The Ecology of Preschool Childrens Social Play in Outdoor Play Spaces

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The Ecology of Preschool Childrens Social Play
in Outdoor Play Spaces

• Michaela Gummerum
• Susan Herrington, Kimberly Schonert-Reichl,
  Chandra Lesmeister, Jamie Nicholls, Kate Stefiuk

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• It seems to me that from the point of view of
  development, play is not the dominant form of
  activity, but it is, in a sense, the leading
  source of development in the pre-school years.
• Vygotsky, 1976, p. 53

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Play and development during the preschool years

• Physical development
• Cognitive development
• Language development
• Social development
• Do the properties of the outdoor play space
  design influence the social play behaviors of
  children?

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The development of social play

• Parten (1932) Developmental levels of social
  participation among preschoolers
• Unoccupied behavior
• Onlooker behavior
• Solitary play
• Parallel play
• Associative Play
• Cooperative Play

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Playground design and play

• Playgrounds as main contexts within which
  children are able to select and structure own
  activities and interactions with peers.
• Behavioral flexibility promotes a greater range
  of social behavior in outdoor than in indoor
  environments.
• Playground design as an intervening condition of
  childrens play behavior
• ? facilitates or constrains strategies children
  use in their play relative to play materials and
  peers.

Barbour, 1999 Ladd Price, 1992 Pellegrini,
1995
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Playground design and play

• Different types of playgrounds and childrens
  play
• No difference in social participation
  Adventure, Traditional, Contemporary
  playgrounds
• Specific playground features and childrens play
• High levels of play on playgrounds with
• linkages of equipment
• flexible materials
• graduate challenges
• presence of enclosed areas

Brown Burger, 1984 Campbell Frost, 1985
Johnson et al., 1987 Weilbacher, 1981
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The Seven Cs

• An informational guide for landscape architects,
  early childhood educators, administrators, and
  parents.
• The Seven Cs define key elements that should be
  considered when designing outdoor play
  environments for children aged two to five.
• Seven Cs link the physical conditions of outdoor
  play environments to the development of young
  children.

Herrington Lesmeister, 2006 Herrington,
Lesmeister, Nicholls, Stefiuk, 2006
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Character

• Overall feel and design intent of an outdoor
  play space
• - modern directed towards a childs innate
  sense of inquiry into systems, mechanisms, and
  machines
• - organic materials that are made from trees,
  rocks, shrubs typically custom built on-site by
  community members
• - modular pre-fabricated equipment put
  together
• - re-use not originally designed for children
  adapted to make childrens occupation possible
• - metaphor spaces, forms, materials are
  expressive of something else

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Context

• Characteristics of the play space
• - thermal situation
• - space per child ratio
• Relationship of play space with the larger
  landscape surrounding it
• - type of neighbourhood
• - can children observe the world outside the
  play space?

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Connectivity

• Physical, visual, and cognitive connectivity of
  the play space
• - Indoor/outdoor
• Direct physical and visual connection between
  indoor and outdoor play space leads to
  more play outside.
• Sense of place in the interior.
• - Pathways
• Can be a major site of learning and exploration
• Direct childrens movement and the movement of
  their physical materials.

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Change

• Range of differently sized spaces and how the
  whole play space changes over time
• - Differently sized sub-spaces
• For interaction in pairs or small groups of
  children
• Distinct play zones, that are flexible over time
  and open to modification by the child
• Physical elements that enclose zones and
  contribute to fluidity among zones
• - Changing materials
• Seasonal plants and animals (observation and
  play resources)

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Chance

• Opportunity for the child to create, manipulate,
  and leave an impression on the play space
• - Messy zones
• malleable materials (water, sand, loose parts)
• ? excite childrens imagination, mobility and
  fine motor skills
• - Mystery
• Places that stimulate spontaneous exploration
• What can children see from their height?

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Clarity

• Physical legibility and perceptual imageability
  provided by the play space.
• Play spaces should create enough mystery to
  promote spontaneous exploration, but should not
  be confusing.
• Clear entry and exit spaces.
• Soundscape of the play space contributes to the
  general atmosphere and can create stress and
  confusion.

