{"title":"Play space in plain sight: the disruptive alliances between street trees and skateboarders","authors":"Duncan McDuie‐Ra","doi":"10.1080/21594937.2023.2235470","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21594937.2023.2235470","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article is an ethnographic account of searches for play space in Newcastle, Australia, specifically for skateboarding. Street skateboarding is predicated on unstructured play at ‘found’ spots in the urban landscape assembled from surfaces, objects, and obstacles. Without access to established skateparks during COVID-19 lockdowns, the search for play space became an exciting part of lockdown life, and street trees were surprising guideposts for locating unpredictable surfaces and angles. Through these observations, this article explores the potential of street trees in generating play space through skateboarding, making three arguments. First, street trees are overlooked as potential play space compared to trees living in parks, reserves, and playgrounds. Crucially, street trees generate play space by assembling and re-assembling the urban landscape in unpredictable ways. Second, skateboarders and trees are unexpected allies in unstructured play and the disruption of urban order. Third, street trees produce skate spots by modifying the built environment, challenging ideas of mutually exclusive realms of nature vs. city, grey vs. green, play vs. passivity, and use vs. misuse. These examples may not fit idealised notions of human-tree relations, but they open new possibilities for thinking about these relations and where we seek and find play space.","PeriodicalId":52149,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Play","volume":"10 1","pages":"285 - 303"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75548156","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Pretend play predicts language development in young children with Autism Spectrum Disorder","authors":"A. Vyshedskiy, E. Khokhlovich","doi":"10.1080/21594937.2023.2235472","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21594937.2023.2235472","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This quantitative study uses longitudinal caregiver surveys to explore the relationship between pretend play and development in children with ASD. Caregivers assessed the development of 7069 young children quarterly for three years on five subscales: combinatorial receptive language, expressive language, sociability, sensory awareness, and health. Pretend play was associated with superior developmental trajectories: 1.9-fold greater improvement of combinatorial receptive language (p < 0.0001), 1.4-fold greater improvement of expressive language (p < 0.0001), and 1.3-fold greater improvement of sensory awareness (p = 0.0009). Pretend play did not account for a significant amount of the variability in children’s sociability and health. The strong association of pretend play with combinatorial receptive language remained significant even when controlling for expressive language. Similarly, the strong association of pretend play with expressive language remained significant even when controlling for combinatorial receptive language. The association of pretend play with combinatorial receptive language was stronger than the association of seizures, sleep problems, or high-TV exposure. These findings support earlier studies suggesting that pretend play may be an important stepping stone for language acquisition and highlight a potential for pretend play therapeutic interventions.","PeriodicalId":52149,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Play","volume":"86 1","pages":"403 - 419"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89039275","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
F. Scott, J. Marsh, K. Murris, D. Ng’ambi, B. S. Thomsen, C. Bannister, J. Bishop, K. Dixon, T. Giorza, A. Hetherington, C. Lawrence, B. Nutbrown, B. Parry, J. Peers, E. Scholey
{"title":"An ecological perspective on children’s play with digital technologies in South Africa and the United Kingdom","authors":"F. Scott, J. Marsh, K. Murris, D. Ng’ambi, B. S. Thomsen, C. Bannister, J. Bishop, K. Dixon, T. Giorza, A. Hetherington, C. Lawrence, B. Nutbrown, B. Parry, J. Peers, E. Scholey","doi":"10.1080/21594937.2023.2235466","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21594937.2023.2235466","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This paper reports a mixed-methods study of the play of children (3–11) with digital technologies in South Africa (SA) and the United Kingdom (UK), discussing the interrelatedness of access to devices and the Internet, contextual realities, and adult-child relations. An adapted ecological model [Bronfenbrenner (1979) The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design. Harvard University Press] guided analysis. Parents and carers in the UK were more likely than their SA counterparts to report children's engagement in object, construction and transgressive digital play, correlating with access differences, especially to tablet devices. However, play incorporating technologies was extensive, even in contexts in SA with limited access to a wide range of devices or readily available internet. Despite relying primarily on smartphones, children in SA were more likely to create digital content unassisted than those in the UK. The qualitative data complicate understandings of particular play types, including transgressive digital play.","PeriodicalId":52149,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Play","volume":"43 1","pages":"349 - 