Children-In-Action

Cessation of Children-in-Action programme and publication of Children-in-Action Information Guide

End of the Children-in-Action programme

The second phase of the Children-in-Action programme started on 1 April 2019, when Muscular Dystrophy Association (Singapore) spearheaded efforts to promote inclusive play among children with different abilities by engaging them in a wide array of play and skill-based activities. During the second phase of this project, the Children-in-Action team promoted inclusive play and expanded it beyond merely playing at inclusive playgrounds.

Throughout the three years of this project, the Children-in-Action team is heartened to witness the transformations of children with and without special needs after participating in Children-in-Action activities. The team also witnessed the establishment of friendships among these children – thus relating it to the programme’s slogan, “When children play together, they build memories that last forever.”

The project comes to an end officially on 31 July 2022. The team would like to take this opportunity to thank all play partners that had previously participated in our Children-in-Action activities. Only with their belief in promoting inclusivity among the children and youths can we spread the message that regardless of their abilities, children with and without special needs should have equal access to play.

The team also produced an information guide to promote inclusive play with the programme’s cessation. We hope this guide will be useful for all educators and parents keen to organise inclusive play activities and looking for pointers to execute the activities. Please feel free to share it with individuals or organisations you think might benefit from this information guide.

Promoting an inclusive Singapore society starts with our children, who will be the key pillars of our society in the future.

For more information, you may email us at mdas@mdas.org.sg or call 62596933!

Overview – What is Play?

Play is a range of voluntary and intrinsically motivated activities that are carried out for recreational pleasure and enjoyment. It comes in many different forms, ranging from fantasy play to locomotor play.

Through play, children and adults can develop social and cognitive skills, mature emotionally, and gain the self-confidence required to engage in new experiences and environments. Besides that, play satisfies a basic human need to express imagination, curiosity, and creativity, which are vital resources in a knowledge-driven world. The critical skills that children acquire through play form part of the fundamental building blocks of future complex 21st-century skills. Moreover, play is sufficiently important that the United Nations has recognised it as a specific right for all children.

Inclusive play helps children to create a sense of belonging and is the first step to break down social barriers by providing a safe and engaging environment for children of different abilities (children with or without special needs) to interact and learn from each other. Through inclusive play, it also helps to promote understanding and acceptance of children with special needs.

A research conducted by Lien Foundation to examine the attitudes of Singaporeans towards children with special needs had shown that only 1 in 4 children are friends with children with special needs. According to the survey, 64% of the participants had pointed out the lack of opportunities as the main barrier to interaction.

Since play is a natural course of exploration and discovery for all children, we are hence starting with the children as advocates of change, to embrace both similar and different abilities through play. We hope that in turn, this would foster development within the community, environment, and most importantly, all developmental domains of a child.

UNICEF. (2018). Learning through play. Retrieved from here

Lien Foundation. (2016). Inclusive Attitudes Survey. Retrieved from here

History of Children in Action (CIA)

Children in Action (CIA), launched in 2015, is an initiative of the NCSS (National Council of Social Service) to foster play among children with and without special needs at the inclusive playgrounds.

Play is an integral part of a child’s physical, cognitive and social development. Playgrounds are a shared space in which children of all ages would regularly visit to facilitate play. However, the design limitations of the existing playgrounds have inhibited children with special needs to maximise their play opportunities there.
To improve the design limitations of the playgrounds, NCSS spearheaded engagement efforts with special education schools, individuals who work with special needs children and the children themselves to explore how to maximise the inclusive experience for every child.

These collaborative efforts have led to the conception of the Inclusive Playground. Currently, there are 7 Inclusive Playgrounds opened by NCSS, 2 Inclusive Playgrounds opened by NParks, 4 Inclusive Playgrounds opened by other organisations, which makes it a total of 13 Inclusive Playgrounds across island-wide. Now, with inclusive playgrounds, children with and without special needs would be able to play together, regardless of their abilities. This establishment also signifies the start to a vision of a more inclusive Singapore society!