Category: Primary (5-11)
Creating Classrooms for Change: Developing cognitive flexibility in schools in Rwanda
1 March 2024
This research looked at how schools in Rwanda foster students’ skills for adaptability - their capacity to create, innovate and adjust to shifting circumstances. It uses the psychological lens of cognitive flexibility.
Why and how do healthcare professionals use play in clinical practice?
1 March 2024
We explored what healthcare professionals in different roles and different countries understood to be important and useful about the role of play in paediatric practice.
Do educational programmes for healthcare professionals focus on play?
1 March 2024
This literature review looked at the evidence to understand how educational programmes for healthcare professionals include the use of play. It found that play is not consistently or systematically integrated into medical education.
Supporting play for neurodivergent children
5 December 2023
In this PEDAL Conference 2023 recording, we hear from Kerry Murphy (Goldsmiths, University of London) and Dr Gina Gomez de la Cuesta and Abi Dodson (Play Included) share their expertise on play and its significance in diverse child development.
Prisons, hospitals and schools: challenges and opportunities introducing play in different settings
5 December 2023
In this PEDAL Conference 2023 recording, Dr Paulina Pérez-Duarte (PEDAL), Dina Fajardo (PEDAL) & Mercedes Castañeda (Reinserta) explore and advocate for the use of play in challenging settings, as well as those opportunities where play can enable a powerful change in children’s mental health.
The complex possibilities of play in schools
5 December 2023
In this PEDAL Conference 2023 recording, Dr James Biddulph and Aimee Durning (University of Cambridge Primary School) discuss play's place in the curriculum, and how they have used play to nurture and promote mental wellness for some of the most vulnerable children within their school community.
Play in the face of adversity
1 November 2023
Read our paper for the Scottish Children's Commissioner about the value of play for children in the asylum seeking system.
All Work and No Play? Busting the Binary in Majority World Settings
21 June 2023
In this Play Piece, Stephen discusses whether work and play are different, and the value of play as distinct from work.
INSAR 2023: Professionals’ perspectives on strengths-based autism diagnostic assessment
6 May 2023
Neurodiversity-informed approaches enable us to move away from simply understanding autism in terms of difficulties. In this video, PEDAL PhD student Emma Pritchard-Rowe presents a summary of her research on professionals’ perspectives of holistic, strengths-based approaches to diagnostic assessment – which can have a positive impact on autistic people’s wellbeing and enhance the support available […]
Play in South African autism schools: why are formalised ethical processes important?
3 May 2023
Why are culturally sensitive approaches to research ethics so important?