Get to know Dr Rajeshree Singhania, neuro-development Paediatrician based in Dubai.
Play is the work of a child and its importance should not be underestimated. The importance of play is something
I strongly believe in and my education and experience have strengthened this belief.
Play helps children develop their personality and imagination.
They learn important social skills such as how to compromise and negotiate. It also encourages physical and emotional development.
After completing my degree, I specialised in neuro-developmental paediatrics.
It was at the Great Ormond Street Hospital in London where I acquired my PhD. This particular field fascinated me as it was a very new area and dealt with the impact of the environment on the child. It involves seeing whether the child is growing and developing normally and focuses on his emotional, social, intellectual and language development. Since a great deal of treatment in my field is educational, I qualified further with an M.Ed in Autism and a doctorate in Psychology.
My education and my work have gone on side-by-side.
I've worked with children in both rural and urban India and also with children in the US, Germany and the UK.
Although the physical problems of children may be region-specific, I find that their needs are universal:
a close-knit family, a figure who looks after their needs who also sets boundaries; someone who they can look up to and turn to for comfort and advice.
I have used my knowledge about play in rural development programmes in India.
In one of the rural areas in India, we started a pre-school and early intervention programme for these children. We gave the children toys such as a bullock-cart or chulha (stove that uses wood or charcoal) to play with. The idea behind this was to present them with toys that represented items from their daily lives.
The amazing thing was that, after launching this programme, not only did the language of the children improve dramatically, but the entire area became more focused on the importance of education. Similarly, we also used a little toy monkey to help teach and gather the children's attention. These classes worked tremendously well and the children learnt very quickly.
Some cases have remained in my mind, where play therapy has worked wonders.In one case, an autistic boy who came to see me benefited greatly from 'theraplay' – a method which teaches the child social skills through play. This child had just moved into this country for a short time and was having severe problems adjusting. Through theraplay, he was able to overcome his insecurities and even hugged me on the day he was leaving. This is unusual behaviour for an autistic child, as they are usually very much 'hands off'.
I am inspired by the children who come to my clinic.
They keep me grounded, as I have to get down to the child's level physically, mentally and emotionally.
I can't sit up here on my chair and pass judgments or make accurate and complicated diagnoses.
I have to get onto the floor, under the table or crawl on my knees; it depends on what the child will respond to. That is what keeps me grounded and I believe, keeps me authentic – something children can sense straight away. The fact that I have trained myself in a range of areas – from medicine to education and psychology – has helped me in diagnosing. I don't, indeed I cannot, put myself in a compartment; it's need-based for the child. I change myself and do what
I have to do so as to validate my work.
Research has shown that when children are allowed to play, they are emotionally more secure and stable.
Play must not be structured or planned or coordinated by adults. It should allow the child to develop and have a sense of space.
Gardens and play areas are vital if living in an urban area, especially in cities like Dubai. Children in Dubai do not have the opportunity to go out and play and develop their social skills and expend their energy as they do in many other countries, because of the heat, the traffic or the construction. We need to consider the importance of play areas for children in these buildings.
I was fortunate because I was recently approached by Sameer Al Mahmood Real Estate to develop a play area for their building, Zenith Tower in the City of Arabia.
This was a wonderful opportunity for me to promote my belief that a play area, for all ages should be made mandatory for all future high-rise buildings. I strongly believe that play areas should not be meant exclusively for young children, but should include teenagers too, as they have little or no outlet here apart from hanging out at malls. I was really happy that Sameer Al Mahmood approached me as this is an issue close to my heart.
I am providing them with advice on what types of play equipment should be included to encourage different types of play in all children, from toddlers to teenagers.
The project with Sameer Al Mahmood is something I'd like to see executed in all future high-rise developments in the UAE and it is indeed something that I am campaigning for.
A play area should be the focal point of a community and it should be interesting, so that children actually use it. Children who are hurried from one class to another
in "organised" play often are very stressed out.
As parents, we must realise that children need their own space to grow and develop and this is where free play becomes so important. If we truly want to unleash our children's creativity, more "downtime" is the answer.
– Padmini Sankar, a Dubai-based freelancer
