Children's Empowerment in Play is an accessible insight into the vital place of play in children’s development. The book focuses on three main themes of participation, voice and ownership, and explores ways to positively and naturally develop play in early years settings. Drawing on primary research and presenting in-depth case studies of children in a range of play scenarios, Canning offers a framework for understanding play and its relationship with children’s empowerment, and highlights play patterns and the ways in which practitioners can identify these. Chapters also cover: The research context for empowerment in play The significance of play and empowerment in the lives of children The power play can have, and indicators of empowering behaviour Observing empowerment in play and the challenges of celebrating it Written for all those working with young children and students on early childhood courses, this book will transform how you understand and engage with children’s experiences and learning.
Children and parents alike will delight in this joyous declaration of toddler independence. This book celebrates the feats of growing out of babyhood and starting to embrace the world on your own terms. Whether it’s being tall enough to reach a high shelf or brave enough to splash in the waves, Krensky and Gillingham address the small victories that come with growing just a little bit older. Energentic text and retro-fresh illustrations celebrate this important developmental stage with charm and relevance. Note: illustrations are in the style of vintage screen prints, with imperfect variations in color and texture. Praise for I Can Do It Myself "Short and satisfying, these 'empowering celebrations' of burgeoning independence will encourage small children to see how far they've already come." —The Wall Street Journal "Krensky celebrates the increasing independence of toddlers and their pride of accomplishment." —The Horn Book Awards The Canadian Children's Book Centre's Best Books for Kids & Teens - Spring 2013 Toronto Public Library system’s “First & Best” Reading Program
Empowering Children through Art and Expression examines the successful use of arts and expressive therapies with children, and in particular those whose lives have been disrupted by forced relocation with their families to a different culture or community. The book explores how children express and resolve unspoken feelings about traumatic experiences in play and other creative activities, based on their observations of peer support groups, outreach programs and through individuals' own accounts. The authors argue that such activities in a safe context can be both a means of expressing trauma and a coping strategy for children to overcome it. This book combines personal and professional perspectives, using case examples as well as the authors' own childhood experiences, to demonstrate practical strategies for use with children, from drama and storytelling to sculpting with clay. It also equips the reader with knowledge of the theory behind these intervention techniques. This book will be a valuable resource for professionals working with traumatized children who have experienced loss, grief, relocation and other kinds of trauma.
The COVID-19 pandemic was a forceful reminder that education plays an important role in delivering not just academic learning, but also in supporting physical and emotional well-being. Balancing traditional “book learning” with broader social and personal development means new roles for schools and education more generally.
This go-to guide for educators helping children who have experienced trauma and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) provides accessible information paired with practical, adaptable strategies.
This volume of the Research in Global Child Advocacy Series explores participatory methodologies and tools that involve children in research. Perspectives on the role of children have transitioned from viewing children as objects of research, to children as subjects of research, to acknowledgement of children as competent contributors and agents throughout the inquiry process. Researchers continue to explore approaches that honor the capacity of children, drawing on diverse methodologies to elevate children’s voices and actively engage them in the production of knowledge. Nonetheless, despite these developments, questions over the extent to which children can be free of adult filters and influence merits sustained scholarly attention. The book includes chapters that critically examine methodological approaches that empower children in the research process. Contributions include empirical or practitioner pieces that operate from an empowerment paradigm and demonstrate the agenic capacity of children to contribute their perspectives and voices to our understanding of childhood and children’s lives. The text also features conceptual pieces that challenge existing theoretical frameworks, critique research paradigms, and analyze dilemmas or tensions related to ethics, policy and power relations in the research process.
"Identifying and building on your child's strengths; understanding your child's rights, and how to talk to schools about them; best practices for accommodations and the latest technologies"-- Jacket.
This thesis explores current ideas about children and childhood in Britain through an examination of empowerment, play and learning as identified by policies, professional playworkers, and adult and child service users in two State run after school provisions in a London borough. Conducted in two quite different physical and social environments, the primary research involved an ethnographic study during the academic year 2007 to 2008, based on participant observation and interviews with managers, playworkers, parents and children at both sites. The research found strong connections between playworkers? attitudes to children?s play, learning and empowerment, and their descriptions of their own priorities and responsibilities. That play and activity were occurring in supervised, closed access, paid-for settings meant that free play and regulation of behaviour were held in constant dynamic tension. Perceptions of playworker?s jobs as both controlling children?s behaviour and facilitating their play highlighted ambiguities inherent in these contexts and produced tensions felt by playworkers and children. Though masquerading as mechanisms for each child?s individual development and fulfilment, play, informal learning and empowerment were imbued with strategic endeavours to steer children?s experiences in particular directions. Furthermore, these ideas and their related practices were understood and implemented differently in the two after school settings. The research focus evolved to look at the impacts of social constructions of children and childhood on playworkers? practices and children?s experiences. Far from being fixed concepts whose meanings were consistent over time and contexts, ideas about play, learning, empowerment, children and childhood all referred, in fact, to fundamentally dynamic social processes that this thesis reveals and explores. Two key aspects of the complex meanings attached to children and their childhoods emerged. Firstly, the child and childhood are?relational? concepts (Aries 1962) or?conceptions? (Wyness 2000), fluid in their meanings yet constant in their social significance. Secondly, social constructions of childhood can only adequately be understood in their real life social, economic and political contexts (Hendrick 1997a: 35). Reflecting both recent and more conventional ideas, playworkers presented contrasting constructions of the children as victims and products of their social circumstances with predictable futures, or as rights bearers and social agents with a say in their current and future possibilities. The ways in which playworkers controlled or facilitated the children were tied in with these ideas and a matrix of intersecting influences impacting on their confidence, trust and skills - as individuals and as teams - in allowing children to direct their own play activities and to deal with issues. This thesis contributes to gaps in current knowledge and understanding about notions of the child and childhood operating in playwork settings and the effects of these on practices and experiences in these contexts.
