Friday 8 August 2008

the importance of play to children's wellbeing

Why should practitioners support play and its contribution to the wellbeing of children?

Play is accepted in western society as ‘vital for the wellbeing and healthy development of children’ [CB2:p111] but defining play is less easy that stating its benefits and importance and would probably evoke a different meaning in each individual. Play has several characteristics as identified by Sue Gutteridge a Play Services Manager for Stirling Council [1] as ‘self directed, under children’s own control, has no specific outcomes and is evident in all societies’ (not verbatim). She also tells us that it is part of the “culture of childhood and that adults should respect it” and further that it is “intrinsic to wellbeing”. Play is a ‘stimulus seeking activity’ and should contain elements of uncertainty’ [CB2:114] other key points include;- free flowing, unstructured, flexible and responsive to different context. There are many reasons as to why play is important to children’s wellbeing including its aid to learning and development, social and cognitive skills but also its fundamental value to physical and emotional wellbeing. Why should practioners support play? Because as well as supporting wellbeing, play is a ‘‘layer of living’ where children, and children and adults, can connect’ (Giulbaud, 2003,p170)[CB2:p115] and connecting with children has key implications in positive communication and establishing successful relationships.

The desire and ability to play is of great importance to children. Whether they play by themselves, with other children or pets or with adults, it teaches children different outcomes and in terms of development and provides a broader range of skills to ensure their future success in life. Children playing by themselves provides an opportunity for them to experience self amusement, enabling them to do whatever they want to do and not have to follow or fit in with someone else’s requirements. They learn self exploration and self expression without fear of what someone else thinks of them. It helps them explore ideas, creativity and problem solving. Play with other children significant contributes to social development, communication skills and gives an understanding of customs and perhaps rules of play, what is or isn’t acceptable behaviour as well as identity within a group, power relationships and customs. Other children, provide a test bed for children to develop their social skills and identify limits. Play with pets helps children learn responsibility and limits according to the pet and play with adults provides a connection to a much bigger, more complicated and complex world which is vital to children’s future success in it. Adults are experienced, more than children and their thirst for new experiences can taken and guided by adults. Physical play helps children develop motor skills and helps create a sense of well being and having spaces to play, both indoor and outdoor is of particular importance to the quality of children’s lives.

Practitioners should support play primarily because it promotes wellbeing in the child and this is achieved by fully understanding the value of play and providing as many opportunities for inclusive play, as possible. These environments need to be safe places, inside and outside, that allow children a choice, companions to play with, plenty of time and space. ‘Space and time to play is recognised in Article 31 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (United Nations, 1989) as every child’s entitlement’ [CB2:p119]. Inclusive play spaces mean that they should be available and accessible to all children who wish to use them, regardless of age, gender or ethnicity, learning or physical disabilities. Beresford, 2002 identified three, key factors to ensuring inclusive play services in relation to disabled children. Practitioners must have adequate staff resources to support inclusive play, the must have staff training to ensure that staff have knowledge of conditions and practical issue that affect disabled children and they must have a suitable physical environment that does not disable and exclude certain children but in fact ‘blurs the differences in the abilities of the children’ [CB2:p124] Inclusive spaces for children also means involving them in the decisions about what determines, the look, layout, structure and activities within the space. Children’s participation in the process is invaluable to the practitioners. Asking them what they enjoy doing, what they want to do and what they have to play with and evaluating all of that encourages a more inclusive space/spaces and children gain important skills too. They learn to negotiate, to express themselves and to take account of other people’s feelings, to problem solve, put forward ideas and take risks. They develop friendships and group belonging, something which disabled children and children with disabilities, can often find themselves limited in. Play schemes such as PlayPlus in Stirling, provide play, leisure and social opportunities for children with disabilities. Even the most severely disabled of children, such as those who cannot talk or walk are able to be included in socialising and activities which provide them with amusement, entertainment, knowledge, involvement, extra communication opportunities. For example. KE312 DVD Plus Stirling section on Video 2 – Communication, features a young boy with Cerebral Palsy.

