Playing with or next to? The nuanced and complex play of children with impairments

Abstract

This paper examines play as a fundamental children's activity, giving particular attention to the inclusion children with impairments at play and children's shared construction of their playworlds. Children with impairments are customarily portrayed as incompetent, unskilled or deficient in their play, thus being positioned on the margins (or, as 'who's out'?) of mainstream discourses. On the other hand, nonimpaired children are usually regarded as competent players, who play in 'normal' ways (as 'who's in'?). Little attention is afforded to noticing skillful or proficient play by children with impairments and including their perspectives in play research.The Social Model of Childhood Disability offers a perspective for considering 'disabled childhoods' and framing enquiry into the culturally-constructed playworlds of children with impairments. Evidence from two ethnographic studies that examine children with impairments at play is discussed, employing vignettes that utilize data from researcher and teacher observation notes. The paper documents specific play interactions related to individual experiences and interests and explores how children work together and alone to create meaningful play interactions.The authors demonstrate how careful observation of children with impairments can uncover how they act with agency and provide examples of their deliberate, but often unnoticed, actions. Furthermore, children with impairments can be identified as active, creative agents who self-monitor, make choices and exert control over their play and who have unique play cultures that they construct for and between themselves.The notion that play for children is a mutual, shared and inclusive cultural experience is supported in this paper.

Teaching for Diversity with UDL: Analysing Teacher Competence

“…Tjernberg & Mattson, 2014). The coteachers listened to their pupils and strengthened their sense of belonging which is considered an essential feature in inclusive education (Qvortrup & Qvortrup, 2018) and an element that contributes to students' well-being and learning (Burke & Claughton, 2019). As skills, these pedagogical actions can be interpreted as teacher commitment and sense of responsibility to their students (see e.g.…”

Getting into the Same Boat – Enabling the Realization of the Disabled Child’s Agency in Adult–Child Play Interaction

“…Recently, a few studies have presented a different perspective, for example, by revealing the rich play cultures of children on the autism spectrum (Burke & Claughton 2019;Conn & Drew 2017;Spitzer 2003) and showing that children with profound and multiple learning disabilities have a high level of playfulness determined by situations and adults supporting the children, not by impairments (Watson et al 2017). Play has also been demonstrated as a good place for disabled children to exercise their agency (Burke & Claughton 2019).…”