Friday, July 15, 2011

Children's natural desire to Do

Children approach their world in a naturally inquisitive manner and when coming across new items they want to find out what they can do with it by involving all of their senses; seeing, smelling, hearing, moving, touching and tasting. At some point as we move into adulthood we depart form this hands-on approach and come to focus mainly on one of the senses - that of seeing, and looks become the highest criteria of beauty.

Canadian-born play designer Barbara Hendricks argues that ‘young children, like early civilisations, value impressions of the world around them and do not concern themselves with the idea or concept of good taste - but with what tastes good, feels good and so forth. They have an innate appreciation of the beautiful, not a learned appreciation. Our culture teaches us another set of rules of beauty - a lecture in good taste’ (2001).

Schools, nurseries and other child care facilities can offer more choice in terms of outdoor play compared with a public playground since not only are these playgrounds supervised by staff, but a variety of loose play equipment can be stored away and brought out to extend play opportunities. Such objects can often be manipulated by children, such as stack and build objects, thereby extending ways of engagement. When involved in designing public playgrounds, great care goes into creating environments that are robust to withstand general wear and tear but also, sadly, to cope with potential vandalism and theft. Loose objects are therefore rarely included in such spaces, which is why I’m arguing that play spaces that are supervised should be equipped with a wide range of items and materials and make these available to children. Play should be child-initiated. The role of the adult should be to provide the space and offer variety, ensure the space is a quality space and is well looked after.

Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Playground

Posted by Mia Witham | Comments (1) | Trackbacks (0) | Permalink