Scott was described on the video by the event coordinator as “you know what he wants and is quite clear”. She described him as moving his head up for yes and down for no and the fact that he loved to be taken out of his chair. He is shown on the ‘splodges’ with his helper Jenni, helping to turn the pages of the story book and trying to grab the camera belonging to the film crew. From what can be seen, he is clearly enjoying being involved, he appears to welcome the opportunity to turn the pages and be involved in the story, he answers the questions about wanting a cat with enthusiasm by lifting his head very far up and back and it would seem, enjoy the spectacle of the film crew! Although a clearly very physically disabled child, according to his single parent father, his attendance at Play Plus means he not only gains interaction with other people and can develop his severely restricted communication skills but that, all of the interactions that he encounters has an enormous effect on his wellbeing in a positive way. In KE312 DVD on Play - The Chief Officer of Plus Stirling – Paul Dumbleton states that for an ordinary ‘child in school, being lonely and miserable with no friends probably means that your chances of learning are pretty slim, unless you are very bright and can fill the void of being lonely with learning a lot. He then goes on to say “if you have learning disabilities and have no friends – what do you do?” (not verbatim) He describes Plus Stirling as a voluntary organisation, established approximately twenty years ago by parents of disabled children who were concerned that their children were not involved in normal play activities. Play Plus offers children with disabilities and disabled children the chance to meet other children and develop social skills and friendships, plus a range of play and leisure opportunities which are inclusive. Practitioners may do well to learn from Play Plus and its inclusiveness, its policies and practises would outwardly seem to be very successful and could well be adopted in children’s services generally ensuring that more children’s services, do in fact, become children’s spaces.

The value of play to children has also been recognised in hospitals. It is no longer seen as just a way to pass the time but can also help the child cope with;-

• being admitted, with illness and treatment
• help to reduce stress and anxiety, promote confidence, self esteem and independence
• provides a channel of communication between the healthcare staff and the child
• prepare the child for surgical procedures and can help find strategies for coping with pain and invasive procedures.

At a time of emotional turmoil, play can make the difference between a successful and positive outcome. Practitioners can gain a great deal from play therapy such as a better understanding of the fears facing a child in hospital thus enabling them to support troubled children better. For children who have a safe place to play as an alternative to talk, play therapy can help them to make sense of things.

“Play and learning are understood to be inextricably linked” [CB2:p121] and practioners should support play because of its wide ranging benefits in learning. Learning also supports children’s wellbeing by giving them a sense of achievement, helps them to set goals and troubleshoot problems to overcome issues. However, children in the UK have one of the longest school days in Europe and the education is curriculum based, so whilst play is vital to learning, it seems to have been overtaken by the need for curriculum based education and a question could be posed as to the level of play incorporated within curriculum based education. From my own experience, there are large amounts of software aimed at children which claim to support children’s learning in what could be said to be a ‘virtual’ playground. Virtual play spaces are generally used to describe children’s activities through the use of a computer or through the internet, online. Much debate exists about such virtual playgrounds and their benefits to children but to some children, these kind of ‘play spaces’ might be all that is available to them outside of their school. There are many reasons for this; firstly, there appears to be an ever increasing fear growing about the safety of children playing outside, whether this be road safety or ‘stranger danger’ and secondly, children’s opportunities for outdoor play are restricted by the daylight hours at certain times of the year and the weather in the UK. The London Play survey of 2006 show that ‘80% of children preferred playing outside to inside, 72% would like to play outside more often and 86% preferred outdoor activities … to playing computer games’ [CB2:p128] The advent of the Internet is probably a current bugbear whereas twenty years ago, the bugbear was that children spend too much time watching television rather than playing outside.


Play is essential to the well being and healthy development of children, it is an essential part of human life, evident in all societies. It provides children with a platform for learning in terms of social and emotional, cognitive and physical development. It helps them form friendships, builds their understanding of the world around them. ‘Given an opportunity, children will play wherever and whenever they can’ [CB2:p121] Practioners should support play because its supports children’s wellbeing. It supports their wellbeing by being intrinsic to the quality of their lives, supports learning, relationships, communication skills, social, emotional and cognitive skills. Practioners can support play by ensuring that children have time and safe places to play, both inside and outside and by making them inclusive i.e. available to all children regardless of gender, age, culture or disability. In order for practitioners to ensure inclusive play, they must have adequate resources, suitable training and a suitable physical environment that is barrier free and blurs the differences between disabled and able children. Practitioners can also support play by ensuring that policy becomes practise and children’s services become children’s spaces.

References


Promoting Children’s Wellbeing, policy and practice Collins & Leverett, Bristol, The Policy Press in association with the Open University Press. p = page number

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