Towards an inversion of the deficit model of intervention in children's play

This article will assert, via the analysis of a series of observations in practice that well-intentioned adult interventions in the play of children are often ill-informed, misguided and counterproductive in their attempts to act in the best interests of the child as informed by the major policy frameworks which guide and govern them (Children Act 2004, UNCRC 1991). It will attempt to establish that such practice is informed by a deficit model which is constructed upon a number of evolutionary and often subliminally engrained socio-cultural principles and assumptions which while seeking to develop, protect and normalise children result in restricting their developmental potential, putting them at greater risk of harm and producing irregularities in their behaviours. If this paradigm gives way to one informed by an alternative set of more analytically constructed perspectives, principles and assumptions improved outcomes for children will result.