Play in crisis

During times of crisis, playing helps to help give children a sense of normality and joy. To support children’s right to play, the International Play Association (IPA) has developed resources to help parents and carers.

The resources give parents and carers information and ideas to support children’s play. Topics include the importance of playing in times of crisis and how to respond to children’s play needs.

The resources also offer information about how to deal with issues that may concern parents like children playing with difficult themes of loss, death and loneliness.

Each resource is available to download individually:

• The importance of playing during a crisis
• Supporting your child’s play during a crisis
• Thinking about your child’s play
• Play that involves difficult themes such as loss, illness and death
• Managing play at home that feels noisy or destructive
• Messy play at home
• Things to play with around your home
• Make the most of your time outside
• Internet and screen-based activities and play … finding a balance
• Playing when you cannot go outside your home.

or you can download the resources as a booklet.