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Play for plays sake emphasises the significance of how children characterise play opposed to any secondary purposes or benefits it may generate. The concept of play value draws attention to how the space in which children play proffers the experiences that children want. Increasingly, digital play experiences are emerging as spaces for play. This inquiry aims to examine the play value of digital spaces, specifically how play is afforded by the digital space from the perspective of children. Eight children aged 11 years old participated in seven focus groups, creating comic strips which were used to elicit discussions. Focus group analysis generated three themes with associated sub-themes which were collectively explained by the overarching theme of endless possibilities in play in digital spaces. This study provides a new understanding of how digital spaces affords play value from the child's perspective., Validerad;2024;Nivå 1;2024-03-25 (hanlid);Full text license: CC BY 4.0

Play for plays sake emphasises the significance of how children characterise play opposed to any secondary purposes or benefits it may generate. The concept of play value draws attention to how the space in which children play proffers the experiences that children want. Increasingly, digital play experiences are emerging as spaces for play. This inquiry aims to examine the play value of digital spaces, specifically how play is afforded by the digital space from the perspective of children. Eight children aged 11 years old participated in seven focus groups, creating comic strips which were used to elicit discussions. Focus group analysis generated three themes with associated sub-themes which were collectively explained by the overarching theme of endless possibilities in play in digital spaces. This study provides a new understanding of how digital spaces affords play value from the child's perspective., Validerad;2024;Nivå 1;2024-03-25 (hanlid);Full text license: CC BY 4.0

Background Research has identified diverse constraints to the adoption of school-based occupational therapy approaches and a lack of attention to addressing the barriers to children’s play opportunities. Critical contextualised research is advocated to inform practice possibilities. Aims/Objectives This inquiry aimed to explore with occupational therapists their existing practices in Irish schoolyards to generate practice possibilities concerned with play, as an issue of occupational justice. Materials and Methods Using the theory of practice architectures, six occupational therapists from diverse sites of practice participated in the first phase of a critical action research process using dialogical focus group and occupational mapping methods. Results Three themes were generated (1) Existing practices as situated (2) (Re)mattering play and practices as occupations and (3) Practice possibilities – ‘Finding the play’ between responsiveness and responsibilities. A further interrelated dimension was how the research methods provided mechanisms of raising consciousness. Conclusions, and Significance Alongside constructing knowledges on existing practices in an Irish context, this inquiry contributes to understandings of practices as socially embedded generative processes of ‘finding the play’, highlighting ethical responsibilities to make visible inequities reproduced in habitual practices and engage in relationships of solidarity to (re)construct alternative shared practices., Validerad;2024;Nivå 2;2024-06-17 (sofila);Full text license: CC BY 4.0;This article has previously appeared as a manuscript in a thesis.

Children’s play in Irish schoolyards remains neglected in educational policies and practices despite government commitments to inclusive schools and children’s rights. There is a dearth of research on children’s perspectives of play, criticisms of ‘at risk’ discourses underpinning concerns for certain children’s play rights, and studies identifying exclusion within Irish schoolyards, particularly for children with minoritized identities. This inquiry informed by the theory of practice architectures used walking interviews to explore with twenty-three children their play practices in two Irish primary schools identified as disadvantaged. Analysis of the interviews generated three themes: (1) the state of play – cracks with(in) the routines of the schoolyard, (2) playing along and with(in) this shared space and (3) the hard yard. This inquiry contributes to understandings of children’s play with(in) Irish schoolyards, as socially situated practices with contrasting representations of play as habitual and emerging. Play was central to children’s social lives, identities, and friendships and interrelated with diverse constraints, exclusionary practices, and the (re)production of the ‘hard yard’. While mattering most children’s experiences of significant constraints and inequities, this inquiry also highlighted the transformative possibilities generated within play to create shared possibilities for individual and collective flourishing., Validerad;2024;Nivå 2;2024-08-14 (sofila);Full text License: CC BY;Funder: Marie Sklowdowska-Curie grant agreement (861257);This article has previously been published as a preprint.

