Jamal Lahmar’s research while affiliated with The University of Sheffield and other places

There are concerns globally about the emotional wellbeing and mental health of young people and in this paper a critical orientation comprises both theoretical and empirical data sources. The case is made that (1) the medical model of mental health – that of problem identification, diagnosis and medical treatment at the level of the individual – is not appropriate for the vast majority of children and young people in schools and (2) relational approaches would be more sensitive in responding to the complexity of the ‘conditions’ in the schools, homes and communities in which young people live. Articulations of these conditions in the literature are explored while we also draw on empirical data from part of an evaluation of a school‐based teacher‐training programme in which interviewees and respondents mapped out their own conditions for emotional wellbeing and mental health. We conclude with proposals for relational approaches which (1) acknowledge the links between affect, cognition and school climate and culture, (2) foreground mental health and poverty as impacting on young people’s emotional wellbeing in their communities, families and schools and (3) attend to voice – providing spaces in which young people can develop their own ‘preferred narratives’ concerning emotional wellbeing and mental health.

This paper outlines the key findings of a study developed in collaboration between academics, teachers and children’s media companies. The project was co-produced in that all project partners contributed to the development of the project aims and objectives and were involved in data collection, analysis and dissemination. The aim of the study was to identify children's uses of and responses to apps in terms of their play and creativity. This paper focuses on the digital play with tablets of children aged from birth to three. Ofcom (2019:4) has reported that six in ten of three- and four-year-olds in the UK use any device to go online, with 49% using a tablet for this purpose. This is a large, and growing, market that deserves the attention of researchers (Kucirkova and Radesky, 2017). Given that technology is embedded in children’s lives, playing an important part in their ‘multimodal lifeworlds’ (Arnott and Yelland, 2020), it is timely to consider what value this use has in relation to play and creativity, as both are highly significant to children’s development (Broadhead, Howard and Wood, 2010).