Pub Date : 2023-09-26DOI: 10.1080/21594937.2023.2250579
Gabriel C. Waltman
ABSTRACTA story about the summer adventures of middle school boys. Growing up in a rural farming community there were few organized activities to keep delinquent boys busy in a safe, productive way. These heathens turned to rule-breaking and morally wrong activities to keep themselves entertained. This article recounts one memory from this period where the boys had an especially adventurous day of bad decisions and lessons learned.KEYWORDS: Mischievousboyskidsruralplaying Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
{"title":"Redneck oasis","authors":"Gabriel C. Waltman","doi":"10.1080/21594937.2023.2250579","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21594937.2023.2250579","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACTA story about the summer adventures of middle school boys. Growing up in a rural farming community there were few organized activities to keep delinquent boys busy in a safe, productive way. These heathens turned to rule-breaking and morally wrong activities to keep themselves entertained. This article recounts one memory from this period where the boys had an especially adventurous day of bad decisions and lessons learned.KEYWORDS: Mischievousboyskidsruralplaying Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).","PeriodicalId":52149,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Play","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134960316","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-08-23DOI: 10.1080/21594937.2023.2235473
J. Legaard
{"title":"SCUSA: identifying five types of disruption for playful experiences","authors":"J. Legaard","doi":"10.1080/21594937.2023.2235473","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21594937.2023.2235473","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":52149,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Play","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86593620","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-07-03DOI: 10.1080/21594937.2023.2239562
J. Legaard
ABSTRACT Since its introduction almost 50 years ago, the concept of ‘flow’ has been descriptive of optimal experiences, also in relation to play. However, the explorative nature of play leads to some discrepancies between flow and the optimal experience of play. In this paper the differences between flow and play are explored, leading to proposing the state of ‘wonder’ as a counterpart to flow. This perspective offers a way to conceptually distinguish goal-oriented experiences (e.g. games and competition) from free play experiences that are not focused on a specific end-goal, seeking to evolve and retain the experience rather than moving towards an optimal end point. While the theory of wonder in relation to flow is in its early stages of development, it is a proposition that offers new perspectives for further discussions about the relations between e.g. play, games, and work.
{"title":"The wonder of play","authors":"J. Legaard","doi":"10.1080/21594937.2023.2239562","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21594937.2023.2239562","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT\u0000 Since its introduction almost 50 years ago, the concept of ‘flow’ has been descriptive of optimal experiences, also in relation to play. However, the explorative nature of play leads to some discrepancies between flow and the optimal experience of play. In this paper the differences between flow and play are explored, leading to proposing the state of ‘wonder’ as a counterpart to flow. This perspective offers a way to conceptually distinguish goal-oriented experiences (e.g. games and competition) from free play experiences that are not focused on a specific end-goal, seeking to evolve and retain the experience rather than moving towards an optimal end point. While the theory of wonder in relation to flow is in its early stages of development, it is a proposition that offers new perspectives for further discussions about the relations between e.g. play, games, and work.","PeriodicalId":52149,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Play","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85255645","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-07-03DOI: 10.1080/21594937.2023.2235474
Annabelle Black Delfin, Wen Wang
ABSTRACT This research seeks to understand developmental processes of cognition, especially as these processes become observable in children’s role-play. In seeking to understand cognitive development in young children, we focus on how children incorporate pretend ‘technologies’ in role-play, such as non-operational cell phones, through pretend conversations and actions in the play episode. In observations with two preschool classes of four-year-old children, role-play that involved pretend ‘technologies’ was analyzed as to its effect on children’s ability to think abstractly and to form mental representations. This qualitative study collected observations and documentation of children’s actions and words as they played, coded and analyzed through constant comparison. Two findings were identified indicating that role-play using pretend ‘technologies’ promotes expansion of children’s abstract thought; and role-play with pretend ‘technologies’ enhances children’s perceptions and enactments of dual representation. With further examination, we distilled three ways that abstract thought and dual representation occurred during role-play with pretend ‘technologies’: through children’s symbolic understanding and actions, higher mental functions when interacting with pretend ‘technologies’, and children’s on-and-off line cognitive functions when operating pretend ‘technologies’. This study suggests that there are many benefits of children engaging in pretend play and that incorporating technology in the play scenario amplifies cognitive benefits.
