Session 5 - Playful parenting: Supporting parents to understand the power of play
What is play?
Types (after Whitebread)
Physical play
Play with Objects
Symbolic play
Pretence/Socio-dramatic play
Games with rules
Characteristics (after LF)
Joyful
Actively engaging
Socially interactive
Meaningful
Iterative
What is play?
Play - Children’s play is any behaviour, activity or process initiated, controlled and structured by children themselves; it takes place whenever and wherever opportunities arise…
The key characteristics of play are fun, uncertainty, challenge, flexibility and non-productivity.
2. Play has huge potential benefits
Play benefits
• Physical play – health and fitness
• Early parent-child play – strengthening core attachment relationships and socioemotional development
• Peer play – improved social relationships and self-regulation
• Pretend play – cognitive skills and creativity
NB Separating out play deprivation from other deprivations is difficult.
3. Play is central to children’s lives and experiences, but often marginalised by adults
When children are asked…
“thematic analysis identified 25 priorities across four domains; Feeling able and enthusiastic for school; navigating friendships and victimization; supportive environments with opportunities to play; bridging school and family life”
O’Farrelly et al, (2020), Early Childhood Research Quarterly
Reconstructing Readiness: Young Children’s priorities for their early school adjustment.
When children are asked…
• The Big Conversation – Children’s Commissioner (England)
• Play was the most commonly used word
• Recommendation 19 (of 33)
When children are asked…
Don’t allow the word to become a barrier.
Recap: 3 things we know about play and its benefits.
1. Play has many types and meanings
2. Play has huge potential benefits
3. Play is central to children’s lives and experiences, but often marginalised by adults
How can we use what we’ve learnt about child development and play to better inform and support parents?
Take time to observe, go at children’s pace and follow their interest
1. Play to understand children’s communication and build relationships
Intervention: VIPP-SD
• Video Feedback Intervention to promote Positive Parenting and Sensitive Development (VIPP-SD) developed in the Netherlands.
• Underpinned by attachment theory and social learning theory
• Parent-child interaction is filmed and played back to parents with a focus on positive interactions.
• Sessions promoting parents’ capacity to identify and respond sensitively to exploratory behaviour and attachment cues.
The programme
Video-feedback Intervention
to promote Positive Parenting & Sensitive Discipline
