Advocating for Play: Advocacy with Families and in Child-Serving Organizations

How can those with an interest in facilitating play connect their direct work with children to broader change efforts in schools, communities, and child-serving organizations? What are some effective ways to communicate about play with parents, teachers, administrators, and others who have an influence over children’s lives? How can you keep your own commitment to play alive and refreshed in environments that may exert other demands on you? This session will explore these and related questions as we integrate learning from throughout the week and discuss a range of advocacy strategies participants can employ when they return to home, work and community settings.

Advocating for Play: Media and Policy Advocacy

Many of the people who make decisions about the design and management of our schools, parks, health care facilities, public housing, and other public spaces are uninformed about the central importance of play in human development. This has made it increasingly difficult for practitioners of play-based teaching and child care to do good work. Facilitating play therefore implies that, beyond your own professional practice, you must be prepared to be a change agent in your school and community. This session will focus on strategies and interventions for play advocacy, both locally and nationally, and will focus on key goals, targets, techniques, obstacles, and potential allies involved in this work.

Blocks in Play

This session offers an exploration of blocks as a central medium for young children's play. Block play allows children explorations in math, science, social studies, and language arts and involves problem solving, experimentation, negotiation, and other abilities crucial in child development. Focusing on unit blocks, but also including other building materials, we will examine through both discussion and experience how blocks play into these areas and abilities.

Introduction to the DIR/Floortime Model:
Fostering Early Stages of Engagement and Purposeful Communication

This session introduces the basic concepts of the “Developmental, Individual Differences, and Relationship Based” (DIR) model of assessment and intervention and illustrates how to encourage affect-based developmentally appropriate interactions for children with special needs. The aim of this presentation is to provide a general overview of this model, its theoretical base, how it is implemented, and how it incorporates various therapeutic modalities to support the health and wellbeing of children with developmental difficulties. Video clips of clinical material will be used to illustrate the application of the model in the context of a private practice, school, and home settings, and take into account developmental, spatial, and cultural considerations.

Looking at Children's Play

This session introduces participants to the field observation process which takes place at the Sarah Lawrence Early Childhood Center. Drawing on what we have seen and discussed so far, we will provide a template for observing and recording observations which will serve as the basis for discussion on such topics as: What functions do different forms of play serve for the child? What is the shape of a “play episode”? How do children collaborate in play? Are there different kinds of imaginative activities that serve differing functions? Can we identify the sources of themes revealed in the children’s play?

The Meanings of Play: Developmental Perspectives

This session begins with an introduction and viewing of the film When a Child Pretends, made for public television by Jonathan Diamond Associates in association with the Child Development Institute. We will then consider the kinds of activities that are called “play” and their differing roles in the lives of children. Using the film as a basis for discussion, this session focuses primarily on imaginative or pretend play. An introduction to psychological theories of play highlights social, emotional, imaginative and cognitive aspects of play and serves as a foundation for understanding the importance of play for the child’s development.

Play and Culture

This session will address the intersection of play and culture, focusing on the ways that contexts (defined broadly as family, cultural norms, social expectations) influence the nature of play and attitudes that adults hold toward the meaning and uses of play. In the summer of 2007, Marie Reynolds introduced play therapy to the Child Abuse Mitigation Project in Jamaica, and since her return to Jamaica she has continued to expand awareness of and advocate for the value of play and play therapy through both her clinical work at the Family Life Ministries counseling centre and her participation in the fledgling Jamaica Play Coalition. Using anecdotal and case references, participants will gain an understanding of the cultural context of play and play therapy in Jamaica, including how this is shaped by child socialization and patterns of parent-child interaction.

Playwork and Setting the Stage for Play

This workshop will address the essentials of playwork, which is a professional body of theory and practice developed in the UK. Playworkers directly support children’s play through creating or improving opportunities in a variety of settings, and they advocate for the child’s right to play when engaging with the public. In our exploration of the concepts and principles of playwork, we will examine ways of identifying and respecting the patterns and processes of children’s self-directed play. We will discuss the responsibilities of the playworker in a free play environment, and proven ways to support and inspire children’s imaginative explorations without directing or intervening. Particular emphasis will be placed on understanding the contributions of the site itself to the opportunities within it, and the simple ways to creatively expand the play possibilities of any environment.

The Power of Play Therapy

This session discusses the basic principles of non-directive play therapy, including the therapist's role in the play session and the multiple reasons for treatment. An in-depth look at two case studies will provide further insight into the therapeutic power of play and how children use play as a way to emotionally recalibrate and heal.