Welcome to the Play Cycle - Training and Research
The Play Cycle focuses on the process of play, and training workshops can be delivered to any play-based staff within organisations in the statutory, business, and third sectors.
If you are a playworker, childcare worker, early years practitioner, teacher, teaching assistant, social worker, hospital play specialist, or anybody who works with children and young people in a play-based context, the Play Cycle can support your practice.
There are free videos avaialble on the Play Cycle and the Play Cycle Observation Method (PCOM) available in English, Welsh, Cantonese, and Arabic Dr Pete King - YouTube
The Play Cycle (in a nutshell)
This is a short animated video explaining the Play Cycle.
The Play Cycle Observation Method (PCOM) (in a nutshell)
This is a short animated video explaining the Play Cycle Observation Method (PCOM)
Background to the Play Cycle.
The Play Cycle was first introduced by the late Gordon Sturrock (in the white jumper) and the late Professor Perry Else (in the black t-shirt) in 1998 at the International Play Association (IPA) conference in Colorado, USA. Both are pictured here with Dr Pete King at the IPA conference in Cardiff, Wales in 2011.
Who uses the Play Cycle?
The Play Cycle is used by anyone who works in a play-based context. This includes playworkers, childcare workers, early years practitioners, social workers, teachers, teaching assistants, play therapists, hospital play staff, and many more.
Progress of the Play Cycle.
The Play Cycle has been researched by Dr Pete King and Dr Shelly Newstead. The theory of the Play Cycle has been developed by Dr Pete King. To contact Pete, click the 'CONTACT NOW' button below.
The Play Cycle and the process of play
The Play Cycle focuses on the process of play and the interaction of the child's inner and outer world alongside the people and objects in the play space.
The Play Cycle can support professional practice in any play-based context.
Focusing on the process of play, the Play Cycle can be applied to any play-based context where adults support children's play.
The Play Cycle can be used as an observational tool to record the process of play.
The Play Cycle Observation Method (PCOM) is a way to observe and record the process of play.
The Play Cycle has been empirically researched
Both the Play Cycle and the Play Cycle Observation Method (PCOM) have been published in both academic journals and books.