Aspects Of Playwork

The postwar years in the UK saw the development of numerous artificial playgrounds intended to compensate children for increasing urbanization and a lack of wild places to play. Many of these sites employed playleaders, whose job was to use play to instill social behavioral norms on children, using games with rules and organized activities. From the early 1970s, that approach began to be replaced by playwork, a nondirective way of working. Playwork marked a rejection of the adult-focused practice of playleadership. Playworkers relied more on an ambiance that reflected their own childhood freedoms and on the growing body of knowledge regarding the importance of play. This body of new literature suggested that play, unadulterated by societal objectives, was crucial to the successful development of all children; that play was not just good for exercise and social interaction, but was vital to brain growth and the child’s ability to adapt to a fast changing world. Since those early days, playwork has mutated through a variety of guises, and over the years has begun to explore the child’s impact on space, the relationships between child and adult, what playworkers do, the therapeutic aspects of play, and has even taken faltering footsteps into the complexities of the quantum world. Aspects of Playwork reflects this awesome diversity of views and interpretation, moving from the historical to the almost sci-fi and from ghostly traces to the hard realities of being a child and working with children in the 2000s. Most of all, though, Aspects of Playwork is a commentary on the beauty and wonder of what play is and what it is to play.

This book provides a holistic overview of contemporary play and playwork.

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.

This book brings together theoretical perspectives and practical advice to improve playwork practice. There are chapters on the role of adventure playgrounds; the challenge of starting a playwork section in a local authority; and the value of networking.

Play is a crucial component in the development of all children. In this comprehensive and accessible text, Bob Hughes explores the complexities of children's play, its meaning and purpose, and argues that adult-free play is essential for the psychological well-being of the child. The book divides into three main sections. The first examines the fundamentals of evolutionary playwork, from creating the right play environment to issues of safety and participation. Secondly, the book explores the theory underlying playwork. Finally, the book offers new models to help the playworker develop their own professional practice. Throughout the text, the author brings his argument to life with vivid reflections on a lifetime's experience of play and playwork. Evolutionary Playwork and Reflective Analytic Practice is the first book of its kind, and represents essential reading for all playwork students, practitioners and researchers. It also incorporates dedicated material for parents looking to better understand and enhance the development of their children.

Children like to play. They get all sorts of benefits from playing. They get the most benefit from play when they are in control of what they are doing. Yet there are lots of circumstances today that mean children are not able to control their own play and that's where playwork comes in, where the role of the playworker is to create environments that enable children to take control of their playing. This book aims to explore the similarities, differences and tensions that exist between play and playwork including appropriate definitions and the conflict around the role of the adult. Fraser Brown proposes a play to playwork continuum, where playing can be considered a 'developmental and evolutionary' activity and playwork a 'compensatory' activity. Helpfully structured around the aspects considered by the author as most important for playwork, this book uses 101 fascinating stories of children playing to illuminate a range of play and playwork theories. The rich array of powerful stories - drawn from the casebooks of eminent and experienced playworkers - speak for themselves whilst at the same time triggering theoretical explorations that are interwoven with the stories in each chapter. Mesmerizing, absorbing and original, this is essential reading for playwork students and practitioners, as well as for students and practitioners of early years, childhood, children's health and wellbeing, and children’s social care.

Reflective Playwork provides an introduction to playwork values, principles and practice for all who work with children. It recognizes that play is a need for all, and seeks to encourage the provision of time and space for all children to freely enjoy its benefits. In a world where we are ever seeking to protect our children and to encourage their educational progress, it is often overlooked that the need for play is as important as the need for food and sleep. Play deprivation can result in a child having less energy for education, a lower ability to use creative and imaginative ways of problem solving, a poorer self image, being less able to cope with the stresses and strains of life and sometimes being more likely to look for ‘kicks' in anti-social ways. This book encourages a greater understanding of play from the child's perspective, and suggests ways in which adults can support and enhance play. It covers: •Playwork principles and practice •Play theory •The child •Playwork values and practice •Playwork and society •Playwork education, training and continuing professional development •Quality and management of playwork It is written for those who are instinctively, or otherwise, looking to promote and celebrate the need for play in all of their work with children, and who see their role as supportive rather than supervisory. Further, it is for those who recognize that the rewards of working with children come as a privilege. Reflective Playwork is for the playworker and for all others who work with children - such as childcare practitioners, teaching assistants, health workers, social workers, teachers and those in management - who are looking to understand and adopt, at appropriate times, the values and principles in their own settings.

Building on the success of the first volume of Researching Play from a Playwork Perspective, this book further develops the crucial research of playwork as an emerging and unique discipline. The first volume explored how an understanding of playwork theory and practice can inform research into children’s play. From the seven contributors, four common themes to researching play from a playwork perspective were identified: rights-based; process, critical reflection and playfulness. This second volume aims to explore these four factors from two angles. The first considers how four more playworkers have researched play in four different contexts: prison, gender and toys, in Dutch play provision, and in the area of autism. In the second part of the book, the four pillars of playwork research are explored by academics from other disciplines with an interest in playwork research. This will be of great interest to researchers and upper-level students in the fields of playwork, childcare, early years, education, psychology and children’s rights. It will also appeal to practitioners in a wide variety of professional contexts, including childcare and therapy.