Everyone Playing in Class: a group play provision for enhancing the emotional well‐being of children in school

Abstract

Everyone Playing in Class' is an unstructured free play based provision for small classes or groups. The intervention involves training staff in attachment theory, presenting up-to-date research findings on the role of play in emotional well-being and relationship building, as well as teaching reflective communication skills. In this article Alison Woolf, who is a Member of British Association of Play Therapists (BAPT), describes how these weekly class play sessions can provide experiences that are beneficial for staff and for pupils. The essential elements that create the therapeutic intervention are described and explored, and set in context through their relationship to SEAL. The ethical considerations of school staff providing therapeutic opportunities are considered. Results of pre-and post-intervention assessments are given, and the responses of staff and pupils to the sessions are summarised. Results show improvements for pupils in the areas of self-esteem and of social development. Most significantly the results demonstrate an increase in the staff's ability to understand and respond to the children in their class.

Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning: teaching and learning or playing and becoming?

“…Play 'is intrinsically motivated' (Hughes, 1999, p. 25), as Frank was able to identify when asked how he chose where and what to play in sessions. His understanding of his internal motivation was that it is through 'something what tells me to go over there' (Woolf, 2011). Frank needed to make sense of his world; his motivation was strong and he played through some painful experiences: 'People have natural healing mechanisms which make them resilient.…”

Practices of Supportive Church Children's Ministries: An Exploratory Multilevel Investigation of Church of the Nazarene Congregations in the United States

“…Structured and unstructured playtime may also foster perceived support from peers. Playtime allows children to build relationships (Woolf 2011), and it helps create a sense of community (Milteer and Ginsburg 2012). Additionally, sociocultural theories of cognitive development suggest that playtime fosters social skills development by allowing children to practice negotiation, sharing, compromise, consensual decision-making, and conflict-resolution (Gleason and Narvaez 2019) as they interact with more skilled play partners (Bjorklund and Causey 2018).…”

“…Finally, structured and unstructured playtime may foster perceived support from adults by building healthy attachments between adults and children. Play is the most powerful and most developmentally appropriate medium for children to build attachment relationships with adults (Woolf 2011). The relaxed interactions and intense engagement that occur during play tell children that their caregivers are paying full attention to them, which creates a strong connection (Milteer and Ginsburg 2012).…”

Parent-mediated play‐based interventions to improve social communication and language skills of preschool autistic children: A systematic review and meta-analysis protocol

“…Regarding language skills, play has been found to improve the overall language [16] as well as expressive and receptive language skills [17,18], the total words children produce, mean length of utterance, and linguistic complexity and diversity in at-risk preschool children [19]. Play is widely used as a therapeutic tool [20,21] and has been found to have a significant role in decreasing children's internalising [22] and externalising problems [23,24] and contributing to their healthy emotional development [25,26]. Lastly, play provides children with limitless opportunities to be physically active in daily life, thus, helps them to develop muscles and gain physical strength [27].…”