Play

It’s fairly easy to define play, or is it?

“Play: any spontaneous or organized activity that provides enjoyment, entertainment, amusement, or diversion”

Oxford Reference, Oxford University Press

What about…

“Play is often defined as activity done for its own sake, characterized by means rather than ends”

Peter Smith & Anthony Pellegrini (2023),
Learning Through Play, Encyclopedia of Early Childhood Development

What the Oxford Reference definition missed out was a major reason for play… the educational value of play. When we say “I’m just playing around…” we’re effectively exploring ideas. There’s no defined end. You are just seeing and exploring what happens when you try various things or combinations. Likewise, children play a lot to explore how things work, or explore social interactions, or practice skills. Play can also be about re-enacting things they have seen or just something in their imagination. Play is also important to development in humans as well as various other species, where play has been observed.

Although we perhaps see play as a simple thing, it’s no wonder there are books, academic papers and research looking at what play is, why do we play, types of play, are certain types of play better than others? And a whole load of other questions.

There are all socio-cultural issues around play and the pre-conceived ideas we have about what play is and what it should look like. Take the two images below.

The left-hand image (from the Berkshire Mummies site) shows part of a public playground. The sort of thing typically found in some parks/green spaces around the United Kingdom. Installed in 2023, it follows thinking along the lines of providing physical challenges, adventure, etc. And while not everything is accessible for mobility disabilities, a large number of pieces of equipment are designed with accessibility in mind.

The second image, taken from the Governors Island website, is The Yard, a popular adventure playground on Governors Island, New York City. Based on the original adventure 1930s playground concept by the Danish architect Carl Theodor Sørensen. It’s a large space where lots of loose old building materials, such as planks of wood, reels, pallets, plastic piping, etc, are available for children to use as they like… oh and parents are not allowed in! There are some experienced playworkers who are available to give help if asked, show how to use tools and keep an eye on things, but the main point is that children are encouraged to explore/play without adults telling them and showing them all the time.

Both offer forms of play. Both provide opportunities to ‘let off steam’, explore and practice physical and social skills. The Yard, however, is a better environment for letting children engage in non-directed play and exploration of the Peter Smith & Anthony Pellegrini’s definition of play as an activity done for its own sake.

More about the history of adventure playgrounds and the ethos behind them is available from the Adventure Play site.

The idea of adventure playgrounds has also changed with an increasing number of very large bespoke ‘themed’ adventure play spaces (for want of a better term). These are usually spread over a much larger area than a typical playground and usually woodland fantasy themed. Eg Lilidorei at Alnwick Castle, BeWILDerwood, The Forbidden Corner, Hobbledown and Adventure Play Windsor – to name just a few just in the UK.

They certainly offer more in the way of challenges for young people, with typically at least one large multilevel structure that encourages different physical skills to navigate around it. Aerial tunnels and walkways, underground tunnels, large sandpits, caves, splash zones, etc, depending on where you go. And they are definitely set out to invite children to explore, be active and from a parent’s point of view have an enjoyable time and be tired out, albeit at the expense of the entry fee.

However, the principles of creating good play spaces can easily be done in our homes and no doubt will elaborate how I’m doing this over other blog posts. There are YouTubers and influencers showing what they are doing to their large homes to make interesting spaces for children – but it is not about having fancy play equipment or even big spaces. I don’t have a large house, it’s an old Edwardian brick semi-detached built in 1911, taking up a total ground space of 8m x 6m, with probably the only main modification since it was built being the outside toilet being brought inside. I also don’t have a particularly large garden. Probably larger than most suburban gardens by UK standards, but it’s still relatively restrictive in space so the fun has been exploring what I can do with it in the way of garden design to create play spaces and meet my fascination with plants.

Nonetheless, whatever space or situation you have, it’s about undirected play, letting children and young people explore and make up their own games with whatever is around and available for their use. Often, it’s adults just needing to let go and not need to control everything. Among the other voices advocating undirected exploratory play and spaces are Denita Dinger, who organises her day care business around this and blogs as Listen to the Children, as well as Professor Peter Grey, a research professor in psychology and neuroscience who blogs about his views in Freedom to Learn, and Tom Hobson who blogs as Teacher Tom and is a strong advocate of the value of play and letting students take charge of their own learning.

So watch this space. There is more to add… 🙂