The impact of a natural playscape installation on young children's play behaviors
Natural playscapes foster more sustained, constructive, and cooperative play
Where natural spaces are not accessible for the purpose of play, natural playscapes can be created to approximate the play opportunities available in a natural setting through the inclusion of natural elements such as vegetation, stones, open-ended paths, water, and loose parts. Such natural playscape features are “intended to promote play encounters that foster socialization and cooperation among children, motivate them to explore with nature, interact and build with natural materials, and actively move from one setting to another.” Fundamental for healthy child development, these types of play experiences can be characterized as cooperative, constructive, nature, and locomotor play.
The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of changing the school play area at Tufts University’s lab school in Massachusetts from a standard, constructed playground to a nature playscape. In particular, the authors were interested in the ability of certain features to attract and hold the attention of children as related to the four above-mentioned play types. The school serves approximately 90 children between the ages of four and eight years. There were three phases of this study: pre-installation of the natural playscape; post-installation; and six months after the installation. In each phase, 30 children (15 male and 15 female) were randomly selected from three classrooms with equal representation from the preschool, kindergarten, and combined first/second grade classrooms. Each child was observed once during each phase of the study, with a total of 90 observations conducted over the three phases. The Outdoor Play Inventory©, previously developed by the authors, was used as a time-sampling observation protocol coding for 35 literature-based play styles (i.e. cooperative, parallel, associative, solitary play), play patterns (i.e., functional, constructive, dramatic play), and play characteristics (i.e., child/adult initiation, gross motor activities, interactions with various play props). Semi-structured interviews (asking questions such as “Tell me what you do in this part of the playground”) with individual children were also conducted during phase 1 and phase 3 of the study to obtain comparative qualitative data about how children used the playground.
Results typically demonstrated an increase in the ability of new playscape features to attract the attention of children immediately after the transformation, however this effect wore off over time. The impact of the playscape transformation on holding children’s attention depended on the specific play area. The new sand area with water pump held children’s attention in locomotor play quite well 6 months later. In contrast, converting a climber to a tree house resulted in a decrease in holding time over the three phases. However, the tree house became a critical component of larger play scenarios involving picking up and dropping off play materials from across the playscape, facilitated by the new running and biking pathways. Children’s interviews confirmed this effect; they reported that they engaged in activities that required them to move themselves and play props across multiple areas of the playscape. As such, children’s play themes were not restricted by specific playscape areas or features. As intended, specific features of the natural playscape promoted collaboration within constructive play. Children’s motor activity became more than functional; it now had social and constructive purpose. Overall, this study suggests that “children’s play is more sustained, constructive, and cooperative when given the affordances of a natural playscape.”
Citation
Kuh, L. P., Ponte, I., Chau, C., (2013). The impact of a natural playscape installation on young children's play behaviors. Children, Youth and Environments, 23(2),