This paper describes the development, translation, and early evaluation of the Arabic Psychosocial Impact of Assistive Devices Scale (AR-PIADS), an outcome measure instrument for the subjective impact of Assistive Technology on a person with a disabilities' quality of life. Developing the AR = PIADS instrument involved forward and backward translation by two independent teams of bilingual, Arabic-English speakers (n = 5) and a quality and usability review by a panel of people with disabilities (n = 18). The emergent version was evaluated with a group of experienced Arabic-speaking Assistive Technology users (n = 67) for its psychometric properties. Initial results demonstrate a favorable comparison for 16 of the 26 questionnaire items with scores recorded for the original, English language version. Internal consistency, measured using Cronbach's alpha, yielded a range of 0.97-0.99 for AR-PIADS while the new instrument's reliability was assessed using an intraclass correlation coefficient resulting in scores within the range of 0.86-0.97 for the overall instrument. Despite these positive results however, the translation process did highlight a number of challenges with language and cultural interpretation of the translated instrument. This suggests that further work is warranted to explore its utility in service provision., Funder: RESPECT and the People Programme (Marie Curie Actions) of the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme; Mada Qatar Assistive Technology Center; Full text license: CC BY-NC-ND

Background Research has identified diverse constraints to the adoption of school-based occupational therapy approaches and a lack of attention to addressing the barriers to children’s play opportunities. Critical contextualised research is advocated to inform practice possibilities. Aims/Objectives This inquiry aimed to explore with occupational therapists their existing practices in Irish schoolyards to generate practice possibilities concerned with play, as an issue of occupational justice. Materials and Methods Using the theory of practice architectures, six occupational therapists from diverse sites of practice participated in the first phase of a critical action research process using dialogical focus group and occupational mapping methods. Results Three themes were generated (1) Existing practices as situated (2) (Re)mattering play and practices as occupations and (3) Practice possibilities – ‘Finding the play’ between responsiveness and responsibilities. A further interrelated dimension was how the research methods provided mechanisms of raising consciousness. Conclusions, and Significance Alongside constructing knowledges on existing practices in an Irish context, this inquiry contributes to understandings of practices as socially embedded generative processes of ‘finding the play’, highlighting ethical responsibilities to make visible inequities reproduced in habitual practices and engage in relationships of solidarity to (re)construct alternative shared practices., Validerad;2024;Nivå 2;2024-06-17 (sofila);Full text license: CC BY 4.0;This article has previously appeared as a manuscript in a thesis.

Children’s play in Irish schoolyards remains neglected in educational policies and practices despite government commitments to inclusive schools and children’s rights. There is a dearth of research on children’s perspectives of play, criticisms of ‘at risk’ discourses underpinning concerns for certain children’s play rights, and studies identifying exclusion within Irish schoolyards, particularly for children with minoritized identities. This inquiry informed by the theory of practice architectures used walking interviews to explore with twenty-three children their play practices in two Irish primary schools identified as disadvantaged. Analysis of the interviews generated three themes: (1) the state of play – cracks with(in) the routines of the schoolyard, (2) playing along and with(in) this shared space and (3) the hard yard. This inquiry contributes to understandings of children’s play with(in) Irish schoolyards, as socially situated practices with contrasting representations of play as habitual and emerging. Play was central to children’s social lives, identities, and friendships and interrelated with diverse constraints, exclusionary practices, and the (re)production of the ‘hard yard’. While mattering most children’s experiences of significant constraints and inequities, this inquiry also highlighted the transformative possibilities generated within play to create shared possibilities for individual and collective flourishing., Validerad;2024;Nivå 2;2024-08-14 (sofila);Full text License: CC BY;Funder: Marie Sklowdowska-Curie grant agreement (861257);This article has previously been published as a preprint.

