Children and COVID-19 Research Library

This study used a semi-structured approach interviewing 22 participants currently working in playwork. Participants were asked what they thought was the purpose of playwork and comment on their playwork practice because of the lockdown from COVID-19 in the United Kingdom (UK). Using thematic analysis, three purposes of playwork practice were identified: advocacy; compensatory and facilitation. In relation to their playwork, the lockdown resulted in playwork practice stopped and staff being furloughed. For others, playwork practice continued which was either non-face--to face by providing resources or there was a change of focus, for example providing online play sessions or working in a “hub” located in schools reflecting the three themes identified as the purpose of playwork. This study identified the adaptable and versatile nature of playwork that has enabled some form of playwork practice to still operate being facilitated more as a compensatory outreach provision, whether virtually or supplying or resources during the COVID-19 lockdown and the importance of maintaining relationships with the children and families in the communities where playwork provision so continuing to advocate the importance of play in children's lives.

Amidst the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic, there is uncertainty regarding potential lasting impacts on children's health and educational outcomes. Play, a fundamental part of childhood, may be integral to children's health during crises. We undertook a rapid review of the impact of quarantine, isolation and other restrictive environments on play and whether play mitigates adverse effects of such restrictions. Fifteen peer‐reviewed studies were identified, spanning hospitals, juvenile and immigration detention and refugee camps. We found evidence of changes in children's access to play in crises and quarantine. These studies indicated how play might support children enduring isolation but lacked robust investigations of play as an intervention in mitigating impacts of restriction.

This study aims to identify how Brazilian families with children aged under 13 years face the period of social isolation resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, especially regarding the time spent on physical activity (PA), intellectual activity, games, outdoor activities and screen. An anonymous online survey was launched on March 24, 2020 in Brazil to assess how families with children aged up to 12 years are adjusting their daily routines to this situation. In the survey, each family reported the daily time each child spent in sedentary activity (sum of intellectual activities, play time on screen, playing without PA) and PA (sum of playing with PA and PA).

Amidst the COVID‐19 pandemic, there is uncertainty regarding potential lasting impacts on children’s health and educational outcomes. Play, a fundamental part of childhood, may be integral to children’s health during crises. This paper undertook a rapid review of the impact of quarantine, isolation, and other restrictive environments on play and whether play mitigates adverse effects of such restrictions.

This paper deliberately places under a microscope, a township boychild named Kabelo, who is labelled in the formal education system as underperforming, learning-disabled and cognitively challenged. Kabelo epitomises the pattern of boy academic underperformance in South Africa and worldwide, particularly in reading and literacy. This pattern feeds a dominant narrative about systemic learning deficits that risks the stigmatisation of academically underperforming children whose lives intersect with stubborn structural inequality, and renders them invisible as capable, playful children.