Making Sense of Play: Supporting children in their play

Making Sense of Play straightforwardly describes how self-chosen, engaging and satisfying play is best for children. It explores how adults can best support children's free play with an approach that is holistic, inclusive and practical and offers clear tools to highlight better ways of relating to and providing for playing children.The book extends two key concepts developed by the author, the Integral Play Framework and the Play Cycle, showing how practitioners can implement these ideas on a day-to-day basis. The author makes clear how the Integral Play Framework works, how it helps makes sense of other models and how it can be used to help plan provision for playing children physically, socially, cognitively and culturally. Everyday practice with playing children is explored in line with introductory and extended understandings of the Play Cycle or 'play process'. Accessibly written with a rich range of examples showing the concepts in practice, these models are further used to explore creativity, the ways in which children play, how provision might be improved and how the approaches can be used to research practice.With its distinctive blend of theory and practice together with reflective questions, this book is essential reading for all playwork students and practitioners and helps put these innovative ideas into practice with playing children."Perry Else's book, Making Sense of Play, is just what we might expect from one of the UK's leading playwork authors. Drawing extensively on Else's work with a number of theorists, it is thought-provoking in its content and challenging in the breadth of its scope. Those of us who value diagrams and tables as a mechanism for clarifying complex concepts will be rewarded by the format of the chapters. I recommend this book to anyone with an analytical preference, and an interest in the way societies cater for the needs of children at play." Fraser Brown, Professor of Playwork, Leeds Beckett University, UK"Perry has the special ability to write a rigorous academic book applying helpful theoretical perspectives to play without ever damaging the precious importance of uninterrupted, spontaneous child-led PLAY." Sara Knight, Forest School Association and Anglia Ruskin University, UK"Making Sense of Play is an accessible and thought-provoking book for all those who are involved or interested in children's play, whether they are practitioners, academics, students or tutors. Written in an engaging and informative manner, it offers opportunities to deepen understanding about different perspectives on play and how this knowledge can aid adults in supporting play. Notably the inclusion of activities and questions for each chapter are invaluable for consolidating understanding and applying the theory to practice." Julia Sexton, Senior Lecturer in Childhood Studies, Sheffield Hallam University, UK

Table of Contents:
AcknowledgementsWhat is play? Making sense of play – The Integral Play Framework Making sense of other views Supporting provision for children's playing Interacting with playing children What kids get up to – everydayness and the darker side of play Developing reflective practice and creative approaches An integrated approach to research Appendix 1: Comparison of definitions of play Appendix 2: An expanded taxonomy of play types Appendix 3: Psycholudic terminology References Index

About the Author :
Perry Else is Professor of Play Studies at Sheffield Hallam University, UK, and has spent nearly thirty years bringing play and creativity to a variety of organisations and local authorities in London, Bristol and Sheffield, helping plan and deliver services for children.