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FEATURE
behaviour in adults and we see generally stress reduction and many reports around the calming or relaxing nature of play.” Play falls into two general categories: structured and unstructured. Structured play is play with a purpose that offers a specific learning goal. For Wight’s family, structured play often takes the form of board games. “It teaches him that you’re allowed to be competitive without being overbearing and there are rules that you have to follow,” says Wight. “With something as simple as Candyland, sometimes there are obstacles that get in the way that prevent us from winning. In snakes and ladders, you roll the dice, go down the snake, and all of a sudden you’re not winning anymore but it’s still fun. He enjoys it just as much as we do.” While organized games offer an important opportunity to learn life lessons, unstructured play offers children and adults the chance to express their imaginations. A recent exhibit at the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 in Halifax, in partnership with the Royal British Columbia Museum, called Family Bonds and Belonging features a dedicated intergenerational play area. “We wanted to have not only a fun area for kids to romp, but also a way for them to play that would involve their parents and build into the intergenerational theme to make people think about family relations,” says Dan Conlin, curator. Amid couch cushion and blanket forts, beanbag chairs, and a giant TV and lamp, children and adults let their imaginations flow. “The idea is to make adults kind of feel like they’re kids again,” says Conlin. “When everything seems so big and we were so small.” The giant TV is actually a shadow-puppet theatre. Often, says Conlin, the adults were the ones putting on the show. “We think it deepens people’s appreciation for relations between generations, as well as providing a lot of fun. It’s the first exhibit I built that included a blanket fort, and I hope it’s not the last.”
Our Children | Winter 2019
Above: Playing board games with adults helps children develop skills like counting and strategy.
Right: Ian Potter Children’s Wild Play Garden in Centennial Park in Sydney, Australia.
Truong also stresses the importance of including outdoor play and making space in children’s lives to appreciate nature. This doesn’t need to mean heading deep into the wilderness, but simply embracing the outdoor spaces in your own neighbourhood. His team recently visited the Ian Potter Children’s Wild Play Garden in Centennial Park in Sydney, Australia, to understand how children play outside. The park offers a dramatic landscape rich with open spaces, dry creek beds, a water-play area, a bamboo forest, tunnels, turtle mounds, and a treehouse. “In particular, when [children are] involved in play-space design, they’ll say, they want spaces to do big things, to run, to slide, and to swing,” he explains. “But then also, the quieter spaces or even the private spaces, which are generally not accessible to children in school or public playing areas because the sight lines are often what adults are concerned about.” Often, says Truong, schools structure play areas to separate children by age for valid logistical reasons such as limited play