Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Bateman, Amanda
• Danby, Susan
• Howard, Justine

Titel

Living in a broken world: how young children's well-being is supported through playing out their earthquake experiences

Ist Teil von

• International journal of play, 2013-12, Vol.2 (3), p.202-219

Ort / Verlag

Routledge

Erscheinungsjahr

2013

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• The therapeutic value of play can be shown in spontaneous play situations following children's experiences of traumatic events. Following the events of the Christchurch earthquakes in New Zealand in 2010 and 2011, an investigation was conducted of how children used the earthquake event as a catalyst in pretend play with peers and in discussions with teachers. Supporting children's well-being is a focus area in New Zealand early childhood education, as it is a strand of the national curriculum Te Whāriki [Ministry of Education. (1996). Te Whāriki. He whāriki mātauranga mōngā mokopuna o Aotearoa: Early childhood curriculum. Wellington: Learning Media]. In this article, children are observed engaging in pretend play episodes, and with personalized Learning Story books, to explore personal reflections of the earthquake, prompting the children to make reference to things being 'broken' and needing 'fixing'. Analysis shows how the content of the pretend play experiences helped the children to come to terms with their experiences. Affording children time and interactional opportunities to play out and discuss traumatic experiences contributes to the psychological well-being of participants following a traumatic event.