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\nJakob von Uexküll’s Functional Cycle and the Perceptual Cue •  \nPete King  \nThe author seeks to expand the notion of the “play cycle,” first introduced in 1998, to include the “functional cycle,” with its “perceptual cue,” touted by Jakob von Uexküll. He also discusses Simon Nicholson’s theory of“loose parts” and James J. Gibson’s notion of“affordances.” He outlines the impact of these and his now-revised play cycle and its perceptual cues on professional playwork and other play-related activities, especially those in preschool, childcare, and the early years of education. Key words: functional circle; Jakob von Uexküll; play cycle; play process; playwork  \nIntroduction  \nIn 1998, Gordon Sturrock and Perry Else introduced the “play cycle”(Sturrock and Else 1998). The play cycle is described as the “process of play”(Else 2011, 287), in which the focus lies on process rather than on the outcomes of play (Newstead and King 2021). This is a key feature of playwork practice in the United Kingdom (UK), underpinned by the eight playwork principles (Playwork Principle Scrutiny Group 2005) . Playwork in the UK is defined as“a highly skilled profession that enriches and enhances provision for children’splay. It takes place where adults support children’s play, but it is not driven by prescribed education or care outcomes”(SkillsActive 2010, 3) .  \nIn addition to playwork, the play cycle has been used in other play-related contexts in child care and the early years of education (King and Newsread 2021) and in working with children diagnosed with autism (Conn 2016) . Since its introduction in 1998, the play cycle now underpins playwork professional practice, playwork education, and playwork training (King and Newstead 2020) . Sturrock and Else (1998) developed their theory within the fields of depth psychology and therapeutic epistemology and constructed the play cycle. The  \n173  \nAmerican Journal of Play, volume 14, number 2 © 2022 by The Strong [Contact Pete King at p.f.king@swansea.ac.uk](Contact Pete King at p.f.king@swansea.ac.uk)  \nplay cycle has six elements: metalude, play cue, play return, play frame, loop and flow, and annihilation. They expressed this as a formula of L(Ludic or Play Cycle) = Metalude (M-L). Time (T>). Active Development (@). Loop and Flow (§), in which the content and meaning of play is situated in a therapeutic context with reference to Donald Winnicott, Ken Wilber, and Carl Jung (King and Sturrock 2020) .  \nThe play cycle continued to feature in their individual writing and thinking, for example Sturrock’s interpretation of Winnicott’s “third area”(Winnicott 1971), which Sturrock (2003) called “the ludic third, and Else’s incorporation of Wilber’s (1980) transpersonal view of human development into an “integrated play framework”(Else 2009) .  \nA review of the play cycle (King and Sturrock 2020) provided a theoretical background for each of its elements. For example, the play cue can be linked to the concept first used by Bateson (1955, 1972) and the play frame by Goffman (1974), who built upon the work of Bateson. For a fuller theoretical understanding of the six elements of the play cycle, see the first chapter of in The Play Cycle: Theory, Research, and Application (King and Sturrock 2020) .  \nIn 2018 King and Newstead undertook a study of the understanding of the play cycle byplaywork practioners and, in particular, how they viewed each of its six elements twenty years after the authors had presented a seminal paper about it at the International Play Association (IPA) triennial conference in Colorado. A review of the playwork literature found variations in how each of the six elements ofthe play cycle had been originally defined in the Colorado paper. These variations were reflected in an online survey, which resulted in a revision of the each of the six elements to reflect both the current understanding byplayworkers and the original definitions provided in the","cbCaiiwCbl2lxoJH","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiiwCbl2lxoJH","pdf",152549,15,"English","# Introduction\n## Play Cycle Origins and Playwork Context\n## Six Elements and Theoretical Foundations\n## Review and Revision of the Six Elements\n## Applications: Practice, Education, Training, and Observation Tool","[{\"question\":\"What does the article aim to expand about the play cycle?\",\"answer\":\"It expands the “play cycle” by incorporating Jakob von Uexküll’s “functional cycle” and the role of the “perceptual cue,” and connects this with related theories of loose parts and affordances.\"},{\"question\":\"How was the play cycle revised after its early introduction?\",\"answer\":\"A study examined how practitioners understood the six elements twenty years later, found variations from the original Colorado paper definitions, and produced a revised set of six elements with updated descriptions.\"},{\"question\":\"How is the revised play cycle used in practice beyond theory?\",\"answer\":\"The revised framework supports playwork professional practice and education, and it underpins an observational tool (PCOM) that records play cues and play returns to establish play cycles with reported reliability in pilot studies.\"}]","A Theoretical Expansion of the Play Cycle - Jakob von Uexküll’s Functional Cycle and the Perceptual Cue - Pete King | PDF",1792073377,38]