Founder

Rebecca Horrace, Ed.D. has been involved in children’s education, from brick-and-mortar classrooms to running a homeschool cooperative program and even founding and leading a 4-H club for military youth. She is an educational expert in the areas of child development, child-centered learning, children's play, and developmentally appropriate best practices. Rebecca founded Playful Insights Consulting to bridge the gap between play and education across toys, content, media, and curricula using UX research, child-development knowledge, and childhood play expertise. 

Dr. Horrace holds her Bachelors and Masters in Elementary Education from Northern Arizona University, along with her Reading Specialist and Structured English Immersion Endorsements. She earned her Doctorate in Education through Indiana University with a research focus on the intersection of play and popular media with literacy components as children utilized technology expanding the definition of local, converting distant interactions into a common, shared space. 

Rebecca has taught elementary school, both in public schools and homeschool cooperative environments, and at the university level as a Lecturer for pre-service educators. As a play expert, she contributes as Editor to the Play in Education Newsletter, a quarterly publication that advocates for play in the classroom. Rebecca continues her research of play and education in various capacities examining user experience and overall product interaction. Her expertise and passion have earned her title of Play Ambassador and Expert Contributor for the Genius of Play, a non-profit website devoted to play advocacy. It is Rebecca’s passion to reignite the dwindling spark between play and education along her career journey.