Category: Blog Post
PEDAL’s new report for the Starlight Children’s Foundation
31 March 2025
This literature review explores the connection between play and children’s health in healthcare contexts.
PEDAL’s new report for The Centre for Emotional Health
24 February 2025
Our new report investigates how employers’ can support parents’ emotional health and their parenting.
It’s a Pandemic in the Playborhood: An International Perspective of Play Therapists on the COVID-19 Pandemic
7 January 2025
The COVID-19 pandemic, lockdowns and beyond, impacted many professions and workplaces, including therapists and their therapy rooms.
Supporting Learning Through Play
11 December 2024
A Play Commission Submission by Dr Soizic Le Courtois, Manogya Sahay and Qiming Liu
A playful, evidence-informed approach to maths education
30 May 2024
How PEDAL research can help a government committed to improving maths outcomes to think more creatively about how to achieve this goal.
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.
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.
Diversity in autistic play: Autistic adults’ experiences
12 September 2023
In this research, we take a neurodiversity-informed approach to understanding autistic play. This means understanding autistic play in terms of differences, strengths and difficulties rather than simply deficits. We also focus on what autistic people say about their play. We were interested in how autistic adults experience play, as well as how they think their play is different to non-autistic play.
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.