This paper describes the development, translation, and early evaluation of the Arabic Psychosocial Impact of Assistive Devices Scale (AR-PIADS), an outcome measure instrument for the subjective impact of Assistive Technology on a person with a disabilities' quality of life. Developing the AR = PIADS instrument involved forward and backward translation by two independent teams of bilingual, Arabic-English speakers (n = 5) and a quality and usability review by a panel of people with disabilities (n = 18). The emergent version was evaluated with a group of experienced Arabic-speaking Assistive Technology users (n = 67) for its psychometric properties. Initial results demonstrate a favorable comparison for 16 of the 26 questionnaire items with scores recorded for the original, English language version. Internal consistency, measured using Cronbach's alpha, yielded a range of 0.97-0.99 for AR-PIADS while the new instrument's reliability was assessed using an intraclass correlation coefficient resulting in scores within the range of 0.86-0.97 for the overall instrument. Despite these positive results however, the translation process did highlight a number of challenges with language and cultural interpretation of the translated instrument. This suggests that further work is warranted to explore its utility in service provision., Funder: RESPECT and the People Programme (Marie Curie Actions) of the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme; Mada Qatar Assistive Technology Center; Full text license: CC BY-NC-ND

With the inclusion of play as a right, schools are urged to consider whether all children can access play opportunities in schoolyards. Refocusing on play as occupation is identified as an important way in which occupational therapists can contribute within schools. Greater knowledges of children’s play and teachers’ practices, in schoolyards in an Irish context, is required however to guide practices. This inquiry used interviews to explore with 10 primary school teachers, their practices, and experiences of children’s play in Irish schoolyards. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to generate three interrelated themes. These were a) Break(in)time: Play in schoolyards as different from other ways of doing within schools, b) play as producing inclusion and exclusion, c) and certainties and uncertainties produced in teachers’ everyday practices. This inquiry generated knowledges on the social nature of children’s play and teachers” practices in Irish schoolyards as negotiated processes, interacting with diverse intentions, and the particularities of each schoolyard. The consequences of individualizing choice were highlighted as central to the production of inclusion and exclusion in schoolyards. Greater consideration of how children’s play and teachers” practices occur as collective occupations, is proposed to advance inclusive schoolyards., Validerad;2024;Nivå 2;2024-08-14 (sofila);Full text license: CC BY-NC-NDFunder: Marie Sklowdowska-Curie grant agreement (861257)

With the inclusion of play as a right, schools are urged to consider whether all children can access play opportunities in schoolyards. Refocusing on play as occupation is identified as an important way in which occupational therapists can contribute within schools. Greater knowledges of children’s play and teachers’ practices, in schoolyards in an Irish context, is required however to guide practices. This inquiry used interviews to explore with 10 primary school teachers, their practices, and experiences of children’s play in Irish schoolyards. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to generate three interrelated themes. These were a) Break(in)time: Play in schoolyards as different from other ways of doing within schools, b) play as producing inclusion and exclusion, c) and certainties and uncertainties produced in teachers’ everyday practices. This inquiry generated knowledges on the social nature of children’s play and teachers” practices in Irish schoolyards as negotiated processes, interacting with diverse intentions, and the particularities of each schoolyard. The consequences of individualizing choice were highlighted as central to the production of inclusion and exclusion in schoolyards. Greater consideration of how children’s play and teachers” practices occur as collective occupations, is proposed to advance inclusive schoolyards., Validerad;2024;Nivå 2;2024-08-14 (sofila);Full text license: CC BY-NC-NDFunder: Marie Sklowdowska-Curie grant agreement (861257)

