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Helping Parents Stay Confident in Their Own Playful Instincts

by Susan J. Oliver and Edgar Klugman
January/February 2006
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Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/helping-parents-stay-confident-in-their-own-playful-instincts/5016756/

The emergence of professional play specialists

Quick! What’s the opposite of “play”?

Most of us �" including children �" do not need to spend much time thinking about the answer to that question. We don’t need to grab a thesaurus or race to our favorite web site or consult with anyone to figure it out. We get the picture starting when we are very young: work is the opposite of play. Given the choice, we would much rather play than work.

It may seem curious, then, that these two words are being put together in a new “profession” that is emerging in some parts of the world. “Playworkers,” so far found mostly in Europe, Australia, Canada, and some Asian and South American countries, are trained facilitators of children’s play in settings like “parks and playgrounds, afterschool children’s centers, children’s museums, children’s hospitals, toy libraries, family entertainment centers, play gardens, zoos, centers for children with special needs, and many others,” according to the American Association for the Child’s Right to Play (www.ipausa.org).

Growing the ranks of these play professionals, along with setting standards for play, formalizing training and credentialing programs, and advocating for more playworkers in recreational areas funded by municipal governments ...

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