Skip to content
Show Menu

Category: Babies & Early Childhood (0-5)

Do educational programmes for healthcare professionals focus on play?

1 March 2024

This literature review looked at the evidence to understand how educational programmes for healthcare professionals include the use of play. It found that play is not consistently or systematically integrated into medical education.

PEDAL Conference logo

Supporting play for neurodivergent children

5 December 2023

In this PEDAL Conference 2023 recording, we hear from Kerry Murphy (Goldsmiths, University of London) and Dr Gina Gomez de la Cuesta and Abi Dodson (Play Included) share their expertise on play and its significance in diverse child development.

PEDAL Conference logo

The therapeutic powers of play: play therapy as a mental health treatment

5 December 2023

In this PEDAL Conference 2023 recording, Siobhán Prendiville (Children's Therapy Centre in Ireland) talks about the therapeutic powers of play and highlights how well Play Therapy sits within a neurosequential approach to psychotherapy.

PEDAL Conference logo

Prisons, hospitals and schools: challenges and opportunities introducing play in different settings

5 December 2023

In this PEDAL Conference 2023 recording, Dr Paulina Pérez-Duarte (PEDAL), Dina Fajardo (PEDAL) & Mercedes Castañeda (Reinserta) explore and advocate for the use of play in challenging settings, as well as those opportunities where play can enable a powerful change in children’s mental health.

PEDAL Conference logo

Public health campaigns: supporting infant mental health through encouraging playful interactions

5 December 2023

In this PEDAL Conference 2023 recording, Margaret Gallagher (NSPCC) and Alex Spragg (Better Start Bradford) talk about how two public health campaigns supported infant mental health through encouraging playful interactions.

PEDAL Conference logo

A future for the world’s children? Play as the basis of a new paradigm for a world on fire

5 December 2023

In this PEDAL Conference 2023 keynote lecture, Professor Mark Tomlinson (Stellenbosch University) discusses the important role of play in building minds and brains in the future that are built for creativity, adaptation, collaboration, connectedness and resilience.

PEDAL Conference logo

A vision for happy, healthy childhoods in the UK

5 December 2023

In this PEDAL Conference 2023 keynote lecture, Helen Hayes (Shadow Children's Minister and Labour MP forDulwich & West Norwood) shares Labour's vision for childhood.

PEDAL Conference logo

Understanding & supporting mental health in infancy & early childhood: a PEDAL and UNICEF UK toolkit

5 December 2023

In this PEDAL Conference 2023 lecture, PEDAL's Senior Policy Fellow Sally Hogg presents PEDAL’s work with UNICEF UK on the new toolkit for understanding and supporting mental health in infancy and early childhood.

PEDAL Conference logo

Playful approaches to research

5 December 2023

In this PEDAL Conference 2023 recording, Dr Beth Barker, Dr Kelsey Graber, and PhD students Sydney Conroy and Carolyn Mazzei (PEDAL) discuss how play itself can be used as an ethos and a tool to support our explorations of play, development, and learning in childhood during our research studies.

Play in the face of adversity

1 November 2023

Read our paper for the Scottish Children's Commissioner about the value of play for children in the asylum seeking system.