The play environment influences child behavior, but the strength of this influence and its variation across playground zones remain unknown. These questions are addressed by an observational study of ...child behavior in ten contemporary public playgrounds which includes play zone identification, on-site observations, statistical evaluation of zone playability/sociability and analysis of correlations between feature categories and play zone ratings. The results indicate that selected feature categories can determine a playground's playability and sociability, the strength of a feature's influence varies by playground zone type, there are two key features which increase zone type potential (supplementary features and alignment of playground zoning with the natural sequence of play development), and factors determine defunct zones (redundancy/duplication, functional or visual isolation and lack of loop activity).
Thus, contemporary playgrounds can have strong play and social potential, and the existence of specific features affects a playground's potential regardless of its type.
•The contemporary playground does not have to lack playability and sociability.•The selected feature categories can determine a playground's playability and sociability.•The strength of a feature's influence varies by playground zone type.•The supplementary features and the alignment of playground zoning with a sequence of play increase the potential.•There are factors determining defunct zones: redundancy/duplication, functional/visual isolation and lack of loop activity.
Playing outdoors is beneficial for children's development and learning. Investigating how children's play varies in different types of outdoor environments can offer valuable insight to better ...support their development. As part of a larger comprehensive study examining the impact of naturalizing outdoor play environments, this article focuses on investigating young children's physical activity levels and movements on equipment-based and a naturalized outdoor play environments at a licensed early childhood education and care setting. Through a quasi-experimental mixed method design, the present study used wrist- and hip-worn accelerometers as well as spatial behaviour mapping to investigate the level of physical activity and movement between the two types of outdoor play environments. Findings from the accelerometer data indicated a significant decrease in moderate-vigorous physical activity, and a significant increase in sedentary behaviour in the naturalized outdoor play environment. Spatial behaviour mapping revealed that this decrease in physical activity post-naturalization could be due to children engaging in longer periods of more clustered (i.e., multiple experiences in a similar area) play interactions and experiences on the naturalized outdoor play environment compared to the equipment-based environment. This research is valuable for considering how children's more holistic development could be supported on a naturalized outdoor play environment to inform pedagogical and policy decisions.
•Naturalized playgrounds may support lower physical activity levels.•Longer play pauses and interactions were observed on the naturalized playgrounds.•More clustered play interactions were observed on the naturalized playgrounds.•Naturalized playgrounds may support more engagement in holistic outdoor play.
To synthesize evidence regarding the physical design features and non-physical aspects of public playgrounds that facilitate/hinder outdoor play, social participation, and inclusion; identify design ...recommendations; and explore the current discourses and concepts around designing for outdoor play, social participation, and inclusion in public playgrounds in the context of Universal Design (UD).
Published studies addressing public playgrounds, inclusion, and design, were identified via a systematic search of eleven databases from health, science, education, and humanities.
Fifteen documents met the inclusion criteria. Three main themes were identified concerning physical design features and non-physical aspects of public playgrounds that facilitate/hinder outdoor play, social participation, and inclusion, with associated design recommendations. Although UD is recognized to have the potential to support the design of public playgrounds, no studies examined UD solutions for playgrounds or tested them for effectiveness.
We cannot yet determine whether UD can support outdoor play, social participation, and inclusion in public playgrounds. Research to date has mostly focused on understanding users' perspectives; future research should continue to be informed by diverse users' perspectives to address gaps in knowledge concerning children's voice from migrants, lower socioeconomic communities, and intergenerational users with disabilities alongside researching design solutions for play.
Implications for rehabilitation
Children, particularly children with disabilities and their families, continue to experience marginalization and exclusion in public playgrounds, despite a commitment to inclusion in international treaties.
Universal design is recognized to have the potential to support the design of public playgrounds, however, the evidence is currently very sparse.
While accessibility is an important consideration for playground design, it does not ensure that play occupations can take place.
Extending knowledge on universal design as it applies explicitly to playgrounds and play occupation requires multi- and trans-disciplinary collaboration that includes a play-centered perspective.
Creativity has been of research interest to psychologists dating back many decades, and is currently recognized as one of the essential skills needed to succeed in our complex, interconnected world. ...One medium that has affordances to assess and support creativity in young people is video games. In this paper, we briefly discuss the literature on video games and creativity and provide an example of current work being done relative to measuring creativity in the context of a game called Physics Playground using stealth assessment. To validate the stealth assessment of creativity, we conducted a one-group pretest-posttest study with 167 8th and 9th graders from a K-12 school in Florida. Results suggest that our stealth assessment of creativity is valid (i.e., our stealth assessment estimate significantly correlated with our external performance-based measures of creativity). Additional analyses revealed that creativity (i.e., estimated using our stealth assessment of creativity) significantly predicts in-game performance (e.g., number of levels solved), game enjoyment, and learning of physics content. We conclude with a discussion of future directions in this line of creativity research.
