Introduction; Pete King and Shelly Newstead -- Play and Pre-School; Kathoe Brody -- Pre-School Play in South Africa; Taryn Krause -- Play in Head Start Programs: The Underutilized Resource; Janette C. Weitzel -- Play in UK Primary Schools; Karen McInnes -- Play and Education from a Swedish Perspective; Susanne Axelsson -- Play Across Australian Schooling; Brendon Hyndman -- The Process of Play in a Playwork Context; Shelly Newstead and Pete King -- Dangers in the Invisible Playground? Young People and Online Play; Pam Jarvis -- Play in The United States of America: Intergenerational Play; LaDonna Atkins and Anita Glee Bertram -- Conclusion; Pete King and Shelly Newstead. .

This book explores how play is perceived and practiced through the lens of various different professional and international contexts. Children’s experiences of play will vary according to the different institutions and organisations they are involved in across their lifespan during childhood. The chapters cover play from pre-school to adolescence that includes education, playwork and the new developing area of intergenerational play. This wide variety of contexts and cultures raises questions about universal concepts and notions of ‘play’. The editors and contributors explore how policy, practice and research can identify both differences and commonalities between the way that play is perceived and experienced by children and adults across different types of provision. Pete King is Senior Lecturer at Swansea University, UK. He has published widely on play and playwork, both nationally and internationally, including Researching Play from a Playwork Perspective and The Play Cycle – Theory, Research and Application. He is currently researching the effects of the COVID-19 in the United Kingdom on playwork. Shelly Newstead is Adjunct Research Fellow at Griffith University, Australia. She has worked in the playwork field for over 30 years as a practitioner, trainer, author, editor, publisher and researcher. She is the Managing Editor of International Journal of Playwork Practice and the President of the International Council for Children’s Play (ICCP). .