Playkindly

The Play Kindly App guides parents with appropriate ways to manage their children's aggression and Play Kindly.

ABOUT

Dr Esther Cowley-Malcolm led the creation of the ‘Play Kindly’ App which is modelled off ‘Play Nicely’ a simple multimedia programme (in the form of a CD-ROM) that supports parents management of aggressive behaviour in young children and teaches the basics of how to manage hurtful behaviour/s. The ‘Play Nicely’ programme was developed by Dr Seth Scholer and colleagues at Van Derbilt University. Dr Cowley-Malcolm trialled the ‘Play Nicely’ CD-ROM programme with the Samoan community as part of her doctoral research. The development of this App was enabled as a result of Dr Esther Cowley-Malcolm receiving the Quaker Peace and Service Loxley Award. The Play Kindly App is in strong alignment with Quaker principles of peace and social justice. The original production team that developed the first version of ‘Play Kindly’ was Dr Cowley-Malcolm (Project Lead), Ali Cowley (Pacific Animator), and Oscar Kightley (Pacific Script Writer).

Recently the production team have partnered with researchers from the University of Auckland to carry out a formal evaluation of the App. Findings have informed a number of changes that have enhanced the App and are now planned to be tested in a randomised clinical trial. For this phase of development the production team were joined by Aravind Kumar (Programmer), and James Cheng Nz (Programmer). Funding for this work has been gratefully provided for by Cure Kids. The evaluation team consists of Professor Sally Merry, Dr Gerhard Sundborn, Dr Rebecca Mairs, Dr Lana Perese, Tony Patolo, Dr Rebecca Slykerman, Dr Sarah Hopkins, Professor Chris Frampton and Marthinus Bekker.

FEATURES
• Colourful Pacific Inspired interface
•Coaches to guide you through the app.
• Choose your own Parent Avatar.
• Watch colourful animated scenario examples.
• Answer quick response quiz to test your appropriate responses to the scenario situation.
• Review your answers to learn appropriate responses for Parents.
• Collect 3 stars after answering correctly to unlock scenario levels.
• Choose your cool Parenting style badge.