The Importance of Taking Risks: A Report on the Conference

674

Abstract

The paper gives an overview of the 14th interdisciplinary conference The Importance of Taking Risks held by the Welsh branch of the International Play Association. The meeting focused on various aspects of supporting children’s play and on the role of risk in child development. The conference had a clear multidis- ciplinary character and brought together specialists from a variety of fields: psychologists, teachers, social workers, experts in risk assessment, and health care professionals. The paper outlines how risk is understood in modern western theory and practice and distinguishes between risk and danger. A child must be taught to assess situations as safe or dangerous. However, modern developmental environment tends to reduce the possibility of risks for the child, which deprives him/her of the natural means of learning about the world and reduces creativity and independence and holds back the child’s self-regulation, prolonging compelled dependence and making children more infantile. The conference also involved discussions concerning tech- niques for risk assessment and a number of prevention programmes and practices. This work was supported by the Russian Foundation for Humanities (project No 15-06-10627 “Psychological and pedagogical analysis of children’s play environment of the modern city”).

General Information

Keywords: conference, International Play Association, play, risks, play environment, modern childhood

Journal rubric: Scientific Life

Article type: scientific article

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17759/chp.2016120111

For citation: Kotliar I.A., Sokolova M.V., Sheina E.G. The Importance of Taking Risks: A Report on the Conference. Kul'turno-istoricheskaya psikhologiya = Cultural-Historical Psychology, 2016. Vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 102–105. DOI: 10.17759/chp.2016120111. (In Russ., аbstr. in Engl.)

Information About the Authors

Inna A. Kotliar, PhD in Psychology, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, Research Associate, Dubna State University, Center of Applied Psychological and Pedagogical Studies, Moscow State University of Psychology & Education, Dubna, Russia, e-mail: iakorepanova@gmail.com

Mariya V. Sokolova, PhD in Psychology, Associated professor. Faculty of Advance Training, Moscow State University of Psychology and Education, Moscow, Russia, e-mail: sokolovamw@mail.ru

Elena G. Sheina, lecturer at the Department of Preschool Pedagogy and Psychology, Faculty of Psychology of Education, Moscow State University of Psychology and Education, Moscow, Russia, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3723-812X, e-mail: leshgp@gmail.com

Metrics

Views

Total: 2721
Previous month: 9
Current month: 1

Downloads

Total: 674
Previous month: 1
Current month: 2