ABSTRACT
Exploring how practitioners make use of play’s developmental benefits and therapeutic healing properties to aid the child’s healthcare journey, this reflective book expands and enhances the knowledge base underlying the practice of play in hospitals.
The work of health play specialists and child life specialists in hospitals in the UK and around the world requires a deep level of clinical knowledge, so that preparing children for procedures can be done with skill and precision. It builds on an understanding of both child development and the impact of traumatic experiences so that children’s deepest fears and biggest emotions can be faced without flinching. It also relies on an acceptance that play is the foundation of everything – the child’s safest, most natural space – and from this trust, strength and resilience can grow and be nurtured. This new edited text explores the breadth, depth and skills of these trained healthcare practitioners providing play for babies, children, young people and adults, and places the power of play squarely at the centre of most clinical settings. Its starting point of the theory that underpins practice is explored and developed through a combination of reflective essays, case study chapters from the UK and around the world, and the newly emerging use of play in diverse settings.
Drawing on the collective work of over 30 play specialists, child life specialists, play service managers, lecturers and researchers, this book is unique in all it offers to paediatric practitioners and settings, in training and in practice. It is an important resource for healthcare play specialists, playworkers, children’s nurses, occupational therapists and more.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part I|48 pages
Theoretical underpinning
chapter 2|12 pages
Hospital: Still a Deprived Environment for Children?
chapter 3|6 pages
It Pays to Play!
chapter 5|8 pages
The Elephant in the Room – Mental Health Illness in Children and Young People
part II|46 pages
Personal reflections on the role of the hospital play specialist
chapter 8|7 pages
The ‘Magic of Play’
part III|60 pages
Specific case studies
chapter 18|10 pages
Ship-Shape and Bristol Standard Fashion
part IV|54 pages
Reflections from around the world
chapter 21|14 pages
Play in Two Different Ways
chapter 24|7 pages
The Hospital Play Specialist Education Course in Japan
chapter 25|10 pages
Let's Start with Play
part V|59 pages
Playing in other ways and other settings