Background: Digital spaces are rapidly emerging as a space for children to engage in autotelic play. Aim: To explore and describe children’s experiences of choice-making in their play in digital spaces from the perspective of children themselves. Methods: Focus groups were conducted with a total of eight children aged six years of age within their school, in a large city in Ireland. A Mosaic Approach with drawing, cutting, and colouring in was used to elicit the children’s voices to ensure their active engagement throughout the data collection. Data was analyzed using focus group analysis. Results: Data analysis revealed three main themes; children enjoy the ability to make choices in their play, that they are often constrained in their ability to make choices, and that they negotiate ways in which they can select options for play in digital spaces. Conclusions: Findings indicate that children are agentic individuals who are capable of making decisions in their play in digital spaces. This knowledge provides implications for Occupational Therapists to enhance play as an occupation in digital spaces., Validerad;2023;Nivå 2;2023-11-14 (sofila);License fulltext: CC BY-NC-ND

Irish Traveller children, an ethnic indigenous minoritized community in Ireland are identified in Ireland’s play policy as at higher risk of exclusion from realising their right to play, alongside a reported absence of research on indigenous children’s play. This scoping review aimed to identify the breadth and scope of available research on representations of Irish Traveller children’s play and the factors influencing play opportunities. Applying the updated Joanna Briggs Institute methodological guidance, a systematic search was completed of nine databases. Thirty-five peer reviewed studies met the inclusion criteria, descriptive study information was charted and summarised and enabling and restricting factors influencing Irish Traveller children’s play were identified using an existing conceptual model. The scoping review findings revealed a limited focus within research on Irish Traveller children’s play. Included studies however, provided evidence of; the importance of feeling a sense of belonging and safety to enable Irish Traveller children’s access to preferred play opportunities, involving real life activities, physical play outdoors and play with others; Irish Traveller parents value and facilitation of play; and the significant restricting influence of racism on Irish Traveller children’s play .Limited knowledge on Irish Traveller children’s own perspectives on play and the need to address racism as a restricting influence on play in school and community environments are considered in relation to practice and further research. Discourses representing Irish Traveller children as marginalised, were problematized as reflective of culturist assumptions, and a shift towards understanding the situated nature of Irish Traveller children’s play, as a capability is proposed., Validerad;2023;Nivå 2;2023-12-05 (joosat);Full text license: CC BY

Background: Digital spaces are rapidly emerging as a space for children to engage in autotelic play. Aim: To explore and describe children’s experiences of choice-making in their play in digital spaces from the perspective of children themselves. Methods: Focus groups were conducted with a total of eight children aged six years of age within their school, in a large city in Ireland. A Mosaic Approach with drawing, cutting, and colouring in was used to elicit the children’s voices to ensure their active engagement throughout the data collection. Data was analyzed using focus group analysis. Results: Data analysis revealed three main themes; children enjoy the ability to make choices in their play, that they are often constrained in their ability to make choices, and that they negotiate ways in which they can select options for play in digital spaces. Conclusions: Findings indicate that children are agentic individuals who are capable of making decisions in their play in digital spaces. This knowledge provides implications for Occupational Therapists to enhance play as an occupation in digital spaces., Validerad;2023;Nivå 2;2023-11-14 (sofila);License fulltext: CC BY-NC-ND

Irish Traveller children, an ethnic indigenous minoritized community in Ireland are identified in Ireland’s play policy as at higher risk of exclusion from realising their right to play, alongside a reported absence of research on indigenous children’s play. This scoping review aimed to identify the breadth and scope of available research on representations of Irish Traveller children’s play and the factors influencing play opportunities. Applying the updated Joanna Briggs Institute methodological guidance, a systematic search was completed of nine databases. Thirty-five peer reviewed studies met the inclusion criteria, descriptive study information was charted and summarised and enabling and restricting factors influencing Irish Traveller children’s play were identified using an existing conceptual model. The scoping review findings revealed a limited focus within research on Irish Traveller children’s play. Included studies however, provided evidence of; the importance of feeling a sense of belonging and safety to enable Irish Traveller children’s access to preferred play opportunities, involving real life activities, physical play outdoors and play with others; Irish Traveller parents value and facilitation of play; and the significant restricting influence of racism on Irish Traveller children’s play .Limited knowledge on Irish Traveller children’s own perspectives on play and the need to address racism as a restricting influence on play in school and community environments are considered in relation to practice and further research. Discourses representing Irish Traveller children as marginalised, were problematized as reflective of culturist assumptions, and a shift towards understanding the situated nature of Irish Traveller children’s play, as a capability is proposed., Validerad;2023;Nivå 2;2023-12-05 (joosat);Full text license: CC BY

