Category: Babies & Early Childhood (0-5)

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.

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.

All Work and No Play? Busting the Binary in Majority World Settings
21 June 2023
In this Play Piece, Stephen discusses whether work and play are different, and the value of play as distinct from work.

Infant Mental Health Awareness Week 2023: Understanding Infant Mental Health
13 June 2023
In this short animation for Infant Mental Health Awareness Week 2023, PEDAL’s Senior Policy Fellow Sally Hogg explains what we mean by ‘mental health’ in infancy and early childhood. You can also find more information and useful resources for supporting children’s mental health in the early years by clicking here.

Exploring play in hospitals in Spain, Australia and England
9 May 2023
In this article, Paulina reflects on her travels and what she has learned about Health Play Specialists and their importance to children in hospital.

INSAR 2023: Professionals’ perspectives on strengths-based autism diagnostic assessment
6 May 2023
Neurodiversity-informed approaches enable us to move away from simply understanding autism in terms of difficulties. In this video, PEDAL PhD student Emma Pritchard-Rowe presents a summary of her research on professionals’ perspectives of holistic, strengths-based approaches to diagnostic assessment – which can have a positive impact on autistic people’s wellbeing and enhance the support available […]

Understanding and supporting mental health in infancy and early childhood: A PEDAL and UNICEF UK Toolkit
14 April 2023
There is widespread concern about babies’, children’s and young people’s mental health in the UK, particularly after the pandemic. Surveys of children, young people, parents, grandparents and teachers all reveal worries about mental health. Significant evidence shows us that the foundations for lifelong mental health are laid during pregnancy and the earliest years of life. Thankfully, this is more widely […]

Play, physical activity, and physical health
5 April 2023
How can active play help improve children's access to physical activity and their physical health?

ITAKOM Conference 2023: Moving towards a strengths-based approach to autism diagnostic assessment
16 March 2023
Neurodiversity-informed approaches enable us to move away from simply understanding autism in terms of difficulties. In this video, PEDAL PhD student Emma Pritchard-Rowe presents a summary of her research on holistic, strengths-based approaches to diagnostic assessment which centre autistic voices & have a positive impact on autistic people’s wellbeing and self-esteem. This poster was originally […]