Blog by Cress Robinson, Challengers Service Manager
To celebrate national Playday, our Service Manager Cress shares some of the reasons why play is vitally important for everyone, especially disabled children and young people.
We all know that playing is fun, but it’s also so much more than that. Play is essential for children’s cognitive, physical, social and mental wellbeing and development. Through play, children develop an understanding of the world – build confidence, resilience, self-esteem, and creativity.
Play is a fundamental right for all children, though sadly it’s not easy for every child to access it. Disabled children in particular often face barriers that limit their access and inclusion to play. This was something our charity’s founders realised back in 1979, so they created Challengers to provide local disabled children with a place where they could play and have fun, without limits.
45 years on, there is definitely more awareness about inclusive play now, but services like ours are still vitally important to ensure that disabled children can enjoy the same opportunities to play as their non-disabled peers. They still face many barriers which stop them from playing, and 59% of our families have been excluded from mainstream play settings.
Having worked at Challengers for 17 years, I’ve seen first-hand how powerful play can be. I have been amazed to see how young people flourish in an inclusive and supportive environment, and have seen young people develop from Pre-school all the way up until Youth services. They have developed communication skills and have gone from being non-verbal, to using PECS, to now using words. Every young person that comes to Challengers inspires me to keep doing the job I love. Every day is different and new adventures arise. Some of my favourite memories are getting wheelchair users onto bouncy castles and in basket swings and seeing their massive smiles, or getting messy with powder paint fights, slime workshops, and water play. I have worked with many young people across Challengers schemes and all of the staff work so hard to ensure each young person is able to join in with all aspects of play. I love how everyone works in a manner to be inclusive, and how passionate they are about ensuring everyone has the best day possible. The joy on the young peoples’ faces as they see the orange t-shirt will always make you smile.
National Playday is a reminder of the essential role that play has in every child’s life. Play is at the heart of everything we do at Challengers. While there are still inequalities for disabled children, we’ll keep breaking down the barriers to play, as well as continuing to spread our message of inclusion far and wide in the hope that, one day, every child can play and thrive.
