The postwar years in the UK saw the development of numerous artificial playgrounds intended to compensate children for increasing urbanization and a lack of wild places to play. Many of these sites employed playleaders, whose job was to use play to instill social behavioral norms on children, using games with rules and organized activities. From the early 1970s, that approach began to be replaced by playwork, a nondirective way of working. Playwork marked a rejection of the adult-focused practice of playleadership. Playworkers relied more on an ambiance that reflected their own childhood freedoms and on the growing body of knowledge regarding the importance of play. This body of new literature suggested that play, unadulterated by societal objectives, was crucial to the successful development of all children; that play was not just good for exercise and social interaction, but was vital to brain growth and the child's ability to adapt to a fast changing world. Since those early days, playwork has mutated through a variety of guises, and over the years has begun to explore the child's impact on space, the relationships between child and adult, what playworkers do, the therapeutic aspects of play, and has even taken faltering footsteps into the complexities of the quantum world. Aspects of Playwork reflects this awesome diversity of views and interpretation, moving from the historical to the almost sci-fi and from ghostly traces to the hard realities of being a child and working with children in the 2000s. Most of all, though, Aspects of Playwork is a commentary on the beauty and wonder of what play is and what it is to play.

Play and Performance offers hope to those lamenting the loss of play in the twenty-first century and aims to broaden the understanding of what play is. This volume showcases the work of programs from early childhood through adulthood, in a variety of educational and therapeutic settings, and from a range of theoretical and practical perspectives. The chapters cover an array of practices that can be seen across the play to performance continuum. Taken together, the myriad ways that play is performance and performance is play become clear, sometimes blurring the need for distinction. The volume provides play advocates, researchers and practitioners a wealth of practical and theoretical ideas for expanding the use of performance as a tool for creating playful environments where children and adults can create and develop.

Jim Johnson has researched hundreds of scientific journal articles to find and test the simplest most effective do-it-yourself treatments for knee pain. In this compact and accessible book, he shows readers exactly how to improve and maintain the functioning of their knees by enhancing the four crucial abilities every knee must have:
** muscular strength
** flexibility
** responsiveness (proprioception)
** endurance
A chapter is devoted to each of these four functions, showing why they are essential. The reader is shown exactly how to do simple home exercises designed to restore or improve that particular ability. The last chapter is a "master plan" that pulls together all the concepts and exercises into a time-efficient exercise program. The author guides the reader effortlessly through the exercise routine.
Clear drawings illustrate the muscles responsible for knee pain and the exact way to do the exercises.
All the information is based on research trials and studies and evidence from peer-reviewed journals. The author has chosen for this book the best techniques for relieving knee pain.

Based on the author's decades of experience as a physiotherapist, and his expertise in treating pain and mobility problems, this compact but comprehensive book shows you exactly how to improve and maintain the four vital knee functions: * muscular strength * responsiveness * flexibility * endurance The simple exercises in this highly successful, practical course are clearly illustrated, and include alternatives for every different level of fitness and knee function. There are guidelines for how and when to use massage, relaxation and heat for managing pain, in addition to a six-week programme to relieve pain, restore function and flexibility and prevent future problems.