EXPERT INSIGHTS featuring Cate Tinker
More Than Play: Early Learning Spaces and Mental Health
May 26, 2026
Space for Everyone
The pandemic left many parents feeling profoundly isolated—navigating the earliest, most overwhelming stages of caregiving with very little support around them. While early learning professionals are not licensed therapists, the spaces they steward have a very real role to play in addressing that gap. Children’s museums, in particular, are uniquely positioned to become something far more powerful than a destination: a genuine community hub.
We sat down with Cate Tinker, Executive Director of Above and Beyond Children’s Museum in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, to talk about how her organization has leaned into that responsibility—and what other early learning spaces can take away from her experience.
Defining the Difference
Before exploring how early learning spaces can support mental health, it helps to clarify what actually makes a space an early learning center. For Cate, the distinction comes down to mission. "A space like a family entertainment center is consumer-focused — getting people in the door," she explains. "For us, there's a transactional moment that looks very different. I would much rather see our programming participation expand, even if the revenue doesn't keep up." That community-first mentality is what separates a true early learning space from entertainment.
At Above and Beyond, roughly 35 to 37 percent of all attendees access the museum through a financial assistance program — a proportion Cate views as a point of pride rather than a challenge. Removing financial barriers isn't just good policy; it's a direct expression of the museum's core belief that a children's museum should function the way a library does: as an essential resource for every family in the community, regardless of circumstance.
“What started as a seed of an idea during the pandemic because we couldn’t be inside the four walls of the building has continued to expand.”
Beyond the Building
Above and Beyond's journey into mental health programming started not with a formal initiative, but with a necessity. When the museum closed for thirteen months during the pandemic, Cate and her team went outside — literally. In partnership with the local library, the rec department, and the YMCA, they launched Play is Healing, meeting families at parks across the community to talk about mental health through the lens of creativity, connection, and play. "We weren't coming in saying we are therapists," Cate says. "We were saying, hey, we've got some art-making — and while we're making art, let's talk a little bit about what we love about our community."
Those park playdates have since evolved into a cornerstone of the museum's community engagement strategy, with eight different park locations visited every summer. The outreach deliberately targets neighborhoods where families may not know the museum exists or may not feel comfortable walking into a traditional institution. "We go out to communities of people that have maybe never been to a museum and let them know what we are about, what we focus on, ask them questions — and it has really just spiraled from there."
Supporting the Whole Family
Above and Beyond's education team weaves sensory and loose parts play into all of their daily programming — getting down to children's eye level, asking open-ended questions about what they're creating while parents quietly observe and absorb the same techniques. The parent actively learns from the educator without it ever feeling like a class. "It's sneaky, subtle learning," Cate says. As caregivers feel supported and seen, that impact ripples outward — when adults can process their own emotions and feel part of a community, they model emotional stability for the children in their care.
That insight has driven several newer programs, including a caregiver support group run in partnership with Rogers Behavioral Health, where the museum provides on-site childcare while parents gather to talk about co-regulation and the real challenges of modern parenting. The museum also offers Kindermusik — blending music, play, and parent education — funded through state grants tied to the evidence connecting strong early bonds to better long-term outcomes. "The research shows that strong parental bonds at a young age lead to less adverse outcomes later in life," Cate notes. "So when we offer a 'music class,' it's really a parenting class."
“As those caregivers feel supported and are able to express themselves, they model and teach emotional stability — and that investment in the adults ultimately builds a healthier foundation for the children.”
Where the Community Comes Together
Above and Beyond's mission extends beyond programming into something broader: building a genuine third space for families who don't always have a village around them. Cate speaks about this from personal experience — her daughter was born in early 2020, and she describes those early months of pandemic parenting as "the most isolating thing I have ever done." That lived experience shapes how she thinks about the museum's role every day, and it shows up most visibly in a new exhibit currently in development: the ABCs of Empathy. Walking through the space, children and caregivers explore emotional vocabulary together — A is for Affirmation, B is for Breathing, C is for Calm — with interactive stations that help families recognize feelings, name them, and find their way back to a regulated state.
To deepen that community reach even further, the museum invites local arts organizations, science centers, and even the regional symphony orchestra to set up pop-up experiences inside the museum through a "Play With" program. For families who may never have attended a symphony performance or visited an art museum, it becomes a low-barrier first introduction to those spaces. "Often the first museum a family visits is a children's museum," Cate notes. "So if they don't feel comfortable here, they may not go on to try an art museum or a history museum either."
Lead with Listening
When asked what advice she would offer to an emerging museum just beginning to think about these principles, Cate doesn't hesitate. It starts with listening. "The most important work that my staff, my board, and I have done in the last two years is to have real, meaningful conversations with community members to understand what they need and want from a children's museum space," she says. "It wasn't going out in the streets asking what do you want in your children's museum — it was subtle. Who are the members already here? What are they looking for? Who is not in our community, and how do we go to them?"
Every program, exhibit theme, and community initiative at Above and Beyond traces back to those conversations. The museum didn't arrive at its focus on connection and mental wellness by following a trend — it arrived there by asking the people it serves, then being receptive to the answers. Cate also emphasizes the value of clarity around what you are not: "By saying no to some things that were exciting but weren't who we are, we freed up the energy and intention to focus on being a space for connection and for play."
That intentionality runs through every layer of the organization — staff, board, and community partners all aligned around a shared vision. The programming at Above and Beyond didn't emerge from a grant application or a trend report. It came from the community asking for it, and a team committed to showing up for them. For any early learning space looking to make a deeper impact, that's the place to start.
