{"id":128466,"date":"2026-03-03T15:09:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T15:09:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/128466\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T15:09:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T15:09:16","slug":"how-pittsburgh-is-promoting-intergenerational-play-to-support-early-learning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/128466\/","title":{"rendered":"How Pittsburgh Is Promoting Intergenerational Play to Support Early Learning"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the Firefly Garden in suburban Pittsburgh, children and caregivers can explore a sensory playground filled with wind chimes, grassy tunnels and a mud box. Their playtime doesn\u2019t end at the park though; each activity is paired with caregiver-focused messages and QR codes that encourage at-home activities.<\/p>\n

The Washington County Park system and Pittsburgh\u2019s PBS station, WQED, created the sensory garden using a pilot grant from Let\u2019s Play PGH!, a Pennsylvania initiative that provides funding to local organizations to create playful learning experiences for people of all ages in public spaces, and Remake Learning, a peer network for educators in Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n

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The activities at the garden, which is located in a community green space<\/a>, were designed to foster intergenerational play and joint exploration, helping caregivers see play as \u201cthe work of kids\u201d and understand how to actively support learning through shared activities, according to Gina Masciola, a program director for learning neighborhoods at WQED who sits on the Remake Learning Council.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo the messaging really is for adults,\u201d said Masciola. \u201cIt\u2019s really about modeling and helping parents connect to their kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s Play PGH!<\/a> launched in summer 2023, when Remake Learning brought together organizations to work on prototypes for play installations. The initiative has $1.5 million in grant funding<\/a> to distribute, and has already doled out a majority of the money to organizations that are redeveloping spaces in the region, incorporating child development research, urban design and the science of play, said Tyler Samstag, executive director of Remake Learning.<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh isn\u2019t the first city in the U.S., or even in Pennsylvania to create public works that foster intergenerational play and learning. Samstag pointed to a simple and effective project in Philadelphia that put playful signage up in grocery stores<\/a> encouraging parents to talk to their kids. Those relatively inexpensive installations can provide a boost for children\u2019s literacy and language development, according to Samstag.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s Play PGH! was inspired by research from Playful Learning Landscapes, a joint project from Temple University\u2019s Infant and Child Laboratory and the Brookings Institution, Samstag noted. Researchers examined how children spend their time outside of school \u2014 which for many, they said, was about 80% of their waking hours \u2014 and how everyday experiences in urban spaces could be utilized as learning opportunities<\/a>. The initial Learning Landscapes initiative<\/a> found that communities must buy into the project at the outset, create simple science-based activities and build on existing city infrastructure as much as possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe put up this question, \u2018What would playful learning installations prioritize? What would they look like?\u2019\u201d Samstag said. \u201cWhat might it look like if a bus stop turned into a site of learning, or a laundromat turned into a site of learning?\u201d<\/p>\n

Related<\/a><\/p>\n

CT, NH Mandate Play-Based Learning in Schools. Why All States Should Do the Same<\/p>\n

After brainstorming, participants tested out ideas in their communities by building prototypes, placing them in public spaces where children and caregivers could interact with them, and sought feedback from residents on what could make the designs more accessible, engaging and fun. WQED, for example, built the firefly garden and worked closely with Washington County Park system staffers, who interviewed people who visited the garden and asked them what they would like to see, Masciola said. She added: \u201cWhen we are building anything, we know that the community is going to end up being the user. Those are the experts.\u201d<\/p>\n

When WQED built the Firefly Garden, Masciola said, the team used the grant to buy materials for the prototype of the playground, scouring thrift stores for supplies to create homemade wind chimes. They also created a sensory tunnel with sticks, long grasses and bark woven throughout. The PBS Kids show, Elinor Wonders Why, inspired the signs and play prompts dotting the garden. Those signs were written for caregivers, not just children, with the intention of sparking curiosity.<\/p>\n

A lot of PBS shows, like Daniel Tiger and Carl the Collector, really are \u201cabout modeling and helping caregivers interact with very young children,\u201d Masciola said. \u201cMaking sure that families understand what it means to observe, encouraging them to maybe have a data collection notebook that they can record things in together with their children.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another grantee, the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy, was invited by Let\u2019s Play PGH! to join the initial cohort to transform the Frick Environmental Center, a public facility inside Pittsburgh\u2019s largest park. The vision was to revamp the center, which serves as a nature and education hub for the city\u2019s dwellers, into an area that would encourage caregivers to interact with their children, rather than just watch them.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the deeper goals of this is promoting play between caregivers and children,\u201d said James Brown, director of education at the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy and the Frick Environmental Center. \u201cThis is not the place to let your kids go loose and then you\u2019re just on your phone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"One<\/p>\n

One of the deeper goals of The Frick Environmental Center project is promoting play between caregivers and children, said James Brown, director of education at the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy and the Frick Environmental Center. (John Altdorfer)<\/p>\n

When Brown received feedback from caregivers after the first round of play testing, he said he noticed that the adults were taking on more of an observational role while their children were playing.<\/p>\n

Then, when Brown\u2019s team introduced play prompts, such as a hide and seek game or a cleanup song, and posted them around the space, the feedback from caregivers changed, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe found there was much more \u2018we\u2019 statements, like \u2018we did this,\u2019 and \u2018we built the habitat,\u2019 and \u2018we were exploring,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cJust that invitation was the game changer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Frick has plans to continue with a larger scale redesign with more play installations, and has been translating caregivers\u2019 feedback into plans for the next phase of the environmental center, Brown said. Last summer, he contracted a narrative muralist who read through the data from parents and kids, then drafted an artistic rendering for the space. Brown expects the artists working on the project to have installations ready by this spring.<\/p>\n

With feedback in hand from people in the community who have experienced their installations, the Pittsburgh Park Conservancy and other grantees that have projects underway with Let\u2019s Play PGH! are continuing to iterate on their prototypes.<\/p>\n

As of last month, the initiative has funded 16 projects \u2014 including the Firefly Garden and the Frick Environmental Center \u2014 with prototypes in motion, and intergenerational play is key to a number of them, Samstag said. One project he highlighted, \u201cClayground,\u201d by the Manchester Craftsman\u2019s Guild, made a bicycle-powered potter\u2019s wheel as a way to improve access to the art of ceramics. Guild members retrofitted an old bicycle from the 1970s with a pottery wheel and took it around to local festivals throughout the summer where parents and grandparents pedaled with their kids. With the help of a new grant, the guild plans on building a suite of bicycle installations that can travel to various public spaces around Pittsburgh, Samstag said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A bicycle-powered pottery wheel offers parents and grandparents a chance to pedal with their kids. (Ben Filio)<\/p>\n

Joyful learning is so important, Samstag explained, adding that when he brings people together across all types of organizations and asks adults to reflect on their own experiences of play, the question sparks vivid memories.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone knows how important this is,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it\u2019s often overlooked because of all of the other things that you\u2019ve got to do day in and day out.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At the Firefly Garden in suburban Pittsburgh, children and caregivers can explore a sensory playground filled with wind…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128467,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[59807,40617,59809,59811,73,75,74,58347,59805,59810,59808,59806,59804],"class_list":["post-128466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-caregivers","tag-frick-environmental-center","tag-gina-masciola","tag-james-brown","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-pittsburgh-parks-conservancy","tag-public-spaces","tag-samstag","tag-sensory-garden","tag-tyler-samstag","tag-wqed"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128466\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}