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 861257, In this poster session two research projects of P4Play in the area of practice are described. Introduction: The P4Play Marie Sklodowska-Curie (MSC) Training Network is an innovative European Joint Doctorate (EJD) programme in Occupational Science for Occupational Therapists. This EJD was established in 2020 when 2.2 m was awarded to a consortium of researchers and play advocates, in the highly competitive Horizon2020 scheme. P4play is a collaboration between 4 academic universities in Ireland, Sweden, Scotland, and Switzerland, and 15 partner organisations in Europe and the USA. The P4play programme adopts a child's rights-based perspective and aims to investigate the nature of play through the lens of People, Place, Policy and Practice (P4Play). Background: After extensive scientific research, scholarly exploration, and discourse on play, a refocus on play as a right requires further study as a central concern (or occupation) in children's lives. Occupational Science, a science dedicated to the study of humans as doers or as occupational beings, offers a unique lens to explore play as an occupation. From this perspective, the P4Play proposal was developed and submitted for funding to the MSC programme, in 2019 and was successful on first submission. P4play intends to amplify children's voices and explore the intersectionality of diverse childhood experiences of play, within families, communities, and cultures, drawing from pragmatism, complexity theories, childhood studies and anthropology among others. Methods: The P4Play research programme has employed 8 early-stage researchers dedicated to exploring the complex and situated nature of play, e.g., social-spatial inclusion, play deprivation, and policy. and the development of solutions to address barriers to play provision in diverse community settings. Eight PhD research projects are being designed and implemented to examine play from diverse perspectives and contexts, including roma/traveller communities, familie

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 861257, In this poster session two research projects of P4Play in the area of practice are described. Introduction: The P4Play Marie Sklodowska-Curie (MSC) Training Network is an innovative European Joint Doctorate (EJD) programme in Occupational Science for Occupational Therapists. This EJD was established in 2020 when 2.2 m was awarded to a consortium of researchers and play advocates, in the highly competitive Horizon2020 scheme. P4play is a collaboration between 4 academic universities in Ireland, Sweden, Scotland, and Switzerland, and 15 partner organisations in Europe and the USA. The P4play programme adopts a child's rights-based perspective and aims to investigate the nature of play through the lens of People, Place, Policy and Practice (P4Play). Background: After extensive scientific research, scholarly exploration, and discourse on play, a refocus on play as a right requires further study as a central concern (or occupation) in children's lives. Occupational Science, a science dedicated to the study of humans as doers or as occupational beings, offers a unique lens to explore play as an occupation. From this perspective, the P4Play proposal was developed and submitted for funding to the MSC programme, in 2019 and was successful on first submission. P4play intends to amplify children's voices and explore the intersectionality of diverse childhood experiences of play, within families, communities, and cultures, drawing from pragmatism, complexity theories, childhood studies and anthropology among others. Methods: The P4Play research programme has employed 8 early-stage researchers dedicated to exploring the complex and situated nature of play, e.g., social-spatial inclusion, play deprivation, and policy. and the development of solutions to address barriers to play provision in diverse community settings. Eight PhD research projects are being designed and implemented to examine play from diverse perspectives and contexts, including roma/traveller communities, familie

