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PlayRights Magazine Special 50th Anniversary Edition FEATURED ARTICLES
is, ‘the opportunity to explore and investigate materials and situa- tions for oneself’ (Moyles, 1989), while directed play is where an adult tells a child what to do, with the materials that are available. Children’s activities in public open Moyles suggets that there can be a play spiral where free play ex- spaces: what is play? Although the United Nations Con- ploration can feed into directed vention on the Rights of the Child play and ‘back into enriched free defines children as being anyone play’ allowing learning to draw under the age of 18 years old the upon wider experiences. main consideration of this paper will be those who are in the middle In the same way that there has been a variety of definitions of years, that is aged about 4 - 11. what play is, there has also been a Often when children are outside the confines of home and school selection of typologies or categori- sations of play. Boundaries be- and in public open spaces (for a tween different types of activities, discussion about public open play and who undertakes them spaces see Woolley 2003) they have been discussed by Sutton- undertake a range of activities. Smith (1997) who identifies a list of Much of this activity is described, activities as play. These include by adults, as ‘play’ and in recent mind or subjective play, solitary years there has been an increas- ing dialogue about play, what it is, play, playful behaviours, informal social play, vicarious audience where it takes place and its play, performance play, celebra- different forms. tions and festivals, contests (games and sports) and risky or Play has been described as ‘a deep play. A general typology of continually creative proc- children’s play has been devel- ess’ (Aaron and Winawer, 1965), ‘scientific research conducted by oped from play workers’ experi- children’ (Eibl-Eibesfeldt, 1970);; ‘an ences and perspectives and in- approach to action, not a form of cludes sixteen categories: com- activity’ (Moyles, 1989);; ‘imitation munication, creative, deep, dra- matic, exploratory, fantasy, imagi- of adult’s activities bringing native, locomotor, mastery, ob- children closer to the adult ject, role play, rough and tumble, world’ (Noschis, 1992) and as the recapitulative, social play, socio- ‘nature of childhood’ (Prout and James, 1997). A widely accepted dramatic and symbolic play (Hughes, 2002). In the school set- contemporary definition of play ting three main forms of play have within the field of play workers in been identified: physical, intellec- England is that, ‘play is freely chosen, personally directed, intrin- tual and social/emotional. These forms are identified as having sub- sically motivated behaviour that actively engages the child’ (NPFA, divisions of gross motor, fine motor and psychomotor for physical 2000), while government depart- ment The Department for Culture, play;; linguistic, scientific, symbolic/ Media and Sport has defined play mathematical and creative for as, ‘what children and young peo- intellectual play and therapeutic, ple do when they follow their own linguistic, repetitious, empathic, ideas and interests’ (DCMS, 2003). self-concept and gaming as so- cial/emotional play (Moyles, Although these definitions both clearly assert that play is an activ- 1989). More recently, a wide ity that is child-initiated the DCMS range of play has been identified as taking place in primary school also states that ‘adult support, guidance or supervision, may help playgrounds and this has been categorised as play with high ver- to achieve the most successful play provision’ (DCMS, 2003). This bal content, play with high imagi- can lead to a debate about free native content, play with high play and directed play. Free play physical content and lessstruc- grounds’ (McKendrick et al, 2000a) in the form of ‘stay and play’ centres, child-oriented theme parks, pubs and restaurants with annexes for soft play.
tured play involving activities such as walking, talking, sitting and watching (Woolley et al, 2005). Early playgrounds: enclosure of spaces for children’s play It has been suggested that four elements are required for the creation of a child’s play environ- ment: a place to play, a time to play, friends to play with and what the child actually does (Senda, 1992) and the first of these four elements ‘a place to play’ will now be discussed with respect to aspects of the external environ- ment. The seminal work of the Opies, who studied children’s games and play in different spaces, enabled them to conclude that, ‘where children are, is where they play’ (Opie and Opie, 1969,p10). Since this work in the 1960s a vari- ety of other research has identi- fied that children play in a range of different spaces in the built environment, with some of these spaces not only providing social and physical opportunities but also challenges (see e.g. Ward, 1978;; Hart, 1979;; Moore, 1986;; Cunningham and Jones, 1999;; McKendrick, 2000b;; Christensen and O’Brien, 2003;; and Woolley, 2007). Some of these spaces are designed for children to play in and are called ‘playgrounds’ while others are not specifically designed for children to play in (see e.g. Woolley, 2007), but are spaces in which children see the possibility or ‘affordance’ (Gibson, 1979) for play. The introduction and develop- ment of playgrounds in the West- ern world was initiated in the 19th century. In America in 1821 ‘outdoor gymnasia’ were intro- duced consisting, in the main, of indoor gymnastic apparatus placed in the outdoor environ- ment (Frost, 2006). This was followed by the development of individual pieces of apparatus or what is now called fixed play equipment (Frost, 1992). In the early 20th century the New York City Board of Education devel-