Why do kids love playful aggression like roughhousing, pretending to be superheroes, or playing with toy weapons? In The Playvolution HQ Podcast episode, Jeff Johnson dives into playful aggression, explaining why it’s natural, beneficial, and essential for children’s development. Learn how rough-and-tumble play fosters growth across physical, social-emotional, cognitive, adaptive, and communicative domains, and discover practical tips for creating environments that support this type of play. Jeff also introduces a fun DIY project—the “Amazing Rough-and-Tumble Sidekick”—perfect for supporting active, self-directed play at home or in early learning programs. Episode Video Watch Now: PHQP_0001 The Benefits of Playful Aggression Episode Notes Large Blocks Of Uninterrupted Time | Core Value 1 The Benefits Of Playful Aggression The Amazing Rough And Tumble Sidekick 5 Key Developmental Domains Understanding Danger, Hazard, And Risk Top 10 Books For Understanding The Value Of Child-Led Play And Exploration Reading List 6 Critical Reasons Adults Interrupt Children’s Play 4 Simple Tips For Creating Environments That Minimize Play Interruptions Free Forms | Interruption Observation From 6 Harmful Effects Of Play Interruption The Benefits of Playful Aggression Transcript Hey, welcome to the Playvolution HQ podcast. I'm Jeff Johnson. Thanks for pushing play on with the show. Topic one for this episode: who is this show for? Well, I thought this would be a good thing to clarify here at the beginning of the show, so nobody listens if it might not be for them. I think the show is first for professional caregivers, people who work on a daily basis with young children. Next up, parents who are interested in play and playful learning and knowing more about those things so that they can understand the play that's going on at home and be more thoughtful about selecting early learning programs for their children to make sure their kids are getting what they need. And I think also maybe a subset of parents who are homeschooling young children, either preschool or early elementary kids, may also find value in the show. And then beyond that, anyone interested in how children learn through play, because that's gonna be one of the big themes here of the show. Moving on, topic two: core values. I was trying to put together some core values for the show, and the list kept getting longer and longer, so I thought I would spend the first dozen or so episodes introducing those. So this is part one of what I think the core of this show is, and basically, the core of early learning. Later on, I'll share some links to a reading list I put together of top 10 books that really get into the research and information behind these core values if you wanna check those out. So first one is young children need large blocks of uninterrupted time for self-directed play and exploration. I wanted to break that down. So young children. Here at Playvolution HQ, I think young children covers everybody from birth to age 10. I know some organizations cut it off around age eight. I think that's a little bit too early. I think that's kind of leading to some of the age compression that's going on. So young children, kids under the age of 10. Large blocks. What are we talking about with large blocks of time? I'm talking hour-plus blocks of time where kids get to be the choosers. This is a problem in a lot of early learning settings because the day is broke down into little 30 minutes, maybe 25 or 15-minute blocks of time. And so not only don't kids have an opportunity to go deep into their play, they're always going through a transition time. So one of the things we're gonna advocate on this show is big blocks of time and fewer transitions during the day. Uninterrupted. So what's that all about? That's about us adults getting up in their business when they're playing.
