Justine Howard

Differences in practitioners’ understanding of play and how this influences pedagogy and children’s perceptions of play

This paper presents research that examines the links between practitioners’ understanding of play and its relationship to learning, their pedagogic interactions with children and children’s own perceptions of their play. Previous research has shown a mismatch between practitioners’ understanding of play and their practice. This research identifies how differences in understanding of play, especially the role of the adult, by practitioners in two unrelated settings are associated with variation in pedagogic interactions emphasising choice and control. Furthermore, it is argued that these differences are reflected in differences in children’s use of the cue of adult presence as a defining feature of play and not-play activities.

The nature of adult–child interaction in the early years classroom: Implications for children's perceptions of play and subsequent learning behaviour

Within early childhood education, play is central to teaching and learning but it is considered difficult to define and traditionally definitions have been based on adult perceptions of the observable play act. However, play may be most beneficial when it is considered as an approach to a task, and based on a definition of play from the childs perspective. Previous studies have revealed that children define play using cues within their environment and one critical cue is adult presence: Children appear to be less likely to define and approach an activity as play if an adult is present. It is hypothesised that the way adults interact with children may have an effect on childrens use of this cue. This study examines adult–child interactions in early years classrooms to identify factors related to childrens use of this cue. Findings suggest that issues of control and choice communicated via open questions, and exchanges based on mutual understanding and shared control might be central to this. It is proposed that this style of adult–child interaction needs to be developed in order to co-construct a play-based curriculum to maximise playfulness and hence learning.

Living in a broken world: how young children's well-being is supported through playing out their earthquake experiences

The therapeutic value of play can be shown in spontaneous play situations following childrens experiences of traumatic events. Following the events of the Christchurch earthquakes in New Zealand in 2010 and 2011, an investigation was conducted of how children used the earthquake event as a catalyst in pretend play with peers and in discussions with teachers. Supporting childrens well-being is a focus area in New Zealand early childhood education, as it is a strand of the national curriculum Te Whāriki [Ministry of Education. (1996). Te Whāriki. He whāriki mātauranga mōngā mokopuna o Aotearoa: Early childhood curriculum. Wellington: Learning Media]. In this article, children are observed engaging in pretend play episodes, and with personalized Learning Story books, to explore personal reflections of the earthquake, prompting the children to make reference to things being ‘broken’ and needing ‘fixing’. Analysis shows how the content of the pretend play experiences helped the children to come to terms with their experiences. Affording children time and interactional opportunities to play out and discuss traumatic experiences contributes to the psychological well-being of participants following a traumatic event.

Trainee teachers’ perspectives on play characteristics and their role in children's play: an international comparative study amongst trainees in the Netherlands, Wales, Germany and Finland

An international comparative research project was carried out in the Netherlands, Wales, Germany and Finland to understand how trainee teachers reflect upon play. Data was collected among 31 Dutch, 37 Welsh, 40 German and 19 Finnish teacher trainees. They watched four videotaped sequences of preschoolers engaged in an activity. Next, they answered four open ended questions to elicit reflections upon the clips. The data were analysed to answer two questions. The first was to compare reflections on the presence of play characteristics. The second question considered whether responses differed with regard to appreciation of the preschool teachers role in the activity. Using Chi-Square analyses significant differences were found between countries with regard to both research questions. The article discusses that the differences between countries might be explained in terms of differences in teacher education. It raises questions about teacher training curriculum with regard to play since it appears to influence viewpoints on play as well as on classroom practice.

