Pedro Encarnação - Guidelines for supporting children with disabilities play: Methodologies, tools, and contexts

Pedro Encarnao, Sylvie Ray-Kaeser and Nicole Bianquin (Eds.)

GUIDELINES FOR SUPPORTING CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES PLAY. METHODOLOGIES, TOOLS, AND CONTEXTS.

This article/publication is based upon work from COST Action TD 1309 supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology).

COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) is a funding agency for research and innovation networks. Our Actions help connect research initiatives across Europe and enable scientists to grow their ideas by sharing them with their peers. This boosts their research, career and innovation.

www.cost.eu

ISBN 978-3-11-061343-8

e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-061344-5

e-ISBN (EPUB) ISBN 978-3-11-061372-8

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License. For details go to http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ .

2018 Encarnao, Ray-Kaeser, Bianquin

Published by De Gruyter Poland Ltd, Warsaw/Berlin

Part of Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

The book is published with open access at www.degruyter.com .

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for at the Library of Congress.

www.degruyteropen.com

Cover illustration by Arianna, aged 7 years, entitled Swimming pool

Drawings in pages 6, 27 and 84 were created by students of the Department of Graphic Design of the School of Applied Arts and Design, Zagreb, Croatia, under the mentorship of their teacher Tomislav Tomi, MA Graphic Arts.

Drawings in page 20, 23 and 66 were created by students of the St Edwards college, Malta, under the mentorship of their art teacher Lisa Pace.

Pedro Encarnao

Catlica Lisbon School of Business & Economics

Universidade Catlica Portuguesa

Lisbon, Portugal

Sylvie Ray-Kaeser

Occupational Therapy Department

School of Social Work and Health

University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Lausanne

Lausanne, Switzerland

Nicole Bianquin

Department of Human and Social Sciences

University of Aosta Valley

Aosta, Italy

Serenella Besio

Department of Human and Social Sciences

Universit degli Studi di

Bergamo Bergamo, Italy

Serenella Besio

Department of Human and Social Sciences

Universit degli Studi di Bergamo

Bergamo, Italy

Vaska Stancheva-Popkostadinova

Department of Medical-Social Sciences

Faculty of Public Health, Health Care and Sports

South-West University Neofit Rilski

Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria

Helen Lynch

Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy

University College Cork

Cork, Ireland

Alice Moore

Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy

University College Cork

Cork, Ireland

Daniela Bulgarelli

Department of Human and Social Sciences

University of Aosta Valley

Aosta, Italy

Francesca Caprino

INDIRE (National Institute for Documentation, Innovation and Educational Research)

Central Regional Unit

Rome, Italy

Nicole Bianquin

Department of Human and Social Sciences

University of Aosta Valley

Aosta, Italy

Pedro Encarnao

Catlica Lisbon School of Business & Economics

Universidade Catlica Portuguesa

Lisbon, Portugal

Rianne Jansens

Faculty of Health Care

Zuyd University of Applied Sciences

Heerlen, the Netherlands

Sylvie Ray-Kaeser

Occupational Therapy Department

School of Social Work and Health

University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Lausanne

Lausanne, Switzerland

Odile Perino

FM2J Centre National de Formation aux Mtiers du Jeu et du Jouet

Lyon, France

Maria Costa

AIJU Technological Institute for Childrens Products and Leisure

Alicante, Spain

Eleanor Schneider

Department of Occupational Therapy

University of Haifa

Haifa, Israel

Vardit Kindler

Dvorah Agmon Pre-School Development Center

Jerusalem, Israel

Andrea Bonarini

Department of Electronics, Information, and Bioengineering

Politecnico di Milano

Milan, Italy

Agnieszka Landowska

Faculty of Electronics, Telecommunications and Informatics

Gdansk University of Technology

Gdansk, Poland

Helen Lynch

Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy

University College Cork

Cork, Ireland

Pedro Encarnao

Catlica Lisbon School of Business & Economics

Universidade Catlica Portuguesa

Lisbon, Portugal

Sylvie Ray-Kaeser

Occupational Therapy Department

School of Social Work and Health

University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Lausanne

Lausanne, Switzerland

Nicole Bianquin

Department of Human and Social Sciences

University of Aosta Valley

Aosta, Italy

Serenella Besio

Department of Human and Social Sciences

Universit degli Studi di Bergamo

Bergamo, Italy

When thinking about children, one automatically thinks about play. Play is something which comes in different forms, elderly may think of play as something manual or traditional, whilst the younger generation will definitely think on the digital lines of play. Play has evolved through time and although sometimes we may feel irritated by the fact that manual play is lacking in todays world, we must admit that technology has stepped up play also due to the fact that now it is also targeting to become more accessible to everyone, including children with various forms of impairments.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child also mentions the right to play for every child in its Article 31. This strengthens the argument that play has to be offered to everyone, all children need to be included and have the chance to be creative, to physically participate and therefore have a harmonious cognitive development. We have to keep in mind that we have all been children and we know by fact that play, apart from entertaining us, helped us grow stronger and better because it gave us the opportunity to experience freedom, curiosity, imagination, etc. Play also develops concentration, a form of following rules (if the game has rules), repetition, planning, problem solving and satisfaction.

One doesnt play if playing that game or playing with that toy does not satisfy him or her, therefore play is also a matter of option. A child might like playing board games, others might like playing with other stuff which is not really meant to be toys such as, for example, a sauce pen (which might be considered as grown up stuff). There is another important facet in play, which is the social aspect. There are children that like playing with other children, sharing toys or playing a game together, and there are other children that prefer playing alone. It is known that play changes through childhood and children themselves change the way they look at play and the way they choose to play. A description of the different types of play and of play development through childhood can be found in of this book.