Helen Lynch

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Verified

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• PhD
• Researcher at University College Cork

Occupational therapists view play through a unique lens. Considering play as a human occupation, and one to which all people have a right, places occupational therapists among a special group of professionals championing play. This State of the Science article seeks to increase awareness regarding the occupational therapy profession’s contributions...

Importance: The transactions between the physical environment and children’s play have not been well studied. The theory of affordances provides a way to better understand how environmental characteristics offer opportunities for play occupation. Objective: To investigate the relationship between environmental characteristics of outdoor play space...

Importance: Outdoor play in homes, schools, and communities provides children with unique opportunities to explore their worlds, develop fundamental life skills, and experience belonging. However, few studies have explored outdoor free play among autistic preschoolers in natural settings from a neurodivergent-informed perspective. Objective: To exp...

For children, playing outdoors is a meaningful occupation, and such play is enabled by outdoor playgrounds. As play is a fundamental right for every child, Universal Design is an approach to creating inclusive playgrounds that welcome all children. Yet, research investigating how the physical environment of a playground supports children’s play nee...

Place-making refers to the emotional attachment people have to a place and has been adopted as a concept in occupational science. In this paper, Relph’s perspective on place-making is associated with how place-making has been discussed in occupational science. Relph’s viewpoint serves as a basis for understanding secret hiding places from children’...

Date Presented 04/21/2023 This study aimed to conduct a qualitative evidence synthesis to explore the gap identified in understanding successful occupational experiences of family participation and routines when supporting autistic children with sensory processing needs. Primary Author and Speaker: Gina Daly Contributing Authors: Jeanne Jackson, He...

Introduction Developmental coordination disorder (DCD) significantly impacts a child’s motor skills and ability to learn and perform self-care and academic tasks. Telehealth is a rapidly emerging service delivery model, ensuring expanded access to services and continuity of care. Many benefits to the use of telehealth have been identified; yet, the...

For children, meaningful participation in community life includes being able to access places for play. Such community playspaces are potentially important for all children, including those with disabilities. Yet, children are rarely asked for their views on the design of playspaces, which can further contribute to exclusionary practices and underm...

Importance: Internationally, it is suggested that school-based occupational therapy (SBOT) has an important role in supporting inclusion in educational settings. In SBOT, multitiered service delivery models are identified as a way forward to maximize school inclusion. Therefore, identifying evidence for the implementation of tiered interventions in...

For children, playgrounds are important environments. However, children’s perspectives are often not acknowledged in playground provision, design, and evaluation. This scoping review aimed to summarize the users’ (children with and without disabilities) perspectives on environmental qualities that enhance their play experiences in community playgro...

Autistic children with sensory processing differences successfully navigate and engage in meaningful family daily occupations within home and community environments through the support of their family. To date however, much of the research on autistic children with sensory processing differences, has primarily been deficit focused, while much of th...

Introduction: Occupational therapists often use play-based approaches to facilitate children's occupational development and promote participation, for example, play-based occupational therapy, play therapy and playwork. However, where does play occupation fit, within these adult-guided play-based approaches in occupational therapy? Purpose: To exam...

This chapter focuses on international, cultural and individual meanings of play from a global and local context to explore how play is experienced by children in different contexts, and how it is represented in diverse cultures. As Occupational Therapists, it is vital to understand play diversity as well as universals about play development, in ord...

Background A recent dialogue in the field of play, learn, and teach outdoors (referred to as “PLaTO” hereafter) demonstrated the need for developing harmonized and consensus-based terminology, taxonomy, and ontology for PLaTO. This is important as the field evolves and diversifies in its approaches, contents, and contexts over time and in different...

Playgrounds designed with the intention to be inclusive are one approach to creating equal opportunities for all children, including those with disabilities, in terms of their right to play. However, when building inclusive playgrounds, the focus is often limited to the physical environment. Yet, studies investigating children’s play in inclusive p...

Universal Design (UD) is promoted internationally for the design of public playgrounds that support outdoor play, social participation, and inclusion. Despite this international recognition of UD, there is a lack of research evidence concerning the applicability of UD for playground design. Instead, municipalities need to rely on best practice guid...

Globally, Universal Design (UD) is promoted as an evidence-informed approach for planning and designing accessible and inclusive public playgrounds, which are valuable sites for outdoor play in child-friendly cities. However, it remains unclear the extent to which UD has been implemented in public playgrounds. The purpose of this study was to explo...

The novel coronavirus (Covid-19) was first detected in Australia on 25 January 2020. It quickly spread across the country and impacted the lives of Australians in many anticipated and unexpected ways, including our daily engagement in occupations, occupational repertoires, and routines. Depending on whether you lived in a region of Australia like V...

Purpose: Public playgrounds afford children and families important opportunities for outdoor play, social participation, and inclusion. Unfortunately, many children and families experience barriers to accessing, using, and being included in public playgrounds. Consequently, Universal Design (UD) is promoted for providing conceptual guidance for de...

