Resilient Playgrounds

While recess provides children with a time to play and take a break from the school day, research has shown that it is also a necessary and vital part of their social, emotional, and academic development. This book provides tools and strategies for school mental health professionals, teachers, and administrators to evaluate and improve the recess experience in order to ensure that children benefit as much as possible from this important time. Using a data-based problem solving strategy, the author presents methods for assessing playgrounds, identifying features that may negatively impact students and their social interactions, intervening to modify and strengthen these features, and monitoring to guarantee that the interventions have created successful outcomes. An accompanying CD contains forms, examples, PowerPoint presentations, and other resources to support the procedures discussed throughout the book.

In this book, the authors apply a data-based evaluation and problem-solving method to the playground environment, allowing school-based mental health professionals to work with teachers and administrators to provide and promote safer, more engaging and more nurturing recess environments.

Our uncertain times are hard enough for adults to navigate. For all too many young people—even many who appear to possess good coping skills—the challenges may seem overwhelming. More and more, resilience stands as an integral component in prevention programs geared to children and adolescents, whether at risk or not. Resilience Interventions for Youth in Diverse Populations details successful programs used with children and teens in a wide range of circumstances and conditions, both clinical and non-clinical. New strength-based models clarify the core aspects of resilience and translate them into positive social, health, educational, and emotional outcomes. Program descriptions and case examples cover diverse groups from homeless preschoolers to transgender youth to children with autism spectrum disorders, while interventions are carried out in settings as varied as the classroom and the clinic, the parent group and the playground. This unique collection of studies moves the field toward more consistent and developmentally appropriate application of the science of resilience building. Among the empirically supported programs featured: Promoting resilience in the foster care system. Developing social competence through a resilience model. Building resilience in young children the Sesame Street way. School-based intervention for resilience in ADHD. Girls Leading Outward: promoting resilience in at-risk middle school girls. Resiliency in youth who have been exposed to violence. Resilience Interventions for Youth in Diverse Populations is an essential resource for researchers, professionals/practitioners, and graduate students in clinical child and school psychology, social work, educational psychology, child and adolescent psychiatry, developmental psychology, and pediatrics.

This indispensable practitioner resource presents classroom-based strategies for supporting all students' success and psychological wellness in grades K-9. The authors clearly explain what makes a classroom a healthy place to learn. They describe effective procedures for recognizing when a classroom is lacking essential supports, intervening to put missing supports into place, and evaluating the effects on learning and development. Rich case studies show how the strategies have been used by actual educators. Reproducible worksheets and planning tools are included; the large-size format facilitates photocopying. Purchasers also get access to a Web page where they can download and print the reproducible materials. New to This Edition *Incorporates a substantial new research base. *Expanded K-9 grade range. *Discussions of timely topics: English language learners, cultural diversity, response to intervention, and positive behavior supports. *Most case studies are new. *Seven additional reproducibles (intervention strategy sheets). This book is in The Guilford Practical Intervention in the Schools Series, edited by Sandra M. Chafouleas.

Play is critical to children’s well-being and development. All students should have access to and adequate time for positive play experiences every day. Learning and Connecting in School Playgrounds invites parents, teachers, principals and education administrators to take another look at their school playgrounds as spaces crucial to learning, well-being and development. This book combines research findings, commentary and the authors’ personal experiences and observations together with the views of teachers, principals, parents and students related to play and play spaces. Key content includes consideration of the role of adults in the school playground, the influence of technology on play, the challenges experienced by children transitioning to new school environments and consideration of strategies to support students’ access and participation in the playground. Cases are presented to illustrate the use of an audit tool to enhance school playgrounds. The future of school playgrounds is also considered through the reported hopes and dreams of adults and students and a range of recommendations are made for the review and development of schools’ outdoor play spaces. Learning and Connecting in School Playgrounds is written with a sense of urgency, calling for the recognition of positive play experiences as invaluable to children’s education. It includes important and challenging insights to inform and guide decision-making and will be an essential resource for all stakeholders who share responsibility for children’s participation and learning during school break-times.

"Across diverse disciplines, the term resilience is appearing more and more often. However, while each discipline has developed theory and models to explain the resilience of the systems they study (e.g., a natural environment, a community post-disaster, the human mind, a computer network, or the economy), there is a lack of over-arching theory that describes: 1) whether the principles that underpin the resilience of one system are similar or different from the principles that govern resilience of other systems; 2) whether the resilience of one system affects the resilience of other co-occurring systems; and 3) whether a better understanding of resilience can inform the design of interventions, programs and policies that address "wicked" problems that are too complex to solve by changing one system at a time? In other words (and as only one example among many) are there similarities between how a person builds and sustains psychological resilience and how a forest, community or the business where he or she works remains successful and sustainable during periods of extreme adversity? Does psychological resilience in a human being influence the resilience of the forests (through a change in attitude towards conservation), community (through a healthy tolerance for differences) and businesses (by helping a workforce perform better) with which a person interacts? And finally, does this understanding of resilience help build better social and physical ecologies that support individual mental health, a sustainable environment and a successful economy at the same time?"--

Cities have played an important role in our lives since the dawn of civilization. However, cities are slowly becoming overwhelmed and therefore intervention is desirable towards green, blue and egalitarian nature. Even with current urban issues, we must rise to the occasion as professionals to create cities that are social, cities that take care of the environment, and cities that are digital. Increased citizen participation is indispensable in this process. The ‘International Conference on Future is Urban (IFCU’ 21) Dec 16-18, 2021, Ahmedabad, India’, takes into account Livability, Resilience & Resource Conservation for planning Future and cities in future.