The application of effective playground environment management can improve the quality of daycare (TPA) services. This study aims to describe the effective management of the playground environment in ...enhancing the quality of services at Daycare. The research method uses a qualitative descriptive approach. The study's data sources were one manager, five educators, and two accompanying teachers. Data collection techniques using documentation, observation, and interviews. The data analysis technique uses data triangulation techniques through data reduction, presentation, and conclusion drawing. The results and findings showed that effective playground environment management improves the quality of services implemented at was through several stages, including the planning, implementation, and evaluation stages. The planning stage determines business opportunities, meeting facilities and infrastructure standards, learning strategies, the quality of educators for education staff, and service programs. The implementation stage is done by implementing an integrated service program through holistic services. Furthermore, the evaluation stage is done by reporting the implementation and evaluation of activities in the teacher council and foundation meeting forums held in monthly meetings. This management can be used as a reference as a means of effective play management for children's play.
Conflict between children's activities has been recognized as one of the main barriers to school recess play; however, the role of school design in shaping the conflict is not sufficiently known, ...particularly from children's perspectives. This study's primary objective is to investigate the topic in the context of primary school grounds with 8–10 year-old children to understand the nature of play activities that are not compatible and the role of school layout in shaping the conflict between them. By using behavior mapping, walking tours and focus groups in three Australian primary school playgrounds, this paper showed that to avoid conflict, children preferred play settings organized around distinct zones. Children identified the character of each zone by the affordances it contained, the governing school rules, and the activities it supported. They asked for multiple separate zones for gross motor activities, and for each social group to play with their own year and gender. They also required physical barriers and sufficient buffer space around play settings to prevent disruption. The discussion suggests interventions in school layouts that help avoid conflict between children's activities and ultimately enhance their engagement in self-directed play.
•Grassed areas support multiple activity types that usually come into conflict.•Providing multiple separate zones for gross motor activities can avoid conflict.•Unavailability of multiple zones can lead to informal use of school playgrounds.•Children choose to move along the paths that hug the edges of play settings.•Incompatible play activities need appropriate boundaries if located adjacently.
The article discusses the design of children's playgrounds in Kazakhstan in an open urban space, provides examples and describes the existing children's playgrounds. Play spaces that welcome children ...of all abilities to interact and play with each other should be the starting point for building a play environment. A rich play area challenges children's social, physical, emotional and intellectual skills and encourages constructive play that invites children to play, experiment and learn. The work explores the current state of the children's play environments in public places in the cities of Kazakhstan taking into account the needs of children of different age categories and physical abilities and identifies the main criteria for designing a playground that meets modern-day requirements.
This paper is based on an ethnographic study conducted between 2012 and 2014 with a group of 64 boys and girls aged 6-10, all attending the same township primary school in South Africa. The paper ...explores how the young children construct gender 'boundaries' and 'police' gender 'transgressions' on the school playground during break-time. The findings illustrate the ways in which these young boys and girls learn to 'do' gender through practices of inclusion, exclusion and 'policing' during play. The findings challenge dominant teacher constructions of the playground as a 'free space' and demonstrate how the playground operates as a site of learning gender through forms of 'policing' that involve boys bullying girls and boys who do not conform to gender norms. The findings raise implications for the development of curriculum material and teaching practices that would assist primary schoolteachers to reflect more deeply on young learners' personal experiences and perspectives around gender and play.
En los años sesenta del siglo xx, el concepto de aventura se asoció a un tipo de parques de juegos infantiles que se creía la solución idónea para dotar de un lugar propio a los niños en la ciudad ...moderna. Hoy este concepto vuelve a resurgir al valorar la importancia del juego no estructurado en el desarrollo del niño y su vinculación con el entorno natural. El objetivo de esta investigación es revisar tres parques infantiles de aventura de aquellos años que son variantes del juego creativo del niño al aire libre. El parque de acción de Høje Gladsaxe (Dinamarca) es una reivindicación del lugar propio del niño realizado con restos y desechos de construcción. El parque de aventuras Lollard (Gran Bretaña) es una experiencia anárquica que se consideró un pequeño experimento de vida en democracia. Y el parque Robinson (Suiza) es una agrupación de actividades para el tiempo de ocio que pretendía el fomento de la comunidad. La metodología empleada es el análisis crítico y descriptivo de estos ejemplos para deducir tres acciones incidentales que puedan orientarnos en la significación de la arquitectura de lugares para la aventura. Se concluye señalando que el juego libre y creativo del niño en estos lugares nos puede aleccionar sobre las potencialidades de interaccionar con la tierra y sobre la atención y cuidado que le prestamos a la naturaleza. Estos lugares son un recurso que desencadena el aprendizaje tácito de acciones incidentales.
