Pen
Guest Blog: Let the children play!
Sally Thornley MSc Practice Based Play Therapy
This blog, the first in a series of six across the coming school year, has arisen from my work as a play therapist at a primary special school for children aged three to eleven.
Kingfisher Special School, rated four times outstanding by Ofsted, most recently in 2019, strives to provide the very best learning opportunities for children with profound and complex learning disabilities, including Autism, as well as those with multiple health needs. The pupils experience a multifaceted combination of impairments that co-exist, including rare chromosomal disorders, extreme prematurity, physical disabilities, visual and hearing impairments, Autism, Epilepsy as well as pre-natal alcohol and/or drug abuse. The population of this group of children is rapidly growing in numbers due to advances in medical practice and this is reflected in the rise in pupil numbers within the school with a more than a 130% increase from 84 in 2004 to 196 in 2019. The school is situated in what was identified in 2016 as the most deprived town in England when taking account of factors such as income, employment, health, disability, education, crime, housing and barriers to public services. A wide range of communities, cultures and faiths live within fragmented neighbourhoods across the borough.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), (1989) enshrines the right to play for all children. Article 31 of the Convention states; ‘Every child has the right to rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreational activities appropriate to the age of the child and to participate freely in cultural life and the arts’. The UN General Comment no.17 (2013) highlights the importance of Article 31 and increasing accountability amongst countries signed up to the convention. It recommended that play policy, including play policy for disabled children should be embedded in the UNCRC. The comment further notes that disabled children require particular attention to realise their rights under Article 31. Research widely evidences the value and importance of play to the healthy development of all children through which cognition, language, social skills, self-regulation and self-esteem emerge. Whilst it is clear that play, social development and cognition are closely linked, the common assumption of the disabled child, related to the normalisation of childhood, is that of a non-playing entity that cannot or chooses not to play.
The over-riding sense of the disabled child as ‘other’ reflects the notion that disability equates to a deficient, absent or lack of play ability.
My belief is that every child deserves equal and equitable access to play opportunities and experiences and that these should be differentiated to afford appropriate and accessible provision for children with profound and complex learning disabilities. This series of blogs will follow my work, as I spend one day a week supporting class staff to embed therapeutic play within an Early Years class of fourteen children diagnosed with complex Autism Spectrum Condition. I will also consider how disability constructs, culture and the preconceived notions of educators themselves contribute to perpetuating play ‘deprivation’ within this group of children.
Play is a far from a frivolous pursuit but a fundamental biological drive within both animal and human nature that is as essential to health and survival as sleep or nutrition.
Children with profound and complex learning disabilities have the same sense of playfulness and fun as other children have, it is simply harder for them to express this. The challenge, I believe, is to find ways to support such children that encourage play and playfulness within their lives. This offers the possibility of changing people’s perceptions of such children from passive children who cannot or choose not to play, to children who are as intrinsically and innately playful as any other child, with their own personalities, capabilities and competences. Encouraging playfulness has significant benefits both for the children and those around them, this includes increasing self-regulation, developing social communication as well as strengthening their responsiveness to the outside world.
I hope you will join us as we embark on our exciting and enjoyable journey into the world of play.
Sally Thornley MSc Practice Based Play Therapy
Accredited Play Therapist
For more information on SEND Assessment in the Early Years at Pen Green, please see our online Toolkit