TITLE:
A Touch of Play
AUTHORS:
Marília T. de A. Gomes Gurgel, Márcia Oliveira Moraes
KEYWORDS:
Play, Disability, Children
JOURNAL NAME:
Psychology,
Vol.5 No.7,
May
14,
2014
ABSTRACT: The present paper presents data from an intervention-research, which is
also a therapeutic experience, accomplished with a group of disabled children
accompanied by the adults who take care of them, in an institution specialised
in rehabilitation, located in Niterói/RJ, Brazil. The research
departed from an interrogation about the possibilities opened up by a device,
the Play Workshop, toward the interaction between the children and children and
adults, away from the diagnostic categories attributed to the children. Based on
authors such as Despret, Martins and others, the paper discusses the limits and
reach of the notion of disability and points out that play is a creation and bond
strengthening space between the children and between them and adults. Due to its
inter-relational character, playing allowed the arousal of a welcoming field to
the emotions involved. This way we stimulated participants’
self-knowledge about their actions, experiences and own bodies.