"We need to ensure that
parents, communities and professionals recognise the value and
long-term benefits of play and to promote how critical play and the
arts are for children’s development." |
Play is a central part of the development of all children. The parent and family are the first playmates for the child and it is here that the child learns through watching, participating and experimenting in the home. The children’s learning through play builds from interactions with parents in the home to exploring the wider world. It then develops in learning activities in playgroups, nurseries and in the early years of school. For the child, play is natural and encourages a sense of experimentation on their own as well as interaction with parents, family, peers and the wider community. The world of play can be a natural setting for introducing and encouraging early literacy and numeracy as well as socialisation with others.
Play takes place in settings that must be safe yet encourage the child to take carefully controlled risks. For many parents, this can present a challenge as personal circumstances may mean that the child is growing up in an environment where there is a high risk of accidents. As a result, many parents do not feel confident enough to play with their child and to encourage learning through play.
From practice The nursery offered parents and carers a short programme on home safety with the pre-five age group. It also provided a well-stocked bank of equipment such as safety gates, socket blocks and cupboard locks that parents could use in their own homes to enable children to play safely. This service was highly valued by families who were unable to afford this equipment. |
Creating spaces for play
The process of engaging the wider community to support play and provide interesting spaces for play and playful learning is essential. The importance of Play is recognised in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in which Article 31 enshrines the child’s right to play. There are clear benefits from providing and maintaining public play space in the community for children. Many children in urban environments have few opportunities to play outside. Areas set aside for that purpose help children to become confident in an outdoor setting and learn how to take risks while keeping themselves safe.
It prepares them for more challenging out-of-school activities, such as sport or joining one of the uniformed organisations for young people. The successes and wider achievements can lead to award programmes such as the Duke of Edinburgh award scheme and establish a positive habit of engaging in outdoor pursuits that can last into adult life. Some councils have worked with charities and the community to provide new facilities in the local neighbourhood. Others are supporting schools and pre-schools in initiatives such as forest schools.
Housing partners
developing play spaces CASE STUDY 15 |
At Gartlea, the community council set up a separate group, Gartlea Children Playing Safely, to progress the project. In Petersburn, the local housing association (Link Housing Association) brought in their charitable arm, Link Wide, to consult with the community on the play provision that the association needed to offer as a planning condition. Out of this, the Petersburn Development Trust was formed, supported by the council’s CLD and Play Services staff as well as Link Wide workers. At Caldercruix, there was an existing youth and community development project that wanted to improve the play facilities in the village and, at Craigneuk, it was an existing Community Regeneration group who identified the lack of play provision as an important issue for them.
Parents engaged in a variety of activities dependent on the existing skills and experiences of the group. Examples included committee skills training and the CVS financial management course. Other activities were more specific to the project such as consultation events and community surveys, research about play generally and play area design. Such activities included site visits and meeting other groups who had built and managed community play areas. Parents developed their play area design with Play Services and a landscape architect, met potential funders and submitted successful funding applications.
Clentry Nursery School:
learning outdoors CASE STUDY 16 |
Clentry Nursery School wanted to ensure that children had regular high quality learning experiences outside as well as inside. They extended children’s learning by developing an exciting and challenging programme of daily outdoor learning experiences. As a result, staff are able to support children’s progress even more when outside in a wide range of areas.
Staff include frequent visits to Blairadam Forest where children are encouraged to be active, use their senses, take risks, make mistakes and learn from them. They enjoy trying new activities like orienteering where they can use their literacy and numeracy skills to help them look at simple maps and signs. Staff encourage children to experiment with science and technology resources outdoors. Children gain movement skills in more challenging balancing and climbing activities. They learn how to be safe using the hill slide and when riding wheeled toys on their own marked roadways and roundabout in the nursery grounds. Parents are keen supporters of all of these activities and often work alongside staff to support their children.
Staff see the benefits of learning outside where children can experience real life and imaginary situations. Children learn to use different strategies and develop positive attitudes to the outside world around them. Staff know that by engaging children and their families in meaningful outdoor play they grow in confidence, have better self esteem, social awareness, independence, and improved physical and mental wellbeing. Parents are learning to respond to their children’s needs and interests and they now feel more confident about involving them in outdoor activities.