A children’s picture book to promote the right to play and teach how to play with others has been published by the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Social and Family Affairs Administration (SFAA).
Whose Slide Is It? (溜滑梯是誰的?) — available in physical form, as an e-book and as an animated video — was launched by the SFAA at an event in Taipei on Saturday.
Citing Article 31 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child — which recognizes the right of a child to rest and leisure, engage in play and recreational activities — the SFAA said it hopes the book promotes children’s right to play and helps develop children’s development in game reasoning.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Health and Welfare
The story depicts a boy who occupies a slide in a playground, but is at first unwilling to share it with other children who have different needs — such as a left-handed child and a physically disabled child.
However, through discussion, they design a suitable playground for everyone, and the children learn to play with each other.
Author Wang Wen-hua (王文華) said his inspiration for the story came from his daughter’s experience when she was a child.
There was a moment when a child occupied a slide at a park and refused to let his daughter and other children play on it, Wang said.
While his daughter cried about not being able to play, the child on the slide also cried because he had to “guard” the slide from being “taken” by others, he said.
“The playground is where many children first learn to interact with other people, and as many people want to play together, they need to talk and come up with rules,” he said.
The government in 2014 enacted the Implementation Act of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (兒童權利公約施行法) to incorporate the UN convention into domestic law.
However, children’s rights to rest and leisure, and to engage in play and recreational activities, are still often neglected, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Lee Li-feng (李麗芬) said.
“Children explore the world through play, and it is a process of self-development,” Lee said.
“By publishing the book, we not only hope people learn to respect children’s right to play, but also teach the meaning of ‘sharing’ with young children, so they can understand how to assist other children with special needs,” Lee said.
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