There has been a growing awareness in recent years of the importance of play in children's learning and development--but that awareness has not been accompanied by sufficient scholarly attention, outside of conceptual studies and how-to textbooks. This collection fills that gap by bringing together scholars from a range of fields and methodological approaches to look at play from a practice-based perspective. Moving beyond the dominant voice of developmental psychology, the book offers a number of new ways of approaching children's play and the roles of adults in supporting it; as a result, it will be valuable to anyone working with or studying children at play.
Twenty years after Gordon Sturrock and the late Professor Perry Else’s 'Colorado Paper' introduced the Play Cycle, this theory of play now supports professional playwork practice, training and education. The Play Cycle: Theory, Research and Application is the first book of its kind to explain the theoretical concept of the Play Cycle, supported by recent research, and how it can be used as an observational method for anyone who works with children in a play context. The book investigates the understandings of the Play Cycle within the playwork field over the last 20 years, and its future application. It addresses each aspect of the Play Cycle (metalude, play cue, play return, play frame, loop and flow and annihilation) and combines the theoretical aspect of the Play Cycle with empirical research evidence. The book also provides an observational tool for people to observe and record play cycles. This book will appeal to playworkers, teachers, play therapists and professionals working in other contexts with children, such as hospitals and prisons. It will support practitioners and students in learning about play and provide lecturers and trainers with a new innovative teaching and training aide.
This book explores how play is perceived and practiced through the lens of various different professional and international contexts. Children’s experiences of play will vary according to the different institutions and organisations they are involved in across their lifespan during childhood. The chapters cover play from pre-school to adolescence that includes education, playwork and the new developing area of intergenerational play. This wide variety of contexts and cultures raises questions about universal concepts and notions of ‘play’. The editors and contributors explore how policy, practice and research can identify both differences and commonalities between the way that play is perceived and experienced by children and adults across different types of provision.
Play is of critical importance to the well-being of children across the globe, a fact reflected in Article 31 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Yet existing literature on the subject is largely confined to discussing play from a developmental, educational or psychological perspective. Researching Play from a Playwork Perspective offers a new and exciting angle from which to view play, drawing on the authors’ own experience of conducting research into various aspects of this all-important and pervasive phenomenon. This innovative work will act as a compass for those looking to undertake research into different aspects of play and child welfare. Each chapter explores how the author has combined established and new research methodologies with their individual playwork approaches to arrive at emergent understandings of playwork research. The overall conclusion discusses directions for future research and develops a new model of playwork research from the four common themes that emerge from the contributions of individual authors: children’s rights, process, critical reflection, and playfulness. Examples from the United Kingdom, Nicaragua, and Sweden give this unique work international relevance. Researching Play from a Playwork Perspective will appeal to researchers and students around the world working in the fields of playwork, childcare, early years, education, psychology and children’s rights. It should also be of interest to practitioners in a wide variety of professional contexts, including childcare and therapy.
A comprehensive textbook designed to get you through the entirety of your Health and Social Care BSc degree. Covering all the important topics and pressing issues relevant to Health and Social Care today. The book is split into three parts, starting with the essential areas and core knowledge you will need as you start your degree, these include the sociology and psychology of illness, academic skills, key legal and ethical issues, reflective practice, and the research process. Before moving onto health and social care in practice, highlighting topics such as health promotion, safeguarding children and their rights, and working with people experiencing mental health disorders. The final part covers some of the challenges faced in present day health and social care, looking at social justice issues, legal and ethical considerations, leadership, and health inequalities. All content is supported by practical and reflective features to help you throughout your degree, these include: Interactive activities, real life case studies and examples related to chapter content, links and suggestions for further reading, and answers to key activities and case studies exercises. The perfect companion text for a Health and Social Care degree, or any other course related to the health and social care services.
This essential text unpacks major transformations in the study of learning and human development and provides evidence for how science can inform innovation in the design of settings, policies, practice, and research to enhance the life path, opportunity and prosperity of every child. The ideas presented provide researchers and educators with a rationale for focusing on the specific pathways and developmental patterns that may lead a specific child, with a specific family, school, and community, to prosper in school and in life. Expanding key published articles and expert commentary, the book explores a profound evolution in thinking that integrates findings from psychology with biology through sociology, education, law, and history with an emphasis on institutionalized inequities and disparate outcomes and how to address them. It points toward possible solutions through an understanding of and addressing the dynamic relations between a child and the contexts within which he or she lives, offering all researchers of human development and education a new way to understand and promote healthy development and learning for diverse, specific youth regardless of race, socioeconomic status, or history of adversity, challenge, or trauma. The book brings together scholars and practitioners from the biological/medical sciences, the social and behavioral sciences, educational science, and fields of law and social and educational policy. It provides an invaluable and unique resource for understanding the bases and status of the new science, and presents a roadmap for progress that will frame progress for at least the next decade and perhaps beyond.
Language, Corpus and Empowerment applies a novel corpus-driven approach to the exploration of the concept of empowerment in healthcare. The book proposes an innovative corpus-based methodology for finding evidence of empowerment in language use, using data from a video intervention delivered to families of deaf children, as well as assessing the effects of the intervention on the family. Language, Corpus and Empowerment provides a working definition of empowerment which incorporates concepts from linguistics and learning theory; uses corpus analysis to provide evidence of how video interventions can transform people’s perspectives; examines this new methodology as a potential tool for analysing conversational data longitudinally and at a case-by-case level; demonstrates how a corpus-based methodological approach can be applied in conjunction with other language-based approaches, such as discourse analysis and conversation analysis, to explore the ways in which complex social processes occur in interaction; makes a valuable development in the assessment of the impact of healthcare interventions and the language of empowerment. Insightful and ground-breaking, Language, Corpus and Empowerment is essential reading for anyone undertaking research within corpus linguistics.
This accessible and enaging work introduces current and future teachers, child care providers, and others interested in early childhood education to the importance for the early years in children's well-being and success. It summarizes their research on the value of high-quality services for young children, families, and society, showing why early education matters both today and into the future. Emphasizing the need to understand and respect young children's strengths and unique characteristics, the authors offer inspiration for working in the field, as well as addressing the realistic challenges of implementing developmentally appropriate care and education.
