Episode 84: The Essential Role of Agency in Play and Early Learning

Agency — the ability to make choices, act on them, and feel that those actions matter — is key to play and learning. In this episode, we dig into what agency really means for young children, tracing it through the work of foundational developmental theorists and grounding it in current research on how play, agency, and learning work together as a powerful, reinforcing system. Along the way, we name what's getting in the way — a cultural pattern I call pervasive passivity — and explore what it looks like when children lose access to the agency they need to thrive. If you work with young children or advocate for play-based learning, this episode will give you both the research and the practical language to protect what matters most — including a surprising look at what current AI advances reveal about what we actually want for our young children. Find shownotes at

You can listen to Episode 84: The Essential Role of Agency in Play and Early Learning online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Episode 84: The Essential Role of Agency in Play and Early Learning is an episode from Not Just Cute, the Podcast: Intentional Whole Child Development for Parents and Teachers of Young Children by Amanda Morgan.

This episode is 29:01 long.

This episode was published on Mar 3, 2026.

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