Fraser Brown

The play behaviours of Roma children in Transylvania

The Roma children of Transylvania are probably the most materially deprived in Europe. They often live in one-room shacks made from wood and mud, with no running water, no sanitation, and sometimes no heating. Many rely on charity for their food and medicines. But, are they play deprived? This paper summarises an observational study of the play behaviours of children in a small Roma village. It highlights the striking contrast between the abject poverty that characterises their lives and the general happiness of the children. These children live their limited lives to the full. They ‘play everywhere and with everything’, but not in the generally accepted sense of that phrase. The usual niceties of privacy, personal possessions and property boundaries are irrelevant here. Their play is rich in imagination and creativity; it is living proof of Nicholsons theory of loose parts.

Play within the pre-registration children's nursing curriculum within the United Kingdom : a content analysis of programme specifications

Purpose: To determine the number of programme specifications which cite play within the curriculum and in what context. Play is an essential part of childhood. Therefore we might expect nurses caring for children to be trained in how to facilitate play within their clinical areas. Programme specifications provide information on course aims, the intended learning outcomes and what the learner is expected to achieve. Design and Method: Inductive qualitative content analysis. Results: Only 13% (seven out of 54) programme specifications published by Higher Education Institutions cite play. Where play is mentioned there is a clear link made to use play as a communication tool. Also distraction figured prominently within the same sentence as play, despite these two terms being quite distinct. The availability of the programme specifications was also noted with 49% (28 out of 57) were easily accessible from the university web sites. A further 16% (9 out of 57) provided web links when access was requested. 35% were not publicly accessible without requesting access. Three Universities declined to be involved. Conclusion: It is clear that even if play is embedded within the child field nursing curriculum, it is not clearly stated as a priority within 87% of universities programme specifications which make no mention of it. Practice Implications: If play is not part of programme specifications its importance could be lost to educators already delivering a full curriculum. Nurses could be qualifying with little or no knowledge around their role in facilitating play for their patients. HighlightsOnly 13% of programme specifications cite play.Where cited, play is linked to distraction and communication.95% response rate for programme specifications being made availablePlay is important to children in healthcare settings.Nurses have an important role in facilitating play for their patients.

Brian Sutton-Smith Memorial Panel – A Celebration of the Life and Works of Brian Sutton-Smith

ABSTRACT On the final day of the 2015 TASP conference, we heard of the sad passing of our great friend and inspiration, Brian Sutton-Smith. The memorial panel, which was one of the centre-pieces of the 2016 TASP conference, was the first opportunity we had to mark his passing. We did so with a selection of memories and reflections on his life. Brian spent his adult life studying the phenomenon of play in all its forms: child and adult; frivolous and serious; sporting and educational; charming and disgusting. He showed that children are not always innocent in their play, and that adults often feel guilty about theirs. His academic legacy lies in hundreds of articles and over fifty books, including the seminal work The Ambiguity of Play (1997). However, those of us who knew him well also remember the great joy with which he lived his life. The Panel was a mixture of friends, collaborators, ex-students and TASP colleagues. All of them had a story to tell about the way this great supporter of TASP touched their lives.

The Healing Power of Play: Therapeutic Work with Chronically Neglected and Abused Children

This article concerns a therapeutic intervention with a group of abandoned children living in a Romanian pediatric hospital. The children, ranging in age from one to ten years old, had suffered chronic neglect and abuse. They had previously spent most of their lives tied in the same cot in the same hospital ward. They were poorly fed and their nappies were rarely changed. Although able to see and hear the other abused children, they experienced little in the way of social interaction. The article focuses on the play-based methods that were employed to aid the children’s recovery, while at the same time highlighting the general benefits of this very specific therapeutic approach to children’s recovery and development. In particular, there is an exploration of concepts such as symbolic representation, negative capability, joining, and the significance of play cues. However, despite the clear value of these individually focused techniques, the article proposes the tentative hypothesis that the most powerful healing factor was the unfettered playful interaction between the children themselves. In other words, the children in a very real sense may have healed each other while playing.