National play@home
Programme
Irene Miller
Development Manager- play@home
‘INFANTS AND CHILDREN WHO ARE RARELY
SPOKEN TO, WHO ARE EXPOSED TO FEW
TOYS, AND WHO HAVE LITTLE
OPPORTUNITY TO EXPLORE AND
EXPERIMENT WITH THEIR ENVIRONMENT
MAY FAIL TO FULLY DEVELOP THE NEURAL
CONNECTIONS AND PATHWAYS THAT
FACILATATE LATER LEARNING.’
STARTING SMART: HOW EARLY EXPERIENCES AFFECT BRAIN DEVELOPMENT 1996
Your childhood
 Activity one:
Discuss with the person next to you:
What was your favourite game as a child?
As a child how did you play?
 Outdoors
 With others
 Unsupervised
Photo from: (2010) ‘Letting children off the leash’, BBC News Magazine [online], 5 July. Available from
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8789014.stm.
Parents afraid to allow their
children to cycle on roads
 Half of all pupils want to
cycle to school
(Sustrans)
 only 2% of UK
schoolchildren actually
do (National Travel
Survey)
Article from: Taylor, M. (2008) ‘Parents afraid to allow their children to cycle on roads’, The Guardian [online], 6 May. Available from:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/may/06/transport.children
Photo from: Johnson, B. (2010) ‘Hail the heroic parents who let their children cycle to school’, The Telegraph [online], 5 July. Available
from:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/borisjohnson/7871753/Hail-the-heroic-parents-who-let-their-children-cycle-to-school.html
Couple threatened by social services
for letting children cycle to school
 Oliver & Gillian Schonrock allow son (5) & daughter
(8) to cycle one mile from their home to school alone
Article and photo from: Wilkes, D. (2010) ‘Boris backs couple threatened by social services for letting their children cycle to school’, The Daily
Mail [online], 17 August. Available from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1291970/Couple-threatened-social-services-children-ride-bikesschool.html
Today’s kids have less freedom
Percentage of children under 16 not allowed to
 sleep over at a friend’s house (24%)
 use public transport without a parent present
(60%)
 visit closest park without a parent present (43%)
Research undertaken by ICM research on behalf of LV=Streetwise. From: 2010 ‘Today’s kids have less freedom than previous
generations’, Liverpool Victoria [online], 28 April. Available from: http://www.lv.com/media_centre/press_releases/todays-kids-haveless-freedom.
Evidence
 Motherly love 'does
breed confidence’
 Hugs, kisses and
expressive
declarations of love
appear to rub off and
foster emotional
resilience
Article and Photo from: (2010), ‘Motherly love ‘does breed confidence’’, BBC News [online], 27 July. Available
from:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/mobile/health-10759511
Resources available:
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Baby Book
Toddler Book
Pre-school Book
Baby DVD
Toddler DVD
Training Folder
So does it actually work?
play@home in action
play@home in action
play@home in action
play@home in action
play@home in action
Impact evaluation 2011
Baseline findings
Baby Group: No statistically significant difference.
Toddler Group: Statistically significant differences
were observed in Gross Motor, Fine Motor and
Problem Solving domains of ASQ, and
Higher mean scores on the Pleasure in
Parenting scale.
Pre-school Group: No statistically significant
difference.
Impact evaluation 2011
Longitudinal findings
A higher score in the Pleasure in Parenting Scale
was maintained post test in favour of the
intervention group.
The Pre-school children in the intervention group
exhibited a significantly greater percentage of
time spent in MVPA compared with the control
group.
It is important to remind ourselves that an
awful lot of the things that really matter to
babies and young children are not costly either to families or to the public purse but they do take time and effort, and
often education, guidance and support.
Susan Deacon.
Joining the dots. A better start for Scotland’s Children 2011
Your chance to play
 Activity two:
 Use the resources provided at your table to build
the tallest tower in the room.
 Your tower must include a plastic bottle.
 You have limited time to achieve this.
For further information
 irene.miller@nhs.net
0131 313 7574
 Sally.dowie@nhs.net
0131 313 7579
 nhs.HealthScotland-playathome@nhs.net