PRESCHOOL CHILDREN'S PLAY SPACE: THE PLACE AND ROLE OF ADULTS

Pellegrini and Smith (1998) have provided a challenging review of the forms and possible functions of play during childhood, and Blatchford's (1998) paper on children's play reports a programme of research about the nature of play at school breaktimes that seems to be the sort of research that Pellegrini and Smith recommend in their conclusion, calling for more descriptive studies of children's play. When considering the nature and possible functioning of play during childhood Pellegrini and Smith explore general definitional issues. They suggest that play theorists such as Piaget and Vygotsky considered that play was the way that children learnt skills necessary for successful functioning in adulthood. Perhaps this is a simple way to express, for example, Vygotsky's (1978) descriptions of play in ‘The Role of Play in Development’ in Mind in society. Vygotsky states that in play a child creates an imaginary situation; that play is the place where a child spontaneously makes use of his ability to separate meaning from an object without knowing he is doing it. The creation of an imaginary situation is the first manifestation of the child's emancipation from situational constraints and the primary paradox of play is that the child operates with an alienated meaning in a real situation. Vygotsky may be describing an important skill for successful functioning in adulthood, but it is also an important function in childhood.

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A STUDY ON THE EDUCATIONAL ROLE OF NATURAL SPACE AND IT'S TRANSFORMATION THROUGH HEARING TO THREE GENERATIONS Part 2 : Studies on aspects of the functions for environmental study through children's play in rural nature spaces

Journal of Architecture Planning and Environmental Engineering (Transactions of AIJ) ◽

10.3130/aijax.450.0_83 ◽

1993 ◽

Vol 450 (0) ◽

pp. 83-92 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Isami KINOSHITA

Keyword(s):

Environmental Study ◽

Children's Play ◽

Three Generations ◽

Educational Role ◽

Children’S Play

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The Importance of Taking Risks: A Report on the Conference

Cultural-Historical Psychology ◽

10.17759/chp.2016120111 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

pp. 102-105

Author(s):

I.A. Kotliar ◽

M.V. Sokolova ◽

E.G. Sheina

Keyword(s):

Risk Assessment ◽

Health Care Professionals ◽

Self Regulation ◽

Theory And Practice ◽

Children's Play ◽

Children’S Play ◽

Prevention Programmes ◽

Western Theory ◽

Pedagogical Analysis

The paper gives an overview of the 14th interdisciplinary conference The Importance of Taking Risks held by the Welsh branch of the International Play Association. The meeting focused on various aspects of supporting children’s play and on the role of risk in child development. The conference had a clear multidis- ciplinary character and brought together specialists from a variety of fields: psychologists, teachers, social workers, experts in risk assessment, and health care professionals. The paper outlines how risk is understood in modern western theory and practice and distinguishes between risk and danger. A child must be taught to assess situations as safe or dangerous. However, modern developmental environment tends to reduce the possibility of risks for the child, which deprives him/her of the natural means of learning about the world and reduces creativity and independence and holds back the child’s self-regulation, prolonging compelled dependence and making children more infantile. The conference also involved discussions concerning tech- niques for risk assessment and a number of prevention programmes and practices. This work was supported by the Russian Foundation for Humanities (project No 15-06-10627 “Psychological and pedagogical analysis of children’s play environment of the modern city”).

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