Evolutionary Playwork

Play is a crucial component in the development of all children. In this fully updated and revised edition of his classic playwork 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 is divided into fourteen chapters that together examine the fundamentals of evolutionary play. Firstly, Hughes examines the very earliest ideas of playwork and its impact on brain growth and organization today. He then goes on to explore and explain the key theoretical concepts underlying playwork. These include discussions on free play and creating suitable play environments alongside more thorny issues such as safety and consultation. Finally, the book offers up some of Hughes’ most recent research that reveals how his approach to play and playwork in global society has continued to evolve throughout his career to meet new challenges and needs. Throughout this book, Hughes has included his fellow practitioner Mick Conway’s vivid observations of children at play to bring the facts and arguments in the text to life. This revised edition reflects important recent advances in our understanding of the evolutionary history of play and its impact on the development of the brain, of the role play in the development of resilience and of the impact of play deprivation. Evolutionary Playwork is still the only book to combine the reality of playwork practice with the fundamentals of evolutionary and developmental psychology, and it is still essential reading for all playwork students, practitioners and researchers.

Evolutionary Playwork and Reflective Analytic Practice will enable playwork students, practitioners and researchers to reassess the impact and purpose of playwork on children.

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.

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.

A thought-provoking re-examination of children's play drawing together insights and experiences across fields such as education, sociology, philosophy and psychology to encourage an inter-disciplinary approach.

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.

'Because it includes new research and guidelines, the book's not just excellent for students but very useful for pre-school practitioners across the board. Highly recommended!' - SureStart Magazine Designed for the needs of the foundation degree and early childhood studies student, this easy-to -use text gives comprehensive coverage of all aspects of your early childhood course. Written by experts in the field, theory is clearly explained in terms of classroom practice. Included are sections on: - You and your learning - Working with children - Understanding child development - 0-3 Years - Key Stage 1 - Professional Development - Leading and Managing Each chapter includes case studies, exercises for further study, a useful glossary of key terms, and suggestions for further reading. Tina Bruce is a freelance consultant and visiting professor at the London Metropolitan University