Transactional Analysis and the Ludic Third (TALT): A Model of Functionally Fluent Reflective Play Practice

Abstract

This article presents a new theoretical model of the play interaction between children and playworkers: transactional analysis and the ludic third (TALT). The importance of reflective professional practice as a key aspect of the TALT model is emphasized. The transactional analysis concepts of the integrating Adult ego state and functional fluency are presented to show how they are put to use both in reflective practice and for underpinning the vital concept of the witness position aspect of the play process. The values of knowledgeable, sensitive, and above all active responsiveness from the witness position are explained with short case studies. This active role is discussed with regard to the concepts of potential space and the ludic third. The authors suggest that TALT has implications for all professionals who work with children in a play context. They also consider the potential for children to develop reflective skills as they play.

Keywords:

• Transactional analysis
• functional fluency
• behavioral modes
• response or reaction
• integrating Adult
• play process
• playworker
• play cycle
• witness position
• reflective practice

Disclosure Statement

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Additional information

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Notes on contributors

Pete King

Dr. Pete King is currently a lecturer in childhood studies at Swansea University, Wales, United Kingdom. Prior to this, he was employed in the field of play and playwork and had a particular interest in therapeutic playwork in which children’s natural urge to play has therapeutic benefits and the role of adults is to support children’s play rather than direct it. This child-led or play-led approach to play has remained at the center of Pete’s professional practice and teaching in the master’s degree in developmental and therapeutic play course at Swansea University. Pete became aware of the basic principles of TA when completing a therapeutic playwork course in 2004, which led him to develop a theoretical model of play interaction between the child, or children, and the adult (playworker) supporting children’s play. He has published in various journals and contributed to the latest edition of Moyles’s (2014) The Excellence of Play on Early Years Practitioners and the Role of Play. Pete’s most recent publication is a coauthored book with Shelly Newstead in 2017 entitled Researching Play from a Playwork Perspective. Pete can be reached at the College of Human and Health Science, Department of Policy, Health and Social Studies, Singleton Park, Swansea University, SA2 8PP Wales, United Kingdom; email: [email protected].

Susannah Temple

Susannah Temple, PhD, Provisional Teaching Transactional Analyst (education), now retired, worked in various educational contexts throughout her life as a teacher, dancer, community worker, facilitator, counselor, psychotherapist, and university lecturer. Susannah became a TA psychotherapist and educational Certified Transactional Analyst in the early 1990s, then taught TA in university master’s programs for educational psychologists and educators from a variety of contexts for over a decade. Susannah’s research (1997–2002) to validate her functional fluency model and create the Temple Index of Functional Fluency (TIFF©) won her a European Association for Transactional Analysis Silver Medal in 2003. In 2014, the ITAA presented her with the Eric Berne Memorial Award for functional fluency as “an original and highly significant theoretical and practical contribution to the field of transactional analysis.” At present, Susannah is semiretired and works nationally and internationally to support TIFF providers and others in their endeavors to increase the kinds of communication and relationships that bring mutual benefit to all concerned. Susannah can be reached at 10 Berry Lane, Bristol BS7 9SA, England; email: [email protected]; website: www.functionalfluency.com and www.functionalfluency.co.uk.