Creative Play on Prescription in Darlington

Project overview

Over the past 2 years, Theatre Hullabaloo in Darlington and Paige Davis (School of Psychology) have developed the first socially prescribed creative play programme in the UK. The Hullabaloo created the programme, Let’s Play, to target parents and carers of babies under 24 months who are most in need. Led by a professional practitioner, Let’s Play combines music and creative play to support families to build social networks, enhance their understanding of babies’ development and improve their own mental health. Because Let’s Play is the first of its kind, there has not been enough research around how to best structure the intervention. This project aims to bring a scientific evidence base to Let’s Play to learn about the impacts on parents and their babies. We hope that the research helps to guide the spread of this programme and make arguments stronger to support creativity and wellbeing in families.  

Project team

Paige E Davis  (School of Psychology) 

Miranda Thain, Theatre Hullabaloo, Darlington

Image used under creative commons licence.