{"title":"The influence of pretend ‘technologies’ on children’s cognitive development in symbolic play","authors":"Annabelle Black Delfin, Wen Wang","doi":"10.1080/21594937.2023.2235474","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21594937.2023.2235474","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This research seeks to understand developmental processes of cognition, especially as these processes become observable in children’s role-play. In seeking to understand cognitive development in young children, we focus on how children incorporate pretend ‘technologies’ in role-play, such as non-operational cell phones, through pretend conversations and actions in the play episode. In observations with two preschool classes of four-year-old children, role-play that involved pretend ‘technologies’ was analyzed as to its effect on children’s ability to think abstractly and to form mental representations. This qualitative study collected observations and documentation of children’s actions and words as they played, coded and analyzed through constant comparison. Two findings were identified indicating that role-play using pretend ‘technologies’ promotes expansion of children’s abstract thought; and role-play with pretend ‘technologies’ enhances children’s perceptions and enactments of dual representation. With further examination, we distilled three ways that abstract thought and dual representation occurred during role-play with pretend ‘technologies’: through children’s symbolic understanding and actions, higher mental functions when interacting with pretend ‘technologies’, and children’s on-and-off line cognitive functions when operating pretend ‘technologies’. This study suggests that there are many benefits of children engaging in pretend play and that incorporating technology in the play scenario amplifies cognitive benefits.","PeriodicalId":52149,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Play","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73008338","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-07-03DOI: 10.1080/21594937.2023.2235472
A. Vyshedskiy, E. Khokhlovich
ABSTRACT This quantitative study uses longitudinal caregiver surveys to explore the relationship between pretend play and development in children with ASD. Caregivers assessed the development of 7069 young children quarterly for three years on five subscales: combinatorial receptive language, expressive language, sociability, sensory awareness, and health. Pretend play was associated with superior developmental trajectories: 1.9-fold greater improvement of combinatorial receptive language (p < 0.0001), 1.4-fold greater improvement of expressive language (p < 0.0001), and 1.3-fold greater improvement of sensory awareness (p = 0.0009). Pretend play did not account for a significant amount of the variability in children’s sociability and health. The strong association of pretend play with combinatorial receptive language remained significant even when controlling for expressive language. Similarly, the strong association of pretend play with expressive language remained significant even when controlling for combinatorial receptive language. The association of pretend play with combinatorial receptive language was stronger than the association of seizures, sleep problems, or high-TV exposure. These findings support earlier studies suggesting that pretend play may be an important stepping stone for language acquisition and highlight a potential for pretend play therapeutic interventions.
{"title":"Pretend play predicts language development in young children with Autism Spectrum Disorder","authors":"A. Vyshedskiy, E. Khokhlovich","doi":"10.1080/21594937.2023.2235472","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21594937.2023.2235472","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This quantitative study uses longitudinal caregiver surveys to explore the relationship between pretend play and development in children with ASD. Caregivers assessed the development of 7069 young children quarterly for three years on five subscales: combinatorial receptive language, expressive language, sociability, sensory awareness, and health. Pretend play was associated with superior developmental trajectories: 1.9-fold greater improvement of combinatorial receptive language (p < 0.0001), 1.4-fold greater improvement of expressive language (p < 0.0001), and 1.3-fold greater improvement of sensory awareness (p = 0.0009). Pretend play did not account for a significant amount of the variability in children’s sociability and health. The strong association of pretend play with combinatorial receptive language remained significant even when controlling for expressive language. Similarly, the strong association of pretend play with expressive language remained significant even when controlling for combinatorial receptive language. The association of pretend play with combinatorial receptive language was stronger than the association of seizures, sleep problems, or high-TV exposure. These findings support earlier studies suggesting that pretend play may be an important stepping stone for language acquisition and highlight a potential for pretend play therapeutic interventions.","PeriodicalId":52149,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Play","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89039275","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-07-03DOI: 10.1080/21594937.2023.2235470
Duncan McDuie‐Ra
ABSTRACT This article is an ethnographic account of searches for play space in Newcastle, Australia, specifically for skateboarding. Street skateboarding is predicated on unstructured play at ‘found’ spots in the urban landscape assembled from surfaces, objects, and obstacles. Without access to established skateparks during COVID-19 lockdowns, the search for play space became an exciting part of lockdown life, and street trees were surprising guideposts for locating unpredictable surfaces and angles. Through these observations, this article explores the potential of street trees in generating play space through skateboarding, making three arguments. First, street trees are overlooked as potential play space compared to trees living in parks, reserves, and playgrounds. Crucially, street trees generate play space by assembling and re-assembling the urban landscape in unpredictable ways. Second, skateboarders and trees are unexpected allies in unstructured play and the disruption of urban order. Third, street trees produce skate spots by modifying the built environment, challenging ideas of mutually exclusive realms of nature vs. city, grey vs. green, play vs. passivity, and use vs. misuse. These examples may not fit idealised notions of human-tree relations, but they open new possibilities for thinking about these relations and where we seek and find play space.