Background According to Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, therapists are duty-bound to include children in decisions that impact them. Although occupational therapists champion client-centred, collaborative practice, there remains a paucity of studies detailing children’s rights and experiences of decision-maki...

This is a Research Bulletin from the Middletown Centre for Autism, Ireland. The Centre publishes a quarterly Research Bulletin, which is developed to meet the needs of education professionals working with children and young people with autism. Each Research Bulletin provides accessible summaries of relevant, peer-reviewed articles. The summaries ar...

This poster presents on phase one of a PhD study that aims to explore how children’s participation is incorporated in guidelines for (re)designing public playspace.

Outdoor play provides children with unique opportunities to explore and expand their worlds, and to incorporate risk and challenge into play events. However, international research indicates that children are being exposed to fewer opportunities to engage in outdoor, risky play, while few studies have explored risky play among children aged six-to-...

The P4Play MarieSklodowska-Curie (MSC) Training Network is an innovative European Joint Doctorate (EJD) programme in Occupational Science for OccupationalTherapists. 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 betwe...

Poster presented at Playful Planet Conference, 7-8 July 2021 https://www.playfulplanet.org.uk/play2021, describing play as an occupational right for all children, how research can inform policy, and the importance of the cooperation with policy organisations, as in the two projects presented, to strenghten the relevance of the research questions an...

Purpose. School is a primary setting for pediatric occupational therapy practice, yet little is known about the provision of school-based occupational therapy in many countries internationally. The purpose of this study was to explore current school-based occupational therapy practice for the first time in Ireland to gain insight into current and p...

This Evaluation was conducted on the new government initiative in Ireland to develop school-based occupational therapy and speech and language therapy in ealry years and school settings in Ireland: see Government Press release https://www.education.ie/en/Press-Events/Press-Releases/2021-press-releases/PR21-01-04.html

Purpose To synthesize evidence regarding the physical design features and non-physical aspects of public playgrounds that facilitate/hinder outdoor play, social participation, and inclusion; identify design recommendations; and explore the current discourses and concepts around designing for outdoor play, social participation, and inclusion in publ...

The aim of this Swedish study was to explore and describe physiotherapists and occupational therapists’ attitudes and understanding of the place of play in habilitation. This was a qualitative study, using semi-structured interviews exploring ten habilitation professional’s experiences and attitude towards play. Interviews were analysed using conte...

Introduction Play occupation is central to children’s occupational lives and play is established as a fundamental right. While children with disabilities are at increased risk of play deprivation, few studies have explored the play occupation of children living with severe physical and intellectual disabilities. Method Informed by an ethnographic...

Play is the primary occupation of children and the right for children to play has been acknowledged internationally, for all children, including those with disabilities. However, there is concern that outdoor play is declining, thus warranting more focused investigation to better understand the evolving nature of outdoor play. The purpose of this s...

Fostering a culture of clinical effectiveness in healthcare is crucial to achieving optimum outcomes for patients. Evidence-based practice (EBP) is a cornerstone of clinical effectiveness. An EBP capacity-building project commenced in Ireland in 2016, in collaboration with the Centre of Evidence-Based Medicine in Oxford. A key part of this project,...

Introduction Outdoor parks and playgrounds are important sites of social inclusion in many urban communities. However, these playspaces are often inaccessible and unusable for many children with disabilities. This paper presents findings from a case study of one urban municipality in Ireland. The study aimed to understand play participation in five...

Accessible and inclusive community environments are fundamental for enabling social inclusion. As a set of design principles, Universal Design (UD) offers the potential to create inclusive environments that are accessible to as many people as possible. Yet to date, community environments such as parks and playgrounds have received little attention...

Children with disabilities benefit from play, and their right to equal participation in play is enshrined by the Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) (United Nations 1989) and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) (United Nations 2007). However, their right to play and participate in play with other children is...

Researching with children: A rights-based approach and the International Classification of Function, Disability and Health (ICF): Issues of participation Researching children’s lives is both a challenge and an opportunity. At times, it feels like going on a mystery tour, with no clear road-map, and few signposts to follow. From ethics boards who m...

Internationally, evidence-based practice (EBP) is recognised as a foundational element of healthcare professional education. Achieving competency in this area is a complex undertaking that is reflected in disparities between ‘best EBP’ and actual clinical care. The effective development and implementation of professional education to facilitate EBP...

Purpose As occupational therapists embrace evidence-informed and occupation-centred practice, the use of standardised visual perceptual tests remains a strong feature of typical paediatric practice. Yet, the research evidence for the use of such tools is inconclusive at best. This study compared the results of the Test of Visual Perceptual Skills (...

Outdoor environments for children are important sites for social inclusion and play. In the European context, outdoor play provision is typically governed by regional or national policy and informed by international conventions that specifically state that inclusive environments must be made available for all children for their rights to be met. Sp...

The occupation of play has a special place in children's lives, as it underpins well-being, health, and development of children, and is influenced by their social, cultural and policitcla worlds (Lynch and Moore, 2016). From a rights-based perspective, all childrne have a right to play, rest and leisure. Under Article Two of the UNCRC, children wit...

