Healthcare for Homeless
August 5, 2024
Prescription 4 Play Program Starts at Select CRCHC Locations
In September, several family care and pediatric providers at McGill, Salisbury, and Sugar Creek Health Centers began providing free Duplo Blocks to children, between 18 and 36 months of age, and their caregivers during upcoming Well Child Care Visits.
The “prescription for play” packs include a variety of colorful plastic bricks that can be assembled into animals and reconfigured into different shapes, fostering a child’s creativity and fine motor skills. The play prescription offers suggestions for playtime activities and outlines the advantages of engaging in play.
These LEGO® DUPLO® brick kits are provided at no cost through a collaboration between the LEGO® Foundation and The Weitzman Institute, which focuses on health care innovation, social justice, and the advancement of community health centers, established in 2007 within a Federally Qualified Health Center in Connecticut.
Prescription 4 Play encourages learning through play by distributing free kits and educational resources to children during their routine Well Child Care visits with their pediatric healthcare providers.
Program resources include all the following at no cost:
- LEGO® DUPLO® brick kit
- Educational Materials
- Virtual Hug of Program Resources and Training
- Implementation Toolkit (Manual, Sample Workflows, and Scripts)
- CME Credits
- Technical Assistance
- Enduring Education Content
- Program Support
Prescription 4 Play’s effective has been supported by research with a study published in 2022. Some of the key findings were:
- All providers experienced a change in how regularly they introduced learning through play to families and child caregivers
- All providers experienced a change in knowledge about why play is important
- Well child visits experienced benefits beyond the goal of just play resulting in more comprehensive pediatric health visits
- 30 and 90 days after the Prescription 4 Play visits, nearly 80% of caregivers experienced a change in the number of days per week they played with their child
- Almost 90% of caregivers experienced a change in knowledge about why play is important
- Caregivers shared more information related to learning through play with their social circles, extending the reach into their communities
Play is essential for a child’s healthy development and enhances learning, as highlighted in a report by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). It fosters social-emotional, cognitive, language, and self-regulation skills. Beyond being “brain-building,” play also cultivates safe and stable relationships, providing a protective buffer against stress.
