Decolonising the dynamics of media power and media representation between 1830 and 1930: Australian Indigenous peoples with disability

Indigenous Australians have experienced the horrific consequences of European invasion and colonisation. Some of these consequences include wars, geographic displacement and attempted genocide. Both the high prevalence and experience of disability among Indigenous peoples remain directly linked to the events that followed European invasion. Critical Disability Studies and Media Studies can investigate the process of decolonisation. This chapter is cross disciplinary in so far as we are concerned with the representation of Indigenous people in the mass media and decolonising Indigenous disability. We examine data collected from an analysis of the print media during the colonial period; that is, representation of “disabled” Indigenous people in mainstream newspapers during the first 100 years of the press from 1830. We use Martin Nakata’s Indigenous Standpoint Theory and Decolonising frameworks to deconstruct and analyse the material collected

Delivering private therapy in rural Australia

Enabling high quality, sustainable and accessible services: A framework for rural private therapists.Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Australian Government

Expectations and Assumptions: Examining the Influence of Staff Culture on a Novel School-Based Intervention to Enable Risky Play for Children with Disabilities

Risky play is challenging, exciting play with the possibility of physical, social, or emotional harm. Through risky play, children learn, develop, and experience wellbeing. Children with disabilities have fewer opportunities than their typically developing peers to engage in this beneficial type of play. Our team designed a novel, school-based intervention to address this disparity; however, our intervention yielded unexpected quantitative results. In the present study, we qualitatively examined divergent results at two of the five schools that participated in the intervention. Specifically, we aimed to explore how staff culture (i.e., shared beliefs, values, and practices) influenced the intervention. To explore this relationship, we employed a retrospective, qualitative, multiple case study. We used thematic analysis of evaluative interviews with staff members to elucidate the cultures at each school. Then, we used cross-case analysis to understand the relationships between aspects of staff culture and the intervention’s implementation and results. We found that staff cultures around play, risk, disability influenced the way, and the extent to which, staff were willing to let go and allowed children to engage in risky play. Adults’ beliefs about the purpose of play and recess, as well as their expectations for children with disabilities, particularly influenced the intervention. Furthermore, when the assumptions of the intervention and the staff culture did not align, the intervention could not succeed. The results of this study highlight the importance of (1) evaluating each schools’ unique staff culture before implementing play-focused interventions and (2) tailoring interventions to meet the needs of individual schools

The Sydney Playground Project: popping the bubblewrap - unleashing the power of play: a cluster randomized controlled trial of a primary school playground-based intervention aiming to increase children\u27s physical activity and social skills

Background In the Westernised world, numerous children are overweight and have problems with bullying and mental health. One of the underlying causes for all three is postulated to be a decrease in outdoor free play. The aim of the Sydney Playground Project is to demonstrate the effectiveness of two simple interventions aimed to increase children\u27s physical activity and social skills. Methods/Design This study protocol describes the design of a 3-year cluster randomised controlled trial (CRCT), in which schools are the clusters. The study consists of a 13-week intervention and 1 week each of pre-and post-testing. We are recruiting 12 schools (6 control; 6 intervention), with 18 randomly chosen participants aged 5 to 7 years in each school. The two intervention strategies are: (1) Child-based intervention: Unstructured materials with no obvious play value introduced to the playground; and (2) Adult-based intervention: Risk reframing sessions held with parents and teachers with the aim of exploring the benefits of allowing children to engage in activities with uncertain outcomes. The primary outcome of the study, physical activity as measured by accelerometer counts, is assessed at baseline and post-intervention. Additional assessments include social skills and interactions, self-concept, after school time use and anthropometric data. Qualitative data (i.e., transcriptions of audio recordings from the risk reframing sessions and of interviews with selected teacher and parent volunteers) are analysed to understand their perceptions of risk in play. The control schools have recess as usual. In addition to outcome evaluation, regular process evaluation sessions are held to monitor fidelity to the treatment. Discussion These simple interventions, which could be adopted in every primary school, have the potential of initiating a self-sustaining cycle of prevention for childhood obesity, bullying and mental ill health

The Sydney playground project- levelling the playing field: a cluster trial of a primary school-based intervention aiming to promote manageable risk-taking in children with disability

