Show on Nat Geo called 'Brain Child' mentioned study about playing games with kids to make them smarter. link?

I was watching a show called Brain

Child on National Geographic (

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/PT/popup/200709182200.html

), and in it they mentioned a study that a few psychologists put

togerther. They worked with children (from poor families) from birth to

about five years old. They played games and puzzles with them that they

thought would increase the childrens' intelligence. Supoosedly the

majority of them surpassed their peers and grew up with a love of learning.

Do you know anything about this study? Who did the study? What the

name of it was? A link to an article? What kind of games they played?Show on Nat Geo called 'Brain Child' mentioned study about playing games with kids to make them smarter. link?
The Abecedarian Project



"The Abecedarian project was a carefully controlled scientific study of the potential benefits of early childhood education for poor children. Four cohorts of individuals, born between 1972 and 1977, were randomly assigned as infants to either the early educational intervention group or the control group.



Children from low-income families received full-time, high-quality educational intervention in a childcare setting from infancy through age 5.

Each child had an individualized prescription of educational activities.

Educational activities consisted of "games" incorporated into the child's day.

Activities focused on social, emotional, and cognitive areas of development but gave particular emphasis to language.

Children's progress was monitored over time with follow-up studies conducted at ages 12, 15, and 21.

The young adult findings demonstrate that important, long-lasting benefits were associated with the early childhood program."



I still teach about this work in my educational psychology courses...LJFShow on Nat Geo called 'Brain Child' mentioned study about playing games with kids to make them smarter. link?
This was the Abecedarian Project, done at the FPG Child Development Institute at UNC-CH. The link to the university website about this project is: www.fpg.unc.edu/~abc/

The activities used are the LearningGames -- you can find these on this site (among others): www.mindnurture.com/research.cfm

a lot of the games are basic early childhood games including things like peek-a-boo -- a large focus on the adult-child interaction and oral language aspects and emphasizing the importance as play as the best vehicle for learning for very young children.

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