We're MESH-Accredited!
By Dacey McNally
At Story Time Learning, we often praise storytelling's powerful and unique ability to help children understand complex subjects. But what comes after our stories is equally, if not more, essential to our pedagogy, and that’s playtime.
Dr. Abigail Schlesinger put it best, “Play is one of the best ways to promote safety in kids’ mental health when it’s used to teach the skills they need to recognize, respond to and learn from their emotions.”
In short, we don’t see playtime as mere exercises and gameplay—it's an opportunity for children to connect with themselves and others on a deeper level of understanding. Through play, children tackle the most complex subject of all: being human.
But don’t take our word for it!
This month, MESH Helps honored Story Time Chess and Story Time Backgammon with the prestigious MESH Accreditation Seal—thank you, MESH Helps, for the recognition!
But what exactly does that mean? Let’s dig in!
What’s MESH?
MESH stands for Mental, Emotional, and Social Health and covers the following set of skills relating to children’s mental health:
MESH serves as a framework for educators and youth advocates to discuss and develop more effective tools to address the mental health needs of children and adolescents.
But why the focus on mental health?
A poll taken in 2020 found that out of one thousand parents across the US, seventy-one percent of them believed the pandemic took a toll on their children’s mental health, with sixty-four percent believing the pandemic to have a lasting impact on their children’s development.
The following year, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and the Children’s Hospital Association jointly declared a national state of emergency in children’s mental health, which called on government policymakers and youth advocates to support better access to children’s mental health care for families and schools.
However, even with MESH-based school initiatives in place, educators want children working on MESH every day, in and out of the classroom, just as they would any other subject, which means parents need the right tools for the job.
That’s where MESH Helps comes in.
Who’s MESH Helps?
MESH Helps is an independent non-profit advocating for kids’ MESH in the toys and games industry. Under the guidance of resilience expert Dr. Deborah Gilboa, MESH Helps launched the MESH Accreditation program to highlight products that provide children with the tools to build these skills through play.
Products submitted to the program undergo thorough evaluation and certification by an independent, third-party accreditor called FUNdamentally Children.
The evaluation seeks to identify four key play patterns proven to encourage MESH skill development:
We’re proud to say that all four play patterns were found in Story Time Chess and Story Time Backgammon. The report highlights how our games provide children “ample opportunities to develop their perseverance, problem-solving, and cognitive skills” and that our stories “create lasting memories and provide the children quality time with family and friends.”
We couldn’t agree more! Keep learning about MESH here and browse our site for Story Time Chess and Story Time Backgammon today.