374"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86623225","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"An exploration of outdoor play and wellbeing in Northern Irish primary schools","authors":"Catherine Latimer, K. Winter, K. Lloyd","doi":"10.1080/21594937.2023.2235467","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21594937.2023.2235467","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT\u0000 The increasingly poor physical and mental health outcomes for children in Northern Ireland are, in part, attributed to a sedentary, indoor lifestyle and a concern that children are not availing of outdoor play opportunities. For some children, the school playground is the only accessible outdoor space available to them and is therefore a critical site in terms of promoting wellbeing. This paper reports the findings of an exploratory study which investigated school staff’s attitudes and children’s views, perspectives and experiences of play in school playgrounds in Northern Ireland. The findings illustrate that the school playground shapes the way in which children access outdoor play through its physical, policy and social setup; and that the design, structure, management and provision of the school playground all play a role in shaping children’s play behaviours and enjoyment of play. Findings also indicate that children are not being consulted about their play space, and schools lack policies and training opportunities for staff regarding outdoor play. Based on the findings and applying concepts associated with the Affordance Framework [Gibson, J. J. (1979). The ecological approach to visual perception. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates], the transformative potential of restructuring primary school playgrounds in Northern Ireland is highlighted and implications for future research, policy and practice are outlined.","PeriodicalId":52149,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Play","volume":"24 1","pages":"304 - 320"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81847010","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"‘I don’t think that it’s play. Because we have to play’. Norwegian six-year-old children’s understandings of play when they start in primary school","authors":"Maja Reinåmo Olsson","doi":"10.1080/21594937.2023.2235469","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21594937.2023.2235469","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article aims to explore how Norwegian six-year-old children talk about and show their understandings of play when they have just started primary school. The research design is a focused ethnographic fieldwork, reporting on participant observations and group interviews with children in the first year of primary school, and interpreted through a thematic analysis. The analysis indicates that the children consider play as important to the transition process and their everyday school life. They express and show their understandings of play in various ways, thematized as freedom of choice, resistance, and community. The article suggests that children’s joint play can be understood as an underlife in school and introduces the term playful (re)production as a theoretical approach for exploring children’s understandings of play. The study raises awareness of the role play has for children’s well-being, agency, and relationships with peers in the transition process and in general activities in school.","PeriodicalId":52149,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Play","volume":"82 1","pages":"321 - 336"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90598218","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Can an intensive professional development on play change child care providers’ perspectives and practice on play?","authors":"Myae Han, Martha J. Buell, Di Liu, Annette Pic","doi":"10.1080/21594937.2023.2209239","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21594937.2023.2209239","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Early childhood teachers need knowledge and skills to support play and learning. However, the child care workforce often has limited or no preservice training on play, relying instead on in-service training. With policy shifts towards a standards-driven curriculum in the U.S., there is limited in-service play training available, creating a need for high quality in-service training on play. This study introduces a model of intensive professional development (PD) on play – a group workshop coupled with a group coaching model – implemented in the Mid-Atlantic area in the U.S. The play training focused on three areas: self-active play experience, the knowledge and skills needed to support children's learning through play. The group coaching component included feedback on self-recorded video practice and an opportunity for participants to share reflections on supporting play with each other and the coaches. We conducted an interview study with the participants about their perspectives on play and practice after the intensive PD. Qualitative data analysis revealed that: (1) all participants changed their perspectives on play after the play PD; (2) participants implemented strategies from the training and supported more play in practice; and (3) despite increased knowledge and skills, participants continued to experience challenges when implementing play strategies.","PeriodicalId":52149,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Play","volume":"29 1","pages":"175 - 192"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89492390","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}