{"title":"Play space in plain sight: the disruptive alliances between street trees and skateboarders","authors":"Duncan McDuie‐Ra","doi":"10.1080/21594937.2023.2235470","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21594937.2023.2235470","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article is an ethnographic account of searches for play space in Newcastle, Australia, specifically for skateboarding. Street skateboarding is predicated on unstructured play at ‘found’ spots in the urban landscape assembled from surfaces, objects, and obstacles. Without access to established skateparks during COVID-19 lockdowns, the search for play space became an exciting part of lockdown life, and street trees were surprising guideposts for locating unpredictable surfaces and angles. Through these observations, this article explores the potential of street trees in generating play space through skateboarding, making three arguments. First, street trees are overlooked as potential play space compared to trees living in parks, reserves, and playgrounds. Crucially, street trees generate play space by assembling and re-assembling the urban landscape in unpredictable ways. Second, skateboarders and trees are unexpected allies in unstructured play and the disruption of urban order. Third, street trees produce skate spots by modifying the built environment, challenging ideas of mutually exclusive realms of nature vs. city, grey vs. green, play vs. passivity, and use vs. misuse. These examples may not fit idealised notions of human-tree relations, but they open new possibilities for thinking about these relations and where we seek and find play space.","PeriodicalId":52149,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Play","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75548156","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-07-03DOI: 10.1080/21594937.2023.2235466
F. Scott, J. Marsh, K. Murris, D. Ng’ambi, B. S. Thomsen, C. Bannister, J. Bishop, K. Dixon, T. Giorza, A. Hetherington, C. Lawrence, B. Nutbrown, B. Parry, J. Peers, E. Scholey
ABSTRACT This paper reports a mixed-methods study of the play of children (3–11) with digital technologies in South Africa (SA) and the United Kingdom (UK), discussing the interrelatedness of access to devices and the Internet, contextual realities, and adult-child relations. An adapted ecological model [Bronfenbrenner (1979) The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design. Harvard University Press] guided analysis. Parents and carers in the UK were more likely than their SA counterparts to report children's engagement in object, construction and transgressive digital play, correlating with access differences, especially to tablet devices. However, play incorporating technologies was extensive, even in contexts in SA with limited access to a wide range of devices or readily available internet. Despite relying primarily on smartphones, children in SA were more likely to create digital content unassisted than those in the UK. The qualitative data complicate understandings of particular play types, including transgressive digital play.
{"title":"An ecological perspective on children’s play with digital technologies in South Africa and the United Kingdom","authors":"F. Scott, J. Marsh, K. Murris, D. Ng’ambi, B. S. Thomsen, C. Bannister, J. Bishop, K. Dixon, T. Giorza, A. Hetherington, C. Lawrence, B. Nutbrown, B. Parry, J. Peers, E. Scholey","doi":"10.1080/21594937.2023.2235466","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21594937.2023.2235466","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This paper reports a mixed-methods study of the play of children (3–11) with digital technologies in South Africa (SA) and the United Kingdom (UK), discussing the interrelatedness of access to devices and the Internet, contextual realities, and adult-child relations. An adapted ecological model [Bronfenbrenner (1979) The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design. Harvard University Press] guided analysis. Parents and carers in the UK were more likely than their SA counterparts to report children's engagement in object, construction and transgressive digital play, correlating with access differences, especially to tablet devices. However, play incorporating technologies was extensive, even in contexts in SA with limited access to a wide range of devices or readily available internet. Despite relying primarily on smartphones, children in SA were more likely to create digital content unassisted than those in the UK. The qualitative data complicate understandings of particular play types, including transgressive digital play.","PeriodicalId":52149,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Play","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86623225","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-07-03DOI: 10.1080/21594937.2023.2235467
Catherine Latimer, K. Winter, K. Lloyd
ABSTRACT The increasingly poor physical and mental health outcomes for children in Northern Ireland are, in part, attributed to a sedentary, indoor lifestyle and a concern that children are not availing of outdoor play opportunities. For some children, the school playground is the only accessible outdoor space available to them and is therefore a critical site in terms of promoting wellbeing. This paper reports the findings of an exploratory study which investigated school staff’s attitudes and children’s views, perspectives and experiences of play in school playgrounds in Northern Ireland. The findings illustrate that the school playground shapes the way in which children access outdoor play through its physical, policy and social setup; and that the design, structure, management and provision of the school playground all play a role in shaping children’s play behaviours and enjoyment of play. Findings also indicate that children are not being consulted about their play space, and schools lack policies and training opportunities for staff regarding outdoor play. Based on the findings and applying concepts associated with the Affordance Framework [Gibson, J. J. (1979). The ecological approach to visual perception. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates], the transformative potential of restructuring primary school playgrounds in Northern Ireland is highlighted and implications for future research, policy and practice are outlined.
