On play-based inventions and mental health in autism and developmental language disorder, with Gill Francis Artwork

PsychologiCALL

Are you a psychology student, struggling to concentrate on reading papers? A psychology lecturer, trying to mix up your teaching a bit? A teacher or parent who wants to know what's going on in child development research? or maybe a neurodivergent adult reflecting on their youth? If so, welcome to our podcast! We hope these bite-sized, guided tours of recent research papers - via an informal chat with the author - will interest and inform you. The podcast is currently hosted by Louisa (Lou) Thomas, a postdoctoral research assistant in the Centre for Autism at the University of Reading. Each episode is a conversation between Lou, and a fellow academic. Together we discuss one of their recent (or classic) papers relating to child and adolescent development and learning. We don’t have a recording booth or fancy equipment, but this wee bit of brain food should be a nice nutritious snack for a curious mind.

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PsychologiCALL

On play-based inventions and mental health in autism and developmental language disorder, with Gill Francis

March 21, 2022 • SalvesenResearch • Season 3 • Episode 11

Dr Gill Althia Francis is a Research Fellow in Cognitive Psychology and Children's Play at the University of York, who specialises in researching how play impacts development for both neurodiverse and neurotypical children. She is a holder of a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship Award. During this podcast Gill chats to Louisa about a piece of work looking at the impact of play-based interventions on the mental health of autistic children and children with developmental language disorder.

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You can find Gill on Twitter @gillalthia, and you can find out more about her work by visiting her staff page at York.

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Gill has also been featured in a children's book as a 'Play Researcher', and you can find the book here.

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The paper discussed in this podcast is:
Francis, G., Deniz, E., Torgerson, C., & Toseeb, U. (2022). Play-based interventions for mental health: A systematic review and meta-analysis focused on children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder and developmental language disorder. Autism & Developmental Language Impairments.