English (UK) 
SHORT FACTS
Name: Ellie Hosking
Profession: Paediatric Occupational Therapist (OT)
Favorite Outside Play Activity As a Child: “Despite being a very shy and careful child, my favourite playground pieces were the scariest! The metal slide which felt larger than life, the playground spinner which was simultaneously exhilarating and petrifying, and the horizontal swing that made me feel like I was flying!”
Introducing Ellie Hosking
As a Paediatric Occupational Therapist (OT) with over a decade of experience, Ellie Hosking has dedicated her career to supporting children (and their families) to enable independence in daily activities.
Her passion for the field was sparked in her teenage years. “A family friend explained how OTs working with children spend a lot of time playing,” she recalls. “As someone who did not want to work behind a desk all day and loved being playful, this sounded very exciting!”
Throughout her career, Ellie has worked with children aged 0-18 in Melbourne, Australia, across a wide range of settings, including specialist schools for children with disabilities, mainstream schools, private clinics, and community health centers. She has now relocated to Singapore with her husband, where she continues her work focused on play and inclusion.
At the heart of her work is a simple but powerful idea: play is children’s most important occupation.
“Play, in all its kinds, helps children learn about and understand their world. It supports the development of motor skills, social awareness, communication and negotiation, problem solving, empathy, safe risk taking, self-regulation, confidence, and resilience.”
This is not just anecdotal: Research strongly supports the idea that play builds the essential skills children need for school and, eventually, for participating in the workforce (Roskos & Christie, 2013 & World Bank, 2015, as cited by Kellock, 2015).
Seeing Playgrounds Differently
With that in mind, Ellie brings a distinct perspective to how play spaces are designed and experienced. “I start by noticing emotions”, she explains. “If I were a child again, what emotions would it evoke? Excitement, nervousness, boredom, fear, or joy?”
Part of her work as a Paediatric OT is to evaluate playgrounds, where Ellie looks beyond the equipment. She considers how the space is actually used, the types of play it supports, and how it contributes to motor, social, and cognitive development. She also examines the layout, surface materials, safety features, and nearby facilities.
Too often, playgrounds are built with a narrow focus on physical activity and active play. This can become a significant barrier for children with physical disabilities or challenges.
“Playgrounds and play spaces are for playing ‘house’, restaurants, digging in the sand to find treasure or dinosaur bones, building a robot with rocks, learning how to pour water, playing hide and seek with friends, or even playing alone. As such, features that support these types of play enable a fun and developmentally rich experience.”
For Ellie, the best playgrounds offer a range of play possibilities and are designed with a wide variety of users in mind. They create spaces where children of all abilities and backgrounds feel comfortable, engaged, and challenged.
This approach reflects broader principles outlined in guidelines such as Everyone Can Play by the Government of New South Wales, Australia.
Inclusive Play in Practice
Bringing inclusive play to life takes intentional design choices.
Ellie provided the Tench Reserve Playspace in Penrith, Australia, as a practical example of how universal design principles can be embedded into every corner of a play environment.
The image below shows examples of thoughtful decisions—big and small—that help create spaces where every child feels seen, supported, and free to play their own way.
Source: NSW Government. (2023). Everyone Can Play: A Guideline To Create Inclusive Playspaces. https://www.planning.nsw.gov.au/sites/default/files/2023-03/everyone-can-play-a-guideline-to-inclusive-playspaces.pdf
The Power of Choice in Playgrounds
When children can choose how, where, and with whom they play, joy, confidence, and learning often follow.
“When there are multiple ways to play, different styles of play arise,” Ellie explains. Children may role-play an ice cream shop behind a small counter, imagine themselves as knights and dragons on a wobbly bridge, or quietly dig for treasure in a sandpit.
“These choices give children more control and freedom, which provides greater opportunities for learning and socialising without them even realising because they’re having the best time! This is the power of play.”
Ellie believes that to fully support this power, playgrounds must be accessible and inclusive for all children. “All children have a right to play,” she says, referencing Article 31 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. “If spaces are not designed for every child to access, we are denying them that right.”
For her, key elements of inclusive play spaces include:
- clear wayfinding,
- accessible communication,
- thoughtful equipment layout,
- sensory considerations,
- and practical facilities like bathrooms, seating, and parking.
Ellie highlights simple, yet powerful questions from the Everyone Can Play guide:
Can I get there? Can I play? Can I stay?
For playgrounds to be truly inclusive, the answer must be yes for every child.
