Screens, physical play, and pretend play: What is going on?

Friday 15 March 2024

12:00pm – 3:00pm (AEDT)

Presented by Emeritus Professor Karen Stagnitti

*Start and end times are in Australian Eastern Daylight Time (AEDT) Sydney, Melbourne, Hobart, Canberra, UTC+11:00

ABOUT

A lot of children use a variety of screens today. Screen use covered in this workshop includes smart phones, ipads, TV, and games. Screens are now part of most children’s daily activities, but what is known about screen use and children’s interactions with screens?

This 3 hour workshop reviews the research on children’s screen use, recommendations for use, and its benefits and challenges for neurodiverse and neurotypical children. The workshop then looks at physical play, pretend play, and screens and what the evidence is (so far) on the interaction between these three areas of children’s activities. Within this knowledge we will uncover any differences or similarities between play (physical and pretend) and screens.

With this background knowledge, the workshop then considers the implications for use of screens and how use of screens interacts with children’s physical and pretend play. How does screen use hinder or help physical play or spontaneous pretend play? Do children embed screen use in their play? What is digital play? What do we need to consider when discussing screen use and play with parents and carers for both neurodiverse and neurotypical children?

This workshop invites discussion from participants to share their experiences and approaches with screens and play when working with families and their children.

This workshop will be recorded and available for viewing at a later date if participants are unable to attend the Live workshop.

PRESENTER’S PROFILE – KAREN STAGNITTI 

Karen Stagnitti is Emeritus Professor in the School of Health and Social Development at Deakin University, Victoria, Australia. She is retired from full time teaching and research but continues to run workshops and write. She graduated with a Bachelor degree in Occupational Therapy from the University of Queensland. For over 40 years she has mainly worked in early childhood intervention programs in community-based settings as part of a specialist paediatric multidisciplinary team. In 2003 she graduated from LaTrobe University with a Doctor of Philosophy. Her area of research is children’s play. Karen has over 150 publications, including journal articles, book chapters, and books. She has developed several play assessments including: Child-Initiated Pretend Play Assessment, the Pretend Play Enjoyment Developmental Checklist and the Animated Movie Test. From this research, Learn To Play Therapy was developed. Throughout the year, she is still invited by national and international colleagues to contribute to books by writing book chapters or editing.