Category: Mental Health
What Role for Children’s Self-Regulation in the Challenges Surrounding their Digital Activity?
8 July 2026
David Whitebread Memorial Lecture: What Role for Children’s Self-Regulation in the Challenges Surrounding their Digital Activity? Presented by Professor Steven Howard at the PEDAL Conference 2026. Steven Howard is a Senior Academic Research Leader in Child Development and Education with the Department of Education at the University of Oxford.
How We Turn Policy and Evidence into Better Outcomes for Children in their Early Years
8 July 2026
The Hard Yards of Delivery: How We Turn Policy and Evidence into Better Outcomes for Children in their Early Years Presented by Aida Cable as the keynote at the PEDAL Conference 2026. This session highlights how Thrive at Five ensures good policy survives contact with reality, and sets out some practical examples from programmes in […]
Promoting Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health in Everyday Practice
6 July 2026
How do we bring what we know about babies’ mental health into everyday moments with families? This workshop pulled on the latest evidence and frontline practice to explore the relational processes that matter most in early life. Presentations included the specialist parent-infant therapy context and the health visiting setting, followed by a small-group activity using […]
A Playful Start to School
30 June 2026
The Importance of Play and Peer Relationships at the Transition to Reception Presented by Dr Elian Fink at the PEDAL Conference 2026 as part of the workshop session titled: ‘A Playful Start to School’. This session explored how children’s play and friendships evolve as they move through the different stages of early years provision into […]
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.
The Oxford Brain Story: Embedding an understanding of the importance of the early years
22 October 2024
In this PEDAL Conference 2024 keynote, Louise Dalton presents her programme of work entitled the Oxford Brain Story.
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.
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.
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.
The therapeutic powers of play: play therapy as a mental health treatment
5 December 2023
In this PEDAL Conference 2023 recording, Siobhán Prendiville (Children's Therapy Centre in Ireland) talks about the therapeutic powers of play and highlights how well Play Therapy sits within a neurosequential approach to psychotherapy.