Objectives To ascertain current practice and provision of EBP education across healthcare professions at undergraduate, postgraduate and continuing professional development programme levels for the purpose of making key recommendations to healthcare educators and policy makers in relation to ‘best practice’ for EBP education. Method Three distinct...

Background: Play, particularly outdoor play is seen a fundamental experience for all children. Nonetheless, literature consistently demonstrates that children with disabilities participate less in outdoor play, compared to typically developing peers. However, little research exists with regards to outdoor play experiences of children with Autism S...

Purpose Play occupation has been identified as an essential part of children’s lives, and it subsequently features in paediatric Occupational Therapy. However, few studies address the current place of play and play occupation in Occupational Therapy practice. This study aims to address this gap in knowledge by exploring paediatric occupational the...

Given that participation in occupation is a significant predictor of well-being, it seems plausible to argue that participation in play is imperative for child well-being, since play is a fundamental occupation in early childhood in most cultures across the world. However, play is neither included as an indicator nor as a domain in the national set...

Introduction Play is viewed as an important occupation in childhood and consequently in children's occupational therapy. However, few studies have explored the place of play in therapy practice. This study aimed to contribute to this knowledge gap by exploring play in occupational therapy in three European countries. Method A cross-sectional surve...

Play for children with disabilities is often overlooked, or even ignored in community and rehabilitation settings, and is an area of increasing concern among play researchers. Hence, in 2014, a European initiative was created: the Ludi COST Action-play for children with disabilities TD1309. The aim of the Ludi project is to spread awareness on the...

Researching with children is fundamental for furthering our understanding of children's occupational worlds. Furthermore, researching occupation from a transactional perspective is important for gaining a deeper understanding. However historically, most approaches to researching with children do not capture the transactional nature of occupation. T...

This report reviews international research into the barriers to play for children with disabilities. The authors come from different disciplinary backgrounds, in Sociology, Social Policy, Anthropology, Occupational Health and Education and bring different concerns to this review. They are united, however, in their adoption of a rights-based perspec...

The occupation of play has a special place in children’s lives as it underpins well-being, health, and development of children, and is influenced by their social, cultural, and political worlds (Lynch and Moore, 2016). From a rights-based perspective, all children have a right to play, rest and leisure under Article Thirty-One of the UN Convention...

Although play is recognized as the main drive for the child's physical, cognitive and social development, it is first of all a unique source of pleasure, fun and recreation. Playfulness, the individual intrinsic involvement in play has been described as a measurable characteristic of these aspects of play. Play and playfulness can be limited in chi...

Adolescents’ social participation is increasingly taking place in virtual settings, including social media, but there is no longer a distinct boundary between online and offline social participation. Furthermore, online social participation is becoming a societal concern, with internet use identified as impacting social and emotional well-being. Th...

Home learning environments have been the focus of concern in recent years, due to evidence of the impact of the home environment on early development. To date, few studies in occupational science have researched infant play development in the home. This study aimed to explore sociocultural influences on infant occupational development through the l...

Play occupations support children during times of illness and are viewed as an important provision i hospital environments. As playfulness is highly correlated with coping, it is essential for a hospitalised child to experience playfulness i order to adapt to a hospital environment. The purpose of this pilot study was to explore hospitalization exp...

Introduction Children learn to be in the world through doing: typically in the form of play, incorporating social connection and interactions. However, not all play is social and not all learning involves people: the physical environment is an essential element that is often taken for granted and under-valued in this whole process. The physical env...

Background: Playgrounds are important outdoor environments in many communities during childhood. However, playground spaces often do not meet the needs of typically developing children or children with disabilities, resulting in social exclusion for many children. Aims/objectives: This study explored the evidence regarding accessibility and usabili...

Parental/proxy consent is permission freely given by an informed parent on behalf of the child to participate in research (Coyne, 2009; Neill, 2005). In Ireland, parental consent must be obtained in order to carry out research with a person less than 18 years of age. Few studies have been conducted which explore the experiences of parents who have...

Background: In recent years, there has been increased interest in involving Irish children in decisions concerning them (NCO, 2006a). Concurrently, there have been calls for further occupational therapy research involving child participants (Dunn, 2000). However, very little research has been carried out regarding the child’s involvement in the dec...

Introduction Touch is a basic instinctual interaction between a parent and his or her infant and has a vital role in the infant's early development. Parents provide a variety of tactile stimulation while addressing their infant's daily care routines. This paper reports on research findings, exploring the nature of this tactile interaction and how i...

This article gives a brief description of Ireland's demographics and its national health service, the Health Services Executive (HSE). It highlights how economic and social changes within the country and the development of the HSE affected pediatric occupational therapy service provision. It gives an overview of the settings in which pediatric occu...

The study of children's occupation is receiving more attention in the occupational science literature. This trend corresponds with a global interest on child health and well‐being. Research into the activity patterns of children in natural environments offers to advance knowledge about children's participation, health and occupational development....