•Stealth assessment was used to embed creativity measurement in a learning game.•The stealth assessment of creativity was validated using external measures of creativity.•Creativity directly predicted game performance and enjoyment controlling for incoming knowledge.•Creativity did not predict learning when controlling for the incoming knowledge.•An indirect relationship between creativity and learning through game performance was proposed.
Proper use of colors, as an essential element of children's playground, can result in a more appropriate environment for children. Therefore, the current study evaluates the impact of Hue, ...Saturation, and Value (HSV) colors on preschool children's preferences at the ages of 5 and 6. 16 color palettes and 2 playground scenes were presented to children in order to identify their preferences. Results demonstrated that cool colors with a Saturation of 75 and a Value of 75 for indoor playground and warm colors with a Saturation of 75 and a Value of 50 for outdoor playground were the most preferred colors. Moreover, to investigate the impact of socioeconomic status on children's environmental color preferences, Mann‐Whitney U test was conducted and the results revealed a significant difference between the Value preference of children living in the lower class and upper class neighborhoods. However, no significant differences were observed in terms of HSV preferences between boys and girls and also between children at the ages of 5 and 6.
Position Statement on Active Outdoor Play Tremblay, Mark S; Gray, Casey; Babcock, Shawna ...
International journal of environmental research and public health,
06/2015, Letnik:
12, Številka:
6
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
A diverse, cross-sectorial group of partners, stakeholders and researchers, collaborated to develop an evidence-informed Position Statement on active outdoor play for children aged 3-12 years. The ...Position Statement was created in response to practitioner, academic, legal, insurance and public debate, dialogue and disagreement on the relative benefits and harms of active (including risky) outdoor play. The Position Statement development process was informed by two systematic reviews, a critical appraisal of the current literature and existing position statements, engagement of research experts (N=9) and cross-sectorial individuals/organizations (N=17), and an extensive stakeholder consultation process (N=1908). More than 95% of the stakeholders consulted strongly agreed or somewhat agreed with the Position Statement; 14/17 participating individuals/organizations endorsed it; and over 1000 additional individuals and organizations requested their name be listed as a supporter. The final Position Statement on Active Outdoor Play states: "Access to active play in nature and outdoors--with its risks--is essential for healthy child development. We recommend increasing children's opportunities for self-directed play outdoors in all settings--at home, at school, in child care, the community and nature." The full Position Statement provides context for the statement, evidence supporting it, and a series of recommendations to increase active outdoor play opportunities to promote healthy child development.
Urban children prefer playgrounds near home spaces due to physical and parental limitations on outdoor play. To increase the play value and use of playgrounds, it is essential to take a comprehensive ...design approach that considers the playground's design and surrounding environment. Using the play value calculation tool designed by Woolley and Lowe, and making site location analyses, this study aims to evaluate the relationship between physical and environmental characteristics of playgrounds with land use decisions through an analysis of the numbers of users and play value of playgrounds in neighbourhood parks in Balçova, İzmir (Turkey).
Play is critical to child development and children have the right to experienced meaningful and fun play. Playgrounds provide an environment where all children including those with vision impairment ...can experience joy, social interaction, physical challenges and stimulation. Participation in an accessible playground can also contribute to advancing specific developmental domains that can be impacted by childhood vision impairment. However, despite the importance of play being recognised by the United Nations and guidelines being legislated in Australia, access to inclusive playgrounds that meet the needs of people with vision impairment remains challenging. An urgent need exists to address the exclusion of children with VI and their families from playground participation. This paper aims to identify inherent benefits of play for all children and to investigate what is known about inclusive playground features, specifically those that meet the needs of children with vision impairment. The challenges of meaningful inclusion of children with vision impairment is explored, including those approaches that may progress design and facilitate inclusion. Playground features such as layout, pathways, equipment, sensory elements and use of technology are discussed, along with importance of consultation, listening and learning from the voice of users.
With little research examining children's restorative environments, the design of environments supportive of children's functioning is limited. The aim of this study was to examine the predictors of ...perceived restorativeness of children's school playgrounds, using Attention Restoration Theory. Children (N = 550, 46% boys, Mage = 9.73 years, SD = 1.21) from 14 schools reported playground perceived restorativeness and play period experiences (affect, physical activity, social activity, perceived affordances). Playground characteristics of nature, size, play areas, play equipment and ratio of total grounds were assessed. After controlling for gender, age and playground size, vegetation volume was the only significant naturalness measure predicting perceived restorativeness. Play period experiences explained more variance than physical characteristics. With only moderate levels of perceived restorativeness revealed, the potential for school grounds to enhance children's functioning remains. Factors contributing to children's restorative environments may differ from adults, requiring children's inclusion in the research and design of their environments.
•Moderate levels of perceived restorativeness reveal potential for enhancing playground design.•Vegetation volume was the only physical predictor of perceived restorativeness, albeit a weak one.•Play period experiences contributed more than nature to perceived restorativeness of grounds.•Smaller, greener playgrounds may yield strongest benefits.
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