Projects

How was your playtime? is an artistic response to the findings of the Social Communication Intervention Project and the Hopscotch project. It shows the experiences of children with communication difficulties during school breaktimes.

The Hopscotch project pioneers a new way of understanding children's social development through play. We used Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receivers and bluetooth technology to explore children's social interactions in a playground, and to learn more about how the quality of the play environment influences their movement and interactions with each other. See the video for an example.

Outputs: Pre-print sensors & outdoor play ; Movement Computing, technical paper ; Finding 'exceptional' social behaviour

We have a number of studies investigating issues around how speaking, hearing or writing in multiple languages might affect autistic children and their families.

Outputs: Autistic children's perspectives on bilingualism ; Parental perspectives ; Multilingualism and wellbeing ; Multilingualism and neurodevelopmental disorders

The Children's Relationships with Peers through Play (ChiRPP) follows a group of children from Reception through to years 1 & 2 of Primary School. It investigates how children's social and emotional development, together with their language and communication skills development, relates to different aspects of their play.

Outputs: Social pretend play, sex & language ability; Self-reported playfulness ; Child's-eye-view of school readiness ;

We are investigating how play supports learning, development and wellbeing in children and adults with neurodevelopmental differences - including autism, ADHD and developmental language disorder (DLD).

We are reviewing the literature on play-based interventions to support the development of social communication skills in autistic children and conducting an in-depth case study of play, wellbeing and friendship in children with DLD.