Play & Playfulness.
We describe The Springboard Curriculum as a play-based curriculum and discuss Learning Through Play in Chapter 4. But what is play and why is it so important?
What is Play?
“Play is a spontaneous, joyful activity through which a child experiences, experiments with and orientates themselves to the world. By playing a child learns about themselves and the world around them.” (The Springboard Curriculum 2020).
Play is a child’s occupation.
Play is a fundamental right of a child.
Dr Anita Bundy is a play expert and has published lots of research and reading on play (Google her work!). She refers to how an individual approaches play, with intrinsic motivation, internal control and suspension of reality as their playfulness.
Why do we need to promote play and playfulness?
Play supports the development of lifelong skills. An individual’s playfulness impacts upon their overall development, their ability to form relationships, develop self competence, self-esteem, resilience and coping throughout life. There is lots of research to support this. Across the ages, less playful individuals are less able to cope with stress. Stress tends to be experienced if the demands in the environment exceed our real OR perceived ability to meet those demands. I think that this is something we can all relate to and have personal experience of.
What affects playfulness?
Play is a multi-sensory interaction with the social and physical environment. Different responses to sensory information, different movement abilities and different understanding of social cues and communication can impact upon a child’s playfulness.
The real OR perceived demands of the environment.
For children with severe, complex and profound learning needs, their cues to play can be more subtle than their peers which means that they might be missed or misinterpreted by potential play partners. This can limit the number of invitations to play.
For children with severe, complex and profound learning needs, they might also miss your cues and invitations to play.
The availability of motivating interactions, activities or resources available to the child. Play does not have to be limited to toys.
Pain, discomfort and ill-health will impact upon a pupil’s energy to play and their playfulness.
If play is a child’s occupation, the time between when pupils arrive at school and when they leave school, play is an educator’s occupation too!
The role of educators.
Playful interactions with educators determine developmental, social and emotional outcomes and can facilitate playfulness.
Playfulness looks different for different pupils. Educators must be able to identify subtle cues to play in each child. Look out for changes in facial expression, increased movement, postural changes, muscle relaxation or contraction, smiling, laughing, changes in vocalisation, reaching out, moving towards or changes in eye-contact.
Break down barriers and ensure that every child has equal access to opportunities to learn through play. These barriers might be physical, sensory or social. Make adaptations as required to meet each child’s need.
Ensure the environment provides the just-right challenge. This means meeting the child where they are at offering a small achievable challenge to support them to move beyond their current level of learning. This provides the opportunity for a pupil to develop adaptive, flexible and creative responses to interactions with the environment.
Be patient, be persistent and don’t be afraid to repeat the fun.
Be playful in nature. This is most easily done if you, as educators are genuinely enjoying the interaction, activity or resources. Planning for play is not just about inspiring the children but the educators too! Activities with high emotional impact will be more easily remembered and therefore repeated.
Team Meeting
Search for “Play is never cancelled” on Youtube to listen to Dr Anita Bundy and other play experts talk about the importance of play and how to promote it.
Check out our Carousel Play blog and other planning blog posts to see how we plan and create play activities to meet a variety of learning needs.
Talk as a team about the different behaviours your observe in your pupils that communicate to you that they are being playful or engaging in play.
Share as a team if a particular approach to an interaction or particular activity facilitated playfulness in a pupil.
Take it in turns to video a playful interaction between an educator and a pupil. This does not have to be a whole team thing but watching a video back and reflecting on it can provide additional information about the play cues of your pupil and whether your response facilitated play and playfulness. Even play experts can learn a lot from reflecting on videos of their playful interactions.
Value and celebrate play and playfulness as a child’s way of learning.
The Springboard Curriculum is available to buy here as an immediate digital download. You can follow the link to view sample pages before you buy. The reason we decided to share our work? To allow educators to use their time creatively to maximise play and tailor the learning activities to the strengths and challenges of each pupil.
£1 of every sale goes to the school’s charity to give back to the educators and pupils who inspired the curriculum.