Factors influencing children's perceptions of choice within their free play activity: the impact of functional, structural and social affordances

Wales, Northern Ireland, Scotland and the Republic of Ireland currently have play policies based on a definition of play being freely-chosen by the child. These are based on adult generated definitions about children having free choice during play rather than a child’s perception as to whether and in what ways, choice is important. When coupled with other aims for learning and development, play being defined as freely chosen within policy documentation can lead to challenges for practitioners. For example in early years classroom environments, ensuring learning outcomes are met can cause a dichotomy between free play and play which is engineered to meet curricula demands. There is the potential for similar tension to arise in other professional contexts such as playwork, if an adult generated definition of play as being freely chosen is retained. It is important that we understand how important choice is for children in their play and what factors might influence this choice. Perceptions of choice in children’s self-defined play scenarios were gathered from 48 children using pictorial stimuli and interview methods. Children were firstly asked how much choice they had in the play activity they had described. Hypothetical changes were then made to the play activity based on functional (types of activity), structural (space and materials) and social (introducing known and unknown children or adults) affordances. Findings revealed that children did not need to have complete free choice for an activity to be defined as play and there was no significant difference in the amount of choice children described as having in their play across home, school playground and out-of-school club contexts. Making functional or structural changes to children’s play always led to a significantly lower level of perceived choice. Manipulation of the social affordances had a more varied effect where perceived choice varies both within and across contexts depending if unknown or known people were involved in the play. Findings are discussed in relation to practice, policy development and planning for play across contexts.

Using Conversation Analysis for Understanding Children’s Talk about Traumatic Events

There is a wealth of research and literature investigating children’s traumatic experiences from a psychological perspective, whereas there is relatively less literature using a sociological approach that includes discourse, narrative, and conversation. This chapter aims to demonstrate the importance of investigating children’s trauma talk through this latter approach by providing a theoretical overview of literature that uses conversation analysis (CA) to explore children’s interactions related to trauma and associated mental health matters.

Exploring the presence of characteristics associated with play within the ritual repetitive behaviour of autistic children

This exploratory study, undertaken in Wales, United Kingdom, in 2010, looked at 36 episodes of repetitive behaviour in nine autistic children between the ages of 6 and 12 years to consider if these behaviours were consonant with behaviours associated with play. The participants were observed during break time sessions within a special school setting. A detailed analysis of each episode of ritual repetitive behaviour in relation to characteristics associated with playful attitude was then conducted using Rubin, Fein, and Vandenbergs (1983, Handbook of Child Psychology) criteria for play, The Ludic Model (Ferland, 1997, Play, children with physical disabilities and occupational therapy: The Ludic Model) and the Leuvens Involvement Scale (Laevers, 1994, The Leuvens Involvement Scale for Young Children (LIC-YC)). Results suggest that the childrens ritual and repetitive behaviour contained many of the characteristics associated with playful attitude as well as multiple indicators of involvement. The paper suggests that autistic children may benefit from an acknowledgement that some of their repetitive behaviour may be viewed as atypical play and that further research into the function and form of repetitive behaviour is warranted.

Playing to learn: the role of play in the early years

without lapsing into uncritical adulation for their respective approaches. An explicitly critical stance is also positively encouraged by the editors, an approach very much in keeping with the spirit of a poststructuralist approach (Chapter 3), which encourages us to tease out the often implicit, unconscious metaphysical presuppositions that underpin, and often determine and constrain, the content of our theories and associated practices. In an age when programmatic curricular approaches are very much the norm (cf. England’s Early Years Foundation Stage, for example), there is an even greater, even more urgent need for those who are training for early-years work to be equipped with a critical, ‘deconstructive’ sensibility, in order to nurture the genuine professional autonomy and initiative that can so easily be compromised when centralised, de-professionalising curricular diktat is the norm. My only significant reservations about the book were that, first, the ‘auto-critique’ sections at the end of each main chapter were very variable, and sometimes somewhat half-hearted – even cursory. If one is really going to go for self-reflexive critique (which in principle I strongly support), then it seems important to do it thoroughly and effectively. If I had been critiquing the HighScope approach, for example, I think my text would have amounted to a lot more than just two paragraphs (113). Second, while the issue of practitioner compliance to externally imposed ‘outcomes’ discourses and regimes is rightly mentioned (e.g. on 165, 166), it is such an important current issue that perhaps more space could have been devoted to it (e.g. in Chapters 1, 2, 3 and 8). I recommend this book unreservedly for use on early childhood studies and ECEC programmes and courses; any student reading this book cannot but have her/ his understanding and sensitivity to working with, and thinking about, young children enriched and deepened.