more resilient and independent 
  
• building social skills, and 
  
• discovering personal interests

There are even documented benefits for adults.

Elevating play, Servideo says, would help Massachusetts become a stronger state where young children learn in more relaxed environments; there would be more time for recess and running around; and older children would be less stressed when they meet the challenges of learning in elementary school classrooms. 

“I really feel that play is what everybody needs both in this moment and forever,” Servideo says, adding what could be an inspiring, statewide, campaign slogan:

“Play should never stop.”