The playground may be an important context to examine the social functioning of children with autism spectrum disorder. Previous literature on playground peer engagement has used quantitative ...methods, but there is limited research using qualitative observations to understand the nuances of playground behavior. Using a mixed-methods approach, 55 elementary school–aged children with autism spectrum disorder who are primarily included in general education settings were observed on the school playground using the Playground Observation of Peer Engagement. Quantitative and qualitative data were examined using a mixed-methods approach. The results showed that children with autism spectrum disorder: engage in solitary and peripheral activities; demonstrate appropriate initiations and responses to peers; display self-stimulatory, motoric behaviors most frequently during solitary activities; and often have neutral affect on the playground. These findings suggest that intervention and supports for children with autism spectrum disorder may be important to deliver at recess to address peer engagement.
The objective of this study is to document the incidence of falls from playground equipment in the United States over time and to provide a detailed profile of the individuals injured in playground ...falls using several state and national databases. During the past decade, there has been a steep decline in the number of injuries treated in emergency departments caused by falls from playground equipment in the United States. Males, children between the ages of 5 to 9 years, and individuals from lower economic strata are overrepresented among those suffering an injury. Falls from monkey bars result in the greatest number of injuries (52%). Schools/day care centers and recreation areas each account for approximately 40% of injuries. The incidence of injuries occurring at home playgrounds has declined sharply in recent years. Fracture of the upper limb is the type of injury most often associated with a fall from playground equipment (43%).
Background
Outdoor social participation in the school playground is crucial for children's socio‐emotional and cognitive development. Yet, many children with disabilities in mainstream educational ...settings are not socially included within their peer group. We examined whether loose‐parts‐play (LPP), a common and cost‐effective intervention that changes the playground play environment to enhance child‐led free play, can promote social participation for children with and without disabilities.
Method
Forty‐two primary school children, out of whom three had hearing loss or autism, were assessed for two baseline and four intervention sessions. We applied a mixed‐method design, combining advanced sensors methodology, observations, peer nominations, self‐reports, qualitative field notes and an interview with the playground teachers.
Results
Findings indicated for all children a decrease during the intervention in social interactions and social play and no change in network centrality. Children without disabilities displayed also an increase in solitude play and in the diversity of interacting partners. Enjoyment of LPP was high for all children, yet children with disabilities did not benefit socially from the intervention and became even more isolated compared with baseline level.
Conclusions
Social participation in the schoolyard of children with and without disabilities did not improve during LPP in a mainstream setting. Findings emphasize the need to consider the social needs of children with disabilities when designing playground interventions and to re‐think about LPP philosophy and practices to adapt them to inclusive settings and goals.
For children, playgrounds are important environments. However, children's perspectives are often not acknowledged in playground provision, design, and evaluation. This scoping review aimed to ...summarize the users' (children with and without disabilities) perspectives on environmental qualities that enhance their play experiences in community playgrounds. Published peer-reviewed studies were systematically searched in seven databases from disciplines of architecture, education, health, and social sciences; 2905 studies were screened, and the last search was performed in January 2023. Included studies (
= 51) were charted, and a qualitative content analysis was conducted. Five themes were formed which provided insights into how both physical and social environmental qualities combined provide for maximum play value in outdoor play experiences. These multifaceted play experiences included the desire for fun, challenge, and intense play, the wish to self-direct play, and the value of playing alone as well as with known people and animals. Fundamentally, children wished for playgrounds to be children's places that were welcoming, safe, and aesthetically pleasing. The results are discussed in respect to social, physical, and atmospheric environmental affordances and the adult's role in playground provision. This scoping review represents the valuable insights of children regardless of abilities and informs about how to maximise outdoor play experiences for all children.
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