Developmental and Therapeutic Play (Taught)

Our MA Developmental and Therapeutic Play course explores how play shapes children's development, learning, and emotional wellbeing. Delivered by the Department for Education and Childhood Studies, this course blends academic insight with reflective practice to help you become a specialist in the power and process of play.
Whether you're from education, social care, psychology, or playwork, our programme is designed to deepen your understanding of play’s developmental and therapeutic value across a variety of settings. While it doesn’t train you to become a therapist, it equips you to apply play expertise in health, education, social care, and community contexts.

Our MA Developmental and Therapeutic Play programme is shaped by a strong commitment to inclusive, rights respecting and ethically grounded learning. You will study in an environment where non directive play principles, Universal Design for Learning and active anti racist practice are embedded throughout, ensuring you feel welcomed, supported and able to engage fully with the course.
A key strength of our programme is its adaptability. With teaching rooted in non directive play, you will find that your learning transfers easily across a wide range of play based settings. Whether you work in education, early years, childcare, playwork, preschool or therapeutic practice, you will be able to meaningfully apply theory to your own professional and cultural context. This flexibility also makes the programme ideal for both UK based and international students.
The programme is underpinned by a children’s rights framework, drawing on UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which recognises every child’s right to play, rest and leisure. This rights based ethos shapes both the content you study and the way you learn. Your teaching team models rights respecting practice by creating learning environments that value agency, voice and participation, mirroring the non directive play approaches used in professional settings.
If you are a Welsh speaker, you will be fully supported to study through the medium of Welsh. You can submit assignments or your dissertation in Welsh, receive personal tutor support from a Welsh speaking member of staff and, where possible, be supervised in Welsh. You’re also encouraged to undertake voluntary placement hours in Welsh medium settings such as Mudiad Meithrin. You may also be eligible for Academi Hywel Teifi scholarships.

Visit our website for more information on fees, scholarships, postgraduate loans and other funding options to study at Swansea University.