When play is more than just fun

Time after school is precious for most university students like myself, as we take every opportunity to catch up with friends and family.

As such, I never would have imagined spending my Tuesday afternoons going out on a bear hunt with little soldiers holding on to “lightsabers”, baking the universe’s biggest cake, and rolling snowballs of different sizes – all under one roof.

Yet, that became a weekly affair for me last year, when I began my volunteering stint with Playeum – Children’s Centre for Creativity.

Playeum is Singapore’s first of its kind and an independent registered charity that champions children through play, creativity and the arts.

Weekly, I work alongside several volunteers, or playmakers, as we are affectionately known to conduct our Giving Tuesdays programme, where we open our doors to children with varying needs, including young individuals with autism, Down syndrome or physical disabilities.

As a playmaker, I am constantly engaged in conversations and imaginative play with the children and at times, their caregivers. It could go on for hours and I always wonder how these children have so much energy in them.

It is always heartening to witness children come together very amicably to communicate, problem-solve and engage in meaningful conflicts. Because after all these while of research and observation, we realise that only by helping children acknowledge and embrace differences will we see positive changes, and we want to encourage that.

It has always been a challenge for me, but it is one that I genuinely feel is worth breaking through each time.

Many people that I’ve met often think that it is a taboo and embarrassment for a child to ask or talk about another child’s disability. While it is indeed not very nice to point and stare at a child who may seem different, asking questions is how a child learns. It gives every child a chance to tell his or her story, and eventually helps humanise experiences for everyone.

Children need windows and mirrors – an opportunity to look out and see the world, and a reflection of themselves deep within. My purpose at Playeum is to help children and their caregivers to see the potential in themselves to make things a reality, ones that they thought they could only dream of doing.

For many parents and caregivers of persons with disabilities, bringing them out of their homes could often be a huge challenge and emotional barrier, for fear of being judged or looked at differently.

But once a parent told me that because of Playeum and the work that we do, she finally has a place where she could feel safe at with her child out of their home, and that Playeum is somewhere where her child can truly be who he is. To me, it is a testimony that we have done something right and it meant that we must never stop doing what we do for these families.

My time at Playeum has continued to show me how children of all abilities could be more than just consumers of what is already in the present, but are also capable creators of the future in this ever-changing world.

You do not need to be an early childhood practitioner or a parent to have the capacity and capability to volunteer with young children. Through my experiences serving at different organisations in the past seven years, I have met and worked with the most wonderful volunteers and staff, many of whom were students of fine arts and architecture courses or even business and accounting professionals.

What matters most is having the willingness to take a huge leap of faith into the unknown and take ownership of what comes after. I believe all of us have the potential to do so.

And only by “doing”, then can we be on the road towards “being” – being a changemaker for ourselves and our future generation, one bear hunt at a time. ∎

If you are interested to know more about Playeum and what we do, visit www.playeum.com.