This article explores the intersection of scholarly findings on adult play with ludic urban interventions (those encouraging spontaneous and undirected playfulness). Playful urban design answers our ...innate need to explore, discover, experiment and even test our mental and physical boundaries. The urban environment as 'play space' can offer ample opportunities for nurturing adults' innate playfulness. Twenty-seven cases of urban ludic interventions (existing and proposed) framed by the academic literature on adult play and the urban environment yielded a rich typology encompassing multiple play types, important design considerations and differing implementation styles. This typology will help urban planners and designers, policymakers, municipal officials, researchers and others appreciate the largely untapped potential for urban environments to act as a play space for all.
The working life of a play specialist White, Helen Louise
Paediatrics and child health,
October 2017, 2017-10-00, Letnik:
27, Številka:
10
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Imagine that you are feeling ill or in pain, worse than you have ever felt before but you do not know why. You are taken urgently in an ambulance to an alien environment hosting different smells and ...sounds. You are bombarded with questions but all you can think about is why you are in pain and what is going to happen to you? Now imagine if you were a child going through this with less life experience and a lower level of understanding. In this situation a play specialist can help by supporting the social and emotional needs of the child and their family during a time when they are feeling at their most vulnerable. It is not always possible to achieve the perfect illness outcome for every patient but remembering that their emotional state is just as important as their medical condition means that at least the whole team is able to offer all that can be done to care for their specific needs. This holistic approach means caring for the person, not just their symptoms. Conditions, personalities, past experiences, pain thresholds and levels of understanding vary in each individual, so there is no predicting how each patient will react; but there are numerous ways that the play team can support a child and ensure that care for the child's emotional needs is offered, to complement the medical care. This article aims to aid your understanding of how play can be used in hospitals allowing children to feel safe, welcomed – and even entertained. I will discuss specific techniques that play specialists can use to help children and young people feel better prepared and equipped to cope with different aspects of being hospitalised and I will touch on how play specialists can be of direct assistance to various medical staff within the work place, with some examples. I shall highlight some challenges and many successes, as well as identifying play service improvements throughout our trust.
Teachers in early childhood education and care (ECEC) assume various roles in children’s free play, such as tutor, classroom manager, co-player, and director. Recent research has shown that ...teacher-related characteristics such as work experience and classroom-related characteristics such as children’s age are significant predictors of teachers’ roles. However, these roles have mostly been assessed through self-report rather than external observation using standardized scales. Furthermore, it is unclear how teachers’ roles depend on the types of children’s play, such as construction play and dramatic play. To address these research gaps, we observed 80 teachers during 291 observation cycles in childcare centers and kindergartens in Switzerland. We developed a standardized observation scale to simultaneously assess both teachers’ roles during children’s free play and the types of children’s play. Additional teacher- and classroom-related predictors were assessed with an online questionnaire for teachers. The results of a multilevel regression analysis showed that the roles observed differed in the type of play in which children engaged. However, teacher- and classroom-related predictors were more relevant and explained more variance in teachers’ roles than the types of children’s play. The findings may stimulate self-reflection by ECEC teachers on the roles they assume during children’s free play.
This paper assesses the degree to which a typical regional theatre engages with society. It uses postcodes from theatre booking data and compares the socioecenomic profiles of these postcodes with ...postcodes from which no theatregoers are drawn. A re-working of recent theories of class provides a conceptual context, whilst discriminant analysis is used to identify the socioecenomic factors of postcodes associated with theatre and non-theatre attendance. Education factors were the principal determinants of attendance, with occupational categories being important, but lower socioecenomic groups were less likely to engage with theatre. However, social engagement and factors determining attendance varied by type of show: comedy, drama, family and Shakespearian productions.