The main focus of this project has been the investigations into the effect that fluorine substitution has on structures of molecular complexes containing DNA base molecules. Previous work done on these molecules has been targeted at producing anti-cancer or antiviral treatments, which reflects an important ultimate aim of investigations in this area. Success in this structural project would make a contribution towards this aim, by helping the understanding of the effects of fluorination on some of the interactions that control DNA self-assembly, notably base-pairing and stacking interactions, together with additional interactions involving fluorine. The specific aim of this project was to grow crystals of molecular complexes of cytosine and 5-fluorocytosine with co-molecules and use the structural descriptions to assess the difference between the structures and the influence the presence of the fluorine atom has on the structure when compared to the nonfluorinated equivalent. Single crystal X-ray diffraction has been the main method of analysis, backed up by related techniques. Many crystallisations have been set up with cytosine and 5-fluorocytosine with a wide range of targeted co-molecules. 5-fluorouracil and uracil have also been used in related co-crystallisations with the aim of producing related complexes of these materials with the same co-molecules as used with cytosine and 5-fluorocytosine. In both families of complexes it was hoped that the fluorine would have an effect on the base-pairing motifs adopted in the structures, with the control being the non-fluorinated structure. The program dSNAP has been used to give a comparison of the structures produced in this work with those already reported in the CSD. This program has given an indication of the classification of the standard primary bonding motifs and to analyse the other features commonly seen in base pairs such as buckling and propeller twisting. The comprehensive series of complexes produced have

The main focus of this project has been the investigations into the effect that fluorine substitution has on structures of molecular complexes containing DNA base molecules. Previous work done on these molecules has been targeted at producing anti-cancer or antiviral treatments, which reflects an important ultimate aim of investigations in this area. Success in this structural project would make a contribution towards this aim, by helping the understanding of the effects of fluorination on some of the interactions that control DNA self-assembly, notably base-pairing and stacking interactions, together with additional interactions involving fluorine. The specific aim of this project was to grow crystals of molecular complexes of cytosine and 5-fluorocytosine with co-molecules and use the structural descriptions to assess the difference between the structures and the influence the presence of the fluorine atom has on the structure when compared to the nonfluorinated equivalent. Single crystal X-ray diffraction has been the main method of analysis, backed up by related techniques. Many crystallisations have been set up with cytosine and 5-fluorocytosine with a wide range of targeted co-molecules. 5-fluorouracil and uracil have also been used in related co-crystallisations with the aim of producing related complexes of these materials with the same co-molecules as used with cytosine and 5-fluorocytosine. In both families of complexes it was hoped that the fluorine would have an effect on the base-pairing motifs adopted in the structures, with the control being the non-fluorinated structure. The program dSNAP has been used to give a comparison of the structures produced in this work with those already reported in the CSD. This program has given an indication of the classification of the standard primary bonding motifs and to analyse the other features commonly seen in base pairs such as buckling and propeller twisting. The comprehensive series of complexes produced have

The main focus of this project has been the investigations into the effect that fluorine substitution has on structures of molecular complexes containing DNA base molecules. Previous work done on these molecules has been targeted at producing anti-cancer or antiviral treatments, which reflects an important ultimate aim of investigations in this area. Success in this structural project would make a contribution towards this aim, by helping the understanding of the effects of fluorination on some of the interactions that control DNA self-assembly, notably base-pairing and stacking interactions, together with additional interactions involving fluorine. The specific aim of this project was to grow crystals of molecular complexes of cytosine and 5-fluorocytosine with co-molecules and use the structural descriptions to assess the difference between the structures and the influence the presence of the fluorine atom has on the structure when compared to the nonfluorinated equivalent. Single crystal X-ray diffraction has been the main method of analysis, backed up by related techniques. Many crystallisations have been set up with cytosine and 5-fluorocytosine with a wide range of targeted co-molecules. 5-fluorouracil and uracil have also been used in related co-crystallisations with the aim of producing related complexes of these materials with the same co-molecules as used with cytosine and 5-fluorocytosine. In both families of complexes it was hoped that the fluorine would have an effect on the base-pairing motifs adopted in the structures, with the control being the non-fluorinated structure. The program dSNAP has been used to give a comparison of the structures produced in this work with those already reported in the CSD. This program has given an indication of the classification of the standard primary bonding motifs and to analyse the other features commonly seen in base pairs such as buckling and propeller twisting. The comprehensive series of complexes produced have