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Media Advisory: 'What Makes a Toy Good?' YouTube premiere on Dec. 3

Short video summarizes findings from 10 years of Eastern's TIMPANI toy study

by Michael Rouleau

Willimantic, CT (12/02/2020) — On Dec. 3 at noon, Eastern Connecticut State University will host a YouTube premiere of a short video describing the best toys for young children. The six-minute video, titled "What Makes a Toy Good? Lessons Learned from 10 Years of the TIMPANI Toy Study," looks at the most important findings from the University's renowned annual toy study, "Toys that Inspire Mindful Play and Nurture Imagination" (TIMPANI).

Produced by Eastern's Center for Early Childhood Education (CECE), the video features new footage - filmed before the pandemic - of children interacting with some of the highest-scoring TIMPANI toys from the past 10 years. Staff members from Eastern's on-campus preschool join Professor Emeritus Jeffrey Trawick-Smith, the study's principal investigator, to provide commentary and insight on toys based on years of scientific study and classroom experience.

The TIMPANI study investigates how young children learn as they play with toys in natural settings. Each year, a different selection of toys is placed in preschool classrooms at Eastern's Child and Family Development Resource Center (CFDRC). Student researchers use hidden cameras to videotape children playing with the toys, then code the footage according to the study's evaluation rubric, which assesses how well each toy inspires children's problem-solving, cooperation with peers, creativity and use of language.

Since its inception in 2010, 26 Eastern students, led by early childhood faculty researchers, have reviewed the quality of play stimulated by more than 100 toys, annually crowning those achieving the highest score as the TIMPANI Toy of the Year. Approximately 20 of the study's highest-scoring toys were placed in five CFDRC classrooms for this new video.

Due to precautions in response to the pandemic, the CECE was forced to forgo its 2020 study, and instead produced this short video summarizing its chief findings and lessons from the past decade. The video premieres on Dec. 3 at 12 p.m. at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ekMHrdporo.

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Eastern Connecticut State University is the state of Connecticut's public liberal arts university, serving 5,000 students annually at its Willimantic campus and satellite locations. In addition to attracting students from 162 of Connecticut's 169 towns, Eastern also draws students from 34 other states and 19 countries. A residential campus offering 41 majors and 65 minors, Eastern offers students a strong liberal art foundation grounded in an array of applied learning opportunities. Ranked among the top 30 public universities in the North Region by U.S. News and World Report in its 2019 Best Colleges ratings, Eastern has also been awarded 'Green Campus' status by the Princeton Review 10 years in a row. For more information, visit www.easternct.edu.

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