Researching with children experience social and emotional and mental health needs: their views on LEGO® based play intervention

Child development and the role that play has in child development are central to my professional role and as such lead me to my choice of research. This research focusses on the concept of pupil voice and gaining children’s views of a play-based intervention - LEGO® Based Therapy (LeGoff et al, 2014). The literature review considers how early development relationships, children’s wider social experiences and play impact on their social and emotional development. It examines the concept of pupil voice and how it sits within a humanitarian view of education. Further it focuses on Attachment Theory (Bowlby, 1969,1973) and Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological Model (1979, 1992) as a lens through which to view child social and emotional development. The importance of how play supports child development (Winnicott, 1971) and its value as a therapeutic tool (Axline, 1974; LeGoff, et al, 2014) is also considered. A case study based on a Mosaic Approach (Clark, 2017) was adopted for the methodology and a range research methods were adopted including children’s and researcher photographs, semi-structured photo elicitation interviews (Collier and Collier, 1986; Epstein, 2006). The research took place in three primary schools with twelve participants aged between eight and ten years, each with an element of SEMH as identified by the school SENCO. Thematic analysis (Boyatzis, 1998. Braun and Clarke, 2021) identified a number of themes that were eventually fixed as play, social skills, emotions and emotional literacy, place and time and relationships. Findings revealed from analysis were that the children had developed a range of social and emotional skills as well as noting the importance of the time and place in which an intervention takes place. Additional findings revealed the importance of play in the lives of children and their social and emotional development beyond the foundation stage of education.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Professional Doctorate

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Wolverhampton

Year dc:date.issued

2022

Author dc:creator

• Barrie, Amanda

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Brewster, Stephanie

• LEGO®
• social emotional and mental health needs
• SEMH needs
• play
• attachment theory
• bio-ecological model
• pupil participation
• photo elicitation interview
• thematic analysis

Statement dc:rights

• Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

Licence

• https://wlv.dspace7.openrepository.com/bitstreams/4b3cdacd-fa01-477a-9586-b465f2f6f013/download