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Challenge

• Physical and cognitive encounters provided by
  the play space
• Play settings should challenge children to take
  risks without being hazardous
• ? Graduated challenges
• - levels of difficulty for each activity
• - child should be able to find an optimal level
  of challenge
• Simple design elements can serve as catalysts
  for challenge

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Method

• Participants
• 10 day-care centres, children aged 2 5 years
• 1-hour observations
• Video-taping of childrens play activities
• Coding
• Design elements in outdoor play environments
  (Seven Cs) or lack of design elements
• Social play behavior (event coding Ladd, Price,
  Hart, 1988)

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Social play coding scheme(Ladd et al., 1988)

• Interactive behavior
• Teacher-initiated
• Child-initiated (with teacher)
• Social conversation
• Argue
• Unilateral bids
• Cooperative play
• Rough play
• Object possessiveness
• Aggression
• Friendly touch

• Non-interactive behavior
• Unoccupied
• Onlooking
• Solitary play
• Parallel play
• (aggression against objects)

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Play space design and play

• Social play types

POSITIVELY ENGAGED Social conversation Cooperati
ve play Friendly touch
NEGATIVELY ENGAGED Argue Object
possessiveness Aggression Aggression against
objects
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Play space design and play
POSITIVELY ENGAGED Social conversation Cooperati
ve play Friendly touch
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Play space design and play
POSITIVELY ENGAGED Social conversation Cooperati
ve play Friendly touch
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Play space design and play
POSITIVELY ENGAGED Social conversation Cooperati
ve play Friendly touch
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Play space design and play
NEGATIVELY ENGAGED Argue Object
possessiveness Aggression Aggression against
objects
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Play space design and play
NEGATIVELY ENGAGED Argue Object
possessiveness Aggression Aggression against
objects
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Play space design and play
NEGATIVELY ENGAGED Argue Object
possessiveness Aggression Aggression against
objects
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Play space design and play
NEGATIVELY ENGAGED Argue Object
possessiveness Aggression Aggression against
objects
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Character and social play

• Significantly more negatively engaged behaviors
• - in play spaces with a modular character
• Significantly more positively engaged behaviors
• - in play spaces with a metaphor or organic
  character
• ?2 14.76, df 3, p .00

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Seven Cs and social play

• Significantly more negatively engaged behaviors
  in play spaces with a low number of Seven Cs than
  in play spaces with a high number of Seven Cs
  ?2 11.92, df 1, p .00

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Chance ?2 14.60, df 1, p .00
Challenge ?2 11.92, df 1, p .00
No significant difference in play behavior in
spaces with high or low Change
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Play space design and play
Levels of social participation (Parten, 1932)

• Unoccupied
• Onlooker behavior
• Solitary play
• Parallel play
• Cooperative Play

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Play space design and play
Levels of social participation (Parten, 1932)

• Unoccupied
• Onlooker behavior
• Solitary play
• Parallel play
• Cooperative Play

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Play space design and play
Levels of social participation (Parten, 1932)

• Unoccupied
• Onlooker behavior
• Solitary play
• Parallel play
• Cooperative Play

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Play space design and play
Levels of social participation (Parten, 1932)

• Unoccupied
• Onlooker behavior
• Solitary play
• Parallel play
• Cooperative Play

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Play space design and play
Levels of social participation (Parten, 1932)

• Unoccupied
• Onlooker behavior
• Solitary play
• Parallel play
• Cooperative Play

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Play space design and play
Levels of social participation (Parten, 1932)

• Unoccupied
• Onlooker behavior
• Solitary play
• Parallel play
• Cooperative Play

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Play space design and stage of social play
Chance ?2 11.62, df 4, p .02
Challenge ?2 22.29, df 4, p .00
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Summary and Discussion

• Playground design as a factor that seems to
  facilitates certain social behaviors
• More positively and less negatively engaged
  behavior in organic or metaphor play spaces.
• More negatively engaged behavior in modular play
  spaces.
• Less negatively engaged behaviors in spaces with
  high number of Seven Cs.

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Summary and Discussion

• More positively engaged and less negatively
  engaged behaviors in spaces
• - which give children a chance to explore their
  environment and find challenging activities
  (challenge).
• - which give children the opportunity to create
  and manipulate features of the space (chance).
• More occurrences of higher levels of social play
  in spaces
• - high in challenge
• - high in chance

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