PLAYLINK Publications
Making Sense
playwork in practice
the pictureless children
One of the great things about play is that it doesn't require a huge amount of equipment. Sometimes all that's needed is a little imagination.
A parent brought two children aged five and seven onto Shoreditch Playpark and, after looking around the building, asked if it was alright to leave them. The worker said yes, but that it was an open access site and explained how that meant that although the playground was supervised the children were free to come and go as they pleased. The parent then told the children not to go outside the playground and left.
Once the parent had gone the two children immediately made their way over to some bushes deep inside the playground and played there on their own.
When the parent returned just over an hour later, he looked round the building and not seeing his children anywhere asked the playworker where they were. She told him she thought they were still playing in the bushes and that was what they had been doing all the time they were there. The parent was horrified that they hadn't been indoors doing a picture under the watchful gaze of a playworker.
The children were indeed playing in the bushes, both of them had been having a great time 'playing in the jungle' and have, despite their father's initial horror, both come back to the playground on several occasions.
playwork focus
1. Play provision should be about a child's choice.a) The basic freedom to be somewhere or not is fundamental to the open access play site. Children are central to the decisions made in such settings, although there may well be external pressures imposed on the children, like being told to stay by a parent. b) Very young children are capable of making their own choices
about what they want to do and are usually quite capable of
playing without coming to any harm. |
|
Best Play Values Best Play Objectives Quality in Play Areas |
|
2. Supervision does not mean intensive scrutinya) Playworkers do not need to intrude in play to make it safe. An intrusive adult presence restricts or even closes down children's play. b) Skilled supervision is an important part of any playground, offering
both security and risk. Workers are quick to notice problems as
they develop, or children that may need more support than others,
and judge their degree of intervention accordingly. They are always
available if support is needed. |
|
Best Play Values Best Play Objectives Quality in Play Areas |
|
3. Play needn't have a product, tangible or otherwise.a) Although drawing and painting are popular activities on all playgrounds arts and crafts are just one aspect of what is available. While it is often good for children to make something, it is very often an adult expectation that prompts them, as there is something tangible for the adult to focus praise on. b) Playgrounds try to offer the opportunities for as many different play
types3 as possible so that as many children's needs as possible
can be met.
|
|
Best Play Values Best Play Objectives Quality in Play Areas |
Footnotes
3 Play types are categorized by Bob Hughes, 1996, in A Playworkers Taxonomy of Play Types, PLAYLINK, London UK.
© 2002 PLAYLINK.
?What is Play Depreciation? ? PLAYWORK LINKS ? Playwork PRINCIPLES ? PLAY WAR AND INDUSTRY - WHAT CONNECTIONS? ?
