PLAPS - A Play-Led Approach to Participation: A practical guide to participation, play-based learning, and listening to young children in early years (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798258171788)

What if participation didn't feel like a task to manage...
but something you could notice, trust, and grow?

PLAPS is a fresh, practical guide to participation with young children. It helps you move beyond policies, checklists, and "doing it right" - and into something more real, more human, and more doable in everyday life.

Through stories, reflections, and simple ideas, this book shows how participation already exists in the small moments:

• in play
• in choices
• in resistance
• in what children return to again and again

Instead of adding more work, PLAPS helps you see what's already happening - and respond with care.

At the heart of the book are the PLAPS - small, curious characters who help adults notice, think, and act on what children are showing us. Together, they offer a simple way to:

• create the right conditions (not just ask questions)
• recognise children's different ways of communicating
• turn small moments into meaningful change
• show children that their ideas really matter

This isn't a step-by-step programme.
It's not a checklist.
It's not about getting participation "right".

It's about:

• slowing down just enough to notice
• building trust over time
• and creating spaces where children's ideas can genuinely shape what happens

Grounded in real practice, and supported by research on children's rights, development, and learning, this book bridges the gap between theory and everyday experience.

It's written for:

• early years practitioners
• teachers
• leaders and managers
• anyone who works with young children
• and anyone who wants participation to feel more natural, not more complicated

If you've ever thought:
"I know participation matters... but where does it fit?"
this book is for you.

Because participation doesn't start with questions.
It starts with how we notice.