BackgroundProviding children and adults with opportunities to engage in manageable risk taking may be a stepping stone toward closing the gap in life conditions currently experienced by young people with disabilities. We aim to demonstrate the effectiveness of a simple, innovative program for 1) changing the way parents and teachers view manageable risk-taking for children with disabilities and 2) increasing the level of responsibility that children take for their own actions, as seen on the school playground.Methods/DesignWe will employ a cluster repeated measures trial with six Sydney-area primary-school-based programs for children with disabilities. The intervention comprises two arms. 1) Risk-reframing- teachers and parents will participate together in small group intervention sessions focusing on the benefits of manageable risk-taking; 2) Introduction of play materials- materials without a defined purpose and facilitative of social cooperation will be introduced to the school playground for children to use at all break times. A control period will be undertaken first for two school terms, followed by two terms of the intervention period. Outcome measures will include playground observations, The Coping Inventory, qualitative field notes, and The Tolerance of Risk in Play Scale.DiscussionNew national programs, such as Australia’s National Disability Insurance Scheme, will place increasing demands on young people with disabilities to assume responsibility for difficult decisions regarding procuring services. Innovative approaches, commencing early in life, are required to prepare young people and their carers for this level of responsibility. This research offers innovative intervention strategies for promoting autonomy in children with disabilities and their carers.Trial RegistrationAustralian and New Zealand Clinical Trials Registration Number ACTRN12614000549628 (registered 22/5/2014)

Places to play outdoors: Sedentary and safe or active and risky?

For more than a decade there has been growing concern about global reductions in physical activity and increases in sedentary behaviours. Initially, it was unclear whether children would be protected from this trend. Perhaps children\u27s playfulness and associated activity levels would act as a protective factor. There is now compelling evidence that children\u27s activity levels are quite sensitive to environmental factors. For example, a recent US study of activity levels in preschoolers concluded that ...the characteristics of the school have a much greater influence on a child\u27s activity level while in school than do the child\u27s personal demographic characteristics (Pate et al. 2004). There is also clear evidence that children\u27s freedom to engage in active play, particularly outdoors, has diminished over the last generation (Clements, 2004). In this chapter, we examine some of the factors in young children\u27s environments that influence levels of physical activity. Our main focus is on the physical characteristics of formal child care environments and to a lesser extent, school playgrounds. We examine the role of time, space, loose objects, risk-taking/safety and outdoor pedagogy in the context of children\u27s play environments

Everyday uncertainties: reframing perceptions of risk in outdoor free play

This paper reports the results of risk reframing, an intervention to offer parents and educators a context for building new and complex perceptions of risk in children\u27s outdoor free play. Our objective was to alter these adults\u27 perceptions of risk to increase the sustainability of an innovative child-centred playground intervention. Qualitative data in the form of audio-recordings of risk-reframing sessions, brief participant evaluations and field notes kept by project staff were collected and either transcribed in their entirety or summarised in brief written reports. These data were subjected to constant comparative analysis to identify emergent themes. Results suggest that educators and parents benefit from opportunities to share risk perceptions and discuss the costs and benefits for offering outdoor free play to children to achieve their common goals for children: health, happiness and resilience

Safe outdoor play for young children: Paradoxes and consequences

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Taking a risk with playful places for children: Removing 'surplus safety' from the school ground

In recent decades a critical tension has developed between two essential considerations for children’s health and well-being: physically active play and safety. ‘Risk anxiety’ or ‘surplus safety’ has placed these two goals in conflict. Risk anxiety has contributed to the reduction of exciting, challenging and stimulating outdoor play. Play spaces, including within school grounds, are now more commonly a reflection of what adults perceive as a safe environment than of the innate desires of children to have a stimulating and challenging play space. This paper sets the stage for and then describes a simple, low-cost intervention aimed at increasing active risk-taking play in school grounds. The intervention, known as the Sydney Playground Project (SPP), involved two components: altering adults’ perceptions of risk associated with active play through a risk reframing intervention; and introducing readily available loose materials to the school ground to capture children’s motivations for play. This intervention aimed to change the micro-geographies of the school ground in terms of the physical space and the socio-cultural environment (the climate of risk acceptance). The paper provides evidence from early analyses of the results which indicates that it is possible to change school ground spaces and other spaces children use for play, with minimal cost in ways that encourage active play