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Category: Secondary (11+)

Centring children’s lived experiences in understanding the importance of play in hospitals

8 July 2024

We wanted to understand what playing in hospital is like from the perspectives and experiences of young children themselves.

Listening to children with empathy – the ethical case

30 May 2024

In this piece, Soizic le Courtois argues that advice given to parents should draw on scientific evidence about children's subjective wellbeing, children's perspectives and the contribution of any practice to children's development and outcomes. We should also be attuned to our empathetic responses to children, which can give us clues about the "right" thing to do.

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. According to healthcare professionals, play in clinical practice can be used to communicate and build relationships with paediatric patients and thus potentially help provide patient-centred care.

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.

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.

Exploring play in hospitals in Spain, Australia and England

9 May 2023

In this article, Paulina reflects on her travels and what she has learned about Health Play Specialists and their importance to children in hospital.

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?

Play, physical activity, and physical health

5 April 2023

How can active play help improve children's access to physical activity and their physical health?