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Category: International Research

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.

Using young children’s perspectives in research and practice
3 December 2024
In this PEDAL Conference 2024 recording, PEDAL staff present research which uses playful methods to elicit the perspectives of young children to better understand their experiences of school and hospital.

What is a common elements approach?
27 November 2024
This short animation explains what a common elements approach is, and why PEDAL are using it in our research.

A playful retrospective on the power of play for young children and children living in contexts of conflict and crisis
27 November 2024
In this PEDAL Conference 2024 keynote, Paul Frisoli playfully reflects on the last 5 years of The LEGO Foundation funding in humanitarian settings.

Universality without Uniformity: Appreciating High-Quality Practices in Low-Resource Settings
22 October 2024
In this PEDAL Conference 2024 keynote, Professor Junlei Li speaks about the power of everyday interactions in early childhood.

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.

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.

A future for the world’s children? Play as the basis of a new paradigm for a world on fire
5 December 2023
In this PEDAL Conference 2023 keynote lecture, Professor Mark Tomlinson (Stellenbosch University) discusses the important role of play in building minds and brains in the future that are built for creativity, adaptation, collaboration, connectedness and resilience.

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.