The Power of Risky Play

Risky play is an integral part of early childhood development. Research has shown that it is essential not just for kindergarten readiness, but for lifelong success. It supports children's growing abilities to assess risk and safety, to form deep connections, to honor and set boundaries, and to have FUN! When children engage in riskier activities, they develop better decision-making and problem-solving abilities, and participate in a culturally rooted form of connection and joy.

Yet, educators and caretakers can experience a lot of trepidation and even fear around allowing or supporting this type of play. What are the worries that keep us from seeing and embracing the value of risky play? What do we need to address in order to say yes? And how can we deepen our understanding and become better advocates for protecting it's importance in children's development?

Join Hilltop Children's Center and Verónica Reynoso, Mike Browne, and Nick Terrones for an Outreach Institute summer speakers panel on the power of risky play! Vero, Mike, and Nick will share their professional insights and passion about this topic, challenge our thinking, and respond to questions from the audience.

Learning Objectives

Through guided self-reflection and interaction with our panel, participants will:

• Understand one's own levels of comfort with risky play and discern whether their concerns are adult-oriented vs. child-oriented
• Explore how roughness, touch, and movement can be reclaimed as ancestral languages of connection, rhythm, and embodied care
• Reflect on the emotional and spiritual intelligence children cultivate through risk, courage, and the co-creation of safety with peers
• Create or deepen one's capacity to embrace risky play

About the Panelists

Verónica Reynoso, (she/her), also known as Vero, is a mentor educator at Hilltop Children’s Center in Seattle, Washington, and has been in the field of early childhood education for over 16 years. She is a first-generation Mexican American who grew up in Chicago, raised by her mother, along with her two older brothers. She knew she wanted to be a teacher early on in her life, drawing herself as a teacher in little homemade books and being an incredible educator to her large collection of stuffed animals, as a child. She graduated with a BA in Early Childhood Education from Columbia College Chicago, which had a Reggio centered ECE program. She is skilled in weaving early learning skills and dispositions into emergent play, bringing quality of presence to any situation, embraces the complexities and tension in anti-bias work, loves facilitating and participating in reflective practice, and has a knack for infusing jokes and laughter into her work. She takes her work seriously, knowing that early childhood educators are supporting the development of lifelong learners who can uplift the world. You may have seen her in the film, , or in the Embrace Race webinar with Victor Bradley, Jr, among other workshops and podcasts.

Mike Browne (he/him) is a New York-raised, Afro-Caribbean educator, former tap dancer, and one-time D1 college athlete who traded in his football cleats and dance shoes for a lifelong mission: to build a more just and joyful world for children. Whether in London, Spain, or right here in the States, Mike brings curiosity, rhythm, and a deep commitment to disrupting the systems that harm our youngest citizens. With roots grounded in early learning and an MBA that gives him a sharp edge in strategy and leadership, Mike’s branches extend into coaching, consulting, and storytelling. Mike’s work explores the intersections of race, culture, identity, and care. He co-hosts (with Nick Terrones) and (for the Office of Head Start), two podcasts that ask big questions and hold space for radical imagination in early childhood. His writings appear in , and if you catch him online, you’ll find him vibing at @miguelitobrowne on Twitter or @napcast206 on IG.

Nick Terrones (he/him) is an Indigenous person of the North American continent being a descendant of the Chumash people in Southern California (Los Angeles Basin), as well as of Mexican heritage. Nick served as the program director of Daybreak Star Preschool, an Indigenous-based preschool, and currently is the Director of Community Relations in the College of Education at the University of Washington overseeing the development of a community-based early learning resource hub. He has been an Early Childhood Educator for over 18 years, 14 of those years specializing in toddler development and education at Hilltop Children’s Center. He holds a B.A. in Early Childhood Education and a Masters in Indigenous Education, with a focus on Indigenous Resurgence through Land-based Curriculum and learning in early learning settings. Additionally, Nick co-hosts a podcast called with his pal Mike Browne and has published a book called, .

Event Details:

This hybrid event will be held in-person at our Hilltop Outreach Institute Training Facility in Fremont with an option to attend virtually via Zoom.

2 hours STARS Training Credit available to all Washington State early learning professionals who attend the live event (in-person or virtually).

Can't make the live event? We will provide a link to the recording afterwards to all who register.

In-Person Attendees:

Free street parking available on Fremont Ave. and pay-for-parking available in the lots behind and below our building. Check out the Seattle city parking map for alternate options (enter 3601 Fremont Ave. N into address search bar).

Bus Service: Routes 40 and 32

Questions? Contact us at: [email protected]

Host or Publisher Hilltop Children's Center - Professional Development Institute