北爱尔兰儿童的身心健康状况越来越差,部分原因是久坐不动的室内生活方式以及对儿童没有利用户外游戏机会的担忧。对于一些孩子来说,学校操场是他们唯一可以使用的户外空间,因此是促进健康的关键场所。本文报告了一项探索性研究的结果,该研究调查了北爱尔兰学校工作人员的态度和儿童在学校操场上玩耍的观点、观点和经历。研究结果表明,学校操场通过其物理、政策和社会设置塑造了儿童获得户外游戏的方式;学校操场的设计、结构、管理和提供都在塑造儿童的游戏行为和游戏乐趣方面发挥着作用。调查结果还表明,没有就儿童的游戏空间征求他们的意见,学校缺乏有关户外游戏的政策和培训机会。基于发现和应用与功能框架相关的概念[Gibson, J. J.(1979)]。视觉感知的生态方法。Lawrence Erlbaum Associates],强调了重组北爱尔兰小学操场的变革潜力,并概述了对未来研究、政策和实践的影响。
{"title":"An exploration of outdoor play and wellbeing in Northern Irish primary schools","authors":"Catherine Latimer, K. Winter, K. Lloyd","doi":"10.1080/21594937.2023.2235467","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21594937.2023.2235467","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT\u0000 The increasingly poor physical and mental health outcomes for children in Northern Ireland are, in part, attributed to a sedentary, indoor lifestyle and a concern that children are not availing of outdoor play opportunities. For some children, the school playground is the only accessible outdoor space available to them and is therefore a critical site in terms of promoting wellbeing. This paper reports the findings of an exploratory study which investigated school staff’s attitudes and children’s views, perspectives and experiences of play in school playgrounds in Northern Ireland. The findings illustrate that the school playground shapes the way in which children access outdoor play through its physical, policy and social setup; and that the design, structure, management and provision of the school playground all play a role in shaping children’s play behaviours and enjoyment of play. Findings also indicate that children are not being consulted about their play space, and schools lack policies and training opportunities for staff regarding outdoor play. Based on the findings and applying concepts associated with the Affordance Framework [Gibson, J. J. (1979). The ecological approach to visual perception. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates], the transformative potential of restructuring primary school playgrounds in Northern Ireland is highlighted and implications for future research, policy and practice are outlined.","PeriodicalId":52149,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Play","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81847010","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-07-03DOI: 10.1080/21594937.2023.2235469
Maja Reinåmo Olsson
ABSTRACT This article aims to explore how Norwegian six-year-old children talk about and show their understandings of play when they have just started primary school. The research design is a focused ethnographic fieldwork, reporting on participant observations and group interviews with children in the first year of primary school, and interpreted through a thematic analysis. The analysis indicates that the children consider play as important to the transition process and their everyday school life. They express and show their understandings of play in various ways, thematized as freedom of choice, resistance, and community. The article suggests that children’s joint play can be understood as an underlife in school and introduces the term playful (re)production as a theoretical approach for exploring children’s understandings of play. The study raises awareness of the role play has for children’s well-being, agency, and relationships with peers in the transition process and in general activities in school.
{"title":"‘I don’t think that it’s play. Because we have to play’. Norwegian six-year-old children’s understandings of play when they start in primary school","authors":"Maja Reinåmo Olsson","doi":"10.1080/21594937.2023.2235469","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21594937.2023.2235469","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article aims to explore how Norwegian six-year-old children talk about and show their understandings of play when they have just started primary school. The research design is a focused ethnographic fieldwork, reporting on participant observations and group interviews with children in the first year of primary school, and interpreted through a thematic analysis. The analysis indicates that the children consider play as important to the transition process and their everyday school life. They express and show their understandings of play in various ways, thematized as freedom of choice, resistance, and community. The article suggests that children’s joint play can be understood as an underlife in school and introduces the term playful (re)production as a theoretical approach for exploring children’s understandings of play. The study raises awareness of the role play has for children’s well-being, agency, and relationships with peers in the transition process and in general activities in school.","PeriodicalId":52149,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Play","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90598218","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}