Community Health Center, Inc. (CHC) and the Weitzman Institute (WI) are pleased to announce a collaboration with the LEGO® Group to support its Prescription for Play (“P4P”) program. P4P promotes learning through play by supplying free DUPLO® brick kits and educational materials to pediatric health care providers to deliver to 18-36-month-old patients during routine well-child visits. This partnership is funded by the LEGO Foundation.
LEGO Group is relaunching the program with substantial new resources and support brought by CHC and Weitzman, which have piloted P4P at CHC’s Hartford pediatric clinic. The Weitzman Institute will help expand the program by providing trainings, the potential for certification credits, and research and assessment to reach as many pediatric medical providers across the US as possible with the evidence-based concept of learning through play as fundamental to holistic child development.
Weitzman’s education team will work with the LEGO Group to develop educational materials including written/visual content, audio and video pre-recorded learning modules, a short series of live training sessions, and a social media-style platform to encourage collaboration and communication between participants and subject matter experts. An online portal with access available to 5,000 users will provide ongoing management and training of health care organizations and professionals who register to participate in the program. Ultimately, WI will recruit between 100-150 health care sites treating young children to implement the P4P program and distribute 400,000 kits to children and families.
According to Ho-Choong Chang, MD, Chief of Pediatrics, Community Health Center, Inc., “Our children have endured such adversity during the pandemic, and the protective, nurturing power of play is more important than ever. We have been so excited to support our families through Prescription for Play during well child visits, and look forward to collaborating with the LEGO Group to bring this important program to many more health care providers and families across the US.”
“Research shows that playful experiences help children develop the skills they need to thrive. The Prescription for Play program taps into the near-universal opportunity that pediatric health care providers have to promote that message with caregivers,” states Linda Fitzgerald, Program Manager, Prescription for Play. “The LEGO Group and the LEGO Foundation could not be more pleased to have CHC/WI as partners as we further develop and amplify Prescription for Play. They bring critical clinical experience, as well as quality improvement and practice transformation expertise to this endeavor. We believe our partnership will lead to broad adoption of learning through play as a part of routine well-visit care, ultimately benefiting millions of children.” For more information about Prescription for Play, visit www.LEGO.com/P4P.