265: Einstein Never Used Flash Cards: How Kids Learn Best

About this episode

Dr. Kathy Hirsh-Pasek discusses how children learn best through play and the importance of joyful learning over structured instruction.

Most parents have heard that play is how children learn. But in a world full of educational toys (even for babies, preschoolers, and kindergarteners!), enrichment classes, structured activities, and apps designed to make babies smarter, making time for play is harder than it sounds. The pressure to get kids ahead earlier keeps building - and the research that's supposed to reassure us often gets buried under the noise.   Dr. Kathy Hirsh-Pasek has spent more than 20 years studying how children learn. She's a psychology professor at Temple University, a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, and co-author of Einstein Never Used Flash Cards - just updated for the age of smartphones, tablets, and AI.   In this conversation, she makes the case that the characteristics that make play so engaging for kids are the exact same characteristics that produce the deepest learning. And she explains why the push to start earlier and do more may be working directly against what parents say they want for their kids.   Questions this episode will answer Did Einstein use flashcards? Of course not! The point of Einstein Never Used Flash Cards is that you don’t need to provide…

People in this episode

Host: Jen Lumanlan

Guest: Dr. Kathy Hirsh-Pasek

Topics covered

• play
• learning
• child development
• education
• parenting
• early childhood

Keywords

• playful learning
• child learning
• early education
• parenting advice
• developmental psychology

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Temple University, Brookings Institution

Books & works: Einstein Never Used Flash Cards

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