Childsplay Theatre & ASU Win Renée Fleming Neuroarts Investigator Award

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Jenny Millinger, Dr. Neelima Wagley & Dr. Lauren van Huisstede share $25K grant for preschool neuroarts research

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Childsplay Theatre, in collaboration with Arizona State University (ASU), is one of 10 recipients of the 2026 Renée Fleming Neuroarts Investigator Awards for their research on the effect of story drama on children's learning and social emotional development. The awardees, Childsplay Associate Artistic Director, Jenny Millinger, ASU Assistant Professor, Neelima Wagley, and ASU Assistant Research Professor, Lauren van Huisstede, will receive a grant of $25,000 to support an interdisciplinary research project whose results will contribute to the growing body of scientific evidence underpinning the field of neuroarts.

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The project, titled “Shining Light on Story Drama: Neural Correlates of Emotion Processing in Preschoolers with and without Neurodiversities,” will explore how the brain activates when children participate in story drama, an approach in which students embody and reenact character journeys. While educators have long seen the benefits of drama in early childhood, scientists still know relatively little about how these activities shape children's developing minds.

“We've known intuitively for millennia that storytelling builds empathy and passes knowledge from generation to generation,” said Jenny Millinger, Childsplay Associate Artistic Director and co-investigator on the study. “Now we will finally begin to understand the brain mechanisms that make stories such meaningful experiences for learning and emotional growth.”

With this grant, the team will compare how preschoolers respond to storybooks read in a traditional way and readings of the same books that invite children to use their imaginations to become the characters and replay the story. Using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) technology – a lightweight, ‘space helmet'-like device that measures brain activity as children move and play – the team will study the effects of these drama activities on preschoolers in real classroom settings, focusing on how young children who are neurodiverse respond to drama, and exploring how drama-based learning may engage brain regions linked to social and emotion processing.

“This technology is ideal for measuring brain responses in children. It is quiet, portable, and non-restricting. This project allows us to extend neuroscience research outside of the typical lab environment and look at how brains respond in real-world contexts,” said Neelima Wagley, Assistant Professor in the College of Health Solutions at Arizona State University and co-investigator on the study.

“In our earlier studies, we've seen that when children act out stories, they better understand how story characters feel, and that helps them remember the stories better,” said Lauren van Huisstede, Assistant Research Professor in the Mary Lou Fulton College for Teaching and Learning Innovation at Arizona State University and co-investigator on the study. “Recognizing and understanding emotions in stories is both critical for emotion development and a key pre-literacy skill, and drama can make that learning especially meaningful for neurodiverse children. This new study will help us see what's happening in the brain during those moments.”

Neuroarts is an interdisciplinary field, rooted in the science of neuroaesthetics and ways of knowing, which explores how the arts and aesthetic experiences change the brain, body, and behavior and how this knowledge can be applied to advance individual and community health and well-being as well as other aspects of society. Unique in its interdisciplinary approach, the Renée Fleming Neuroarts Investigator Awards program is designed to help build the field of neuroarts by

Acclaimed soprano, Renée Fleming, co-chair of the NeuroArts Blueprint Advisory Council, Goodwill Ambassador for Arts and Health for the World Health Organization, and author of the anthology Music and Mind: Harnessing the Arts for Health and Wellness, has long been committed to a broader understanding of the science behind the power of the arts. Her work to establish this program and the awarding of a third round of grants reflects her ongoing commitment to fostering inquiry and collaboration among artists and young scientists.

Childsplay and ASU's findings could shed new light on how drama supports literacy and emotion learning–and how early educators can better support every child through movement and play.

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_Originally reported by [BroadwayWorld](https://www.broadwayworld.com/phoenix/article/Childsplay-Theatre-and-ASU-Receive-2026-Rene-Fleming-Neuroarts-Investigator-Award-20260505)._