Table of Contents

How I Came to Write This Book . . . and Why It Is Needed

Chapter 1: What Is “Big Body Play”?

Chapter 2: Benefits of Play, and Big Body Play in Particular

Chapter 3: Strategies for Implementing Big Body Play

Frequently Asked Questions about Big Body Play

Appendix

References

About the Author

Frances Carlson teaches early childhood education in an associate degree program at Chattahoochee Technical College. Carlson has worked as center administrator for child care programs in Oklahoma and for the Department of the Army in Italy, the Sheltering Arms, Internal Revenue Service, Wachovia Bank, Turner Broadcasting Systems, and the child development lab school at Chattahoochee Technical College. She has led four child care programs successfully through the NAEYC Accreditation process.



Frances has a bachelor’s degree in English from North Georgia College & State University, a certificate in Italian from the Defense Language Institute/Foreign Language Center at the Presidio of Monterey, and a master’s degree in education from Concordia University–St. Paul. Frances authored the NAEYC book Essential Touch: Meeting the Needs of Young Children (2006) and directed and produced the DVD Expect Male Involvement: Recruiting & Retaining Men in ECE (2009).



In her free time, Frances enjoys riding her bike, cooking for her family and friends, and going to movies.

Reviews

"We love big body play in our program! It allows children to gain an understanding of their spatial boundaries, test their physical limits, and explore risk within a safe environment. We’ve seen our students gain tremendous self-confidence and self-control through big body play."



—Mary Shallenberger, prekindergarten teacher



"In her ever-clear style, Carlson covers topics from safety considerations, to teaching children to read body language and recognize limits, to communicating with families about the educational and overall human benefits of very vigorous play. Frances Carlson has once again written The Book."



—Dan Gartrell, author of A Guidance Approach for the Encouraging Classroom



"Everyone benefits when big body play is accepted as developmental and is supervised by knowledgeable adults. Big Body Play is a wonderful resource, a straightforward guide to assist teachers in understanding and promoting rough-and-tumble play. Such play is one of the first steps children take in development of the physical skills they will need to be physically active throughout life."



—Stephen Sanders, author of Active for Life: Developmentally Appropriate Movement Programs for Young Children



"[Carlson] masterfully uses scholarly research to paint a picture of what this big body play looks like . . . and to catalog the potential benefits for children of engaging in physical, active play. . . . I recommend this book wholeheartedly to my fellow early-childhood educators."



— Review by Brenda Boyd, Washington State University in the American Journal of Play, Spring 2013