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Within the educational field, during recent decades the importance of high quality early childhood education has been increasingly recognised by the research community and by governments and policy makers throughout Europe and world-wide. However, the nature of ‘high quality’ in this context has been contested. While in some European countries the emphasis continues to be upon providing young children with rich, stimulating experiences within a nurturing social context, increasingly in many countries within Europe and across the world, an ‘earlier is better’ approach has been adopted, with an emphasis upon introducing young children at the earliest possible stage to the formal skills of literacy and numeracy. This is inimical to the provision and support for rich play opportunities. What is increasingly recognised within the research and policy communities, however, is that one vital ingredient in supporting healthy intellectual, emotional and social development in young children is the provision of opportunities and the support for play.
The report focuses on the value of children’s play. It is a particularly important time for this to be recognised, as modern European societies face increasing challenges, including those that are economic, social and environmental. At the same time, the opportunities and support for children’s play, which is critical to their development of the abilities they will need as future citizens able to address these challenges, are themselves under threat. This arises from increasing urbanisation, from increasing stress in family life, and from changes in educational systems.
The importance of play is a report commissioned by Toy Industries of Europe (TIE) written by Dr David Whitebread, University of Cambridge.
"Play’ is sometimes contrasted with ‘work’ and characterised as a type of activity which is essentially unimportant, trivial and lacking in any serious purpose. As such, it is seen as something that children do because they are immature, and as something they will grow out of as they become adults.
2.8
The report acknowledges the work of the European Commission and Council in their development of policies supporting provision for children’s play. For example, on 12 May 2011, the European Parliament adopted a resolution on Early Years Learning in the European Union, which notes that the early years of childhood are critical for children’s development and highlights that ‘in addition to education, all children have the right to rest, leisure and play’. 7 2.9 It makes four recommendations for more detailed policies which could be developed, with advantage, by the European Union, which are supported by the research evidence and the expert views of the play researchers and organisations consulted.
These are as follows:
Promote awareness and change attitudes regarding children’s play
Encourage improved provisions of time and space for children’s play
Support arrangements enabling children to experience risk and develop resilience through play
Establish funding agencies that promote play and play research
2.7
Organisations supporting and advocating children’s play from across Europe were also consulted, with twelve representative bodies responding to a survey of their work, their views on the nature and value of children’s play, and on the extent and quality of current provision. Perhaps not surprisingly, there was widespread support for the value of play and extensive evidence of poor provision. At the same time, numerous examples were provided of initiatives which were significantly enhancing opportunities for high quality play experiences in different parts of Europe.
The purposes and functions of play in children’s development have been researched for well over a century by thinkers and scientists from a range of disciplines. Part 3 of this report provides an overview of the range of research concerned with children’s play (anthropological, sociological, historical, psychological, educational) which has established the value of play for learning and development (and the consequences of a lack of play opportunities). This includes sections reviewing the research concerned with each of the five main types of play in which human children engage (physical play, play with objects, symbolic play, pretence/socio-dramatic play and games with rules) and the implications of each area of research for provision and policy. This part of the report concludes with a section summarising the research, views and policy recommendations related to children’s play of leading European play researchers.
Alongside, and partly arising from, the increasing body of research evidence, there has been a recent and significant growth in the recognition of the importance of children’s play within the policy arena. The report recognises this in Part 4 which provides an overview of the governmental, professional and charitable organisations across Europe concerned with the provision and enhancement of children’s play opportunities. This section includes a survey of the views of these leading stakeholders on the value of play for children’s learning and development, and of their policy recommendations.
I
nternational bodies such as the United Nations and the European Union have begun to consider and develop policies concerned with children’s right to play, with the educational and societal benefits of play provision, and with the implications of this for leisure facilities and educational programs. The recognition of the need for further research in this area is also documented. In Part 5, therefore, the report reviews these policy developments, including existing European policy, and makes further policy recommendations for play provision in educational and non-educational contexts, and for beneficial research initiatives.
Executive Summary
Executive Summary
2.1
The archaeological, historical, anthropological and sociological research into children’s play shows that play is ubiquitous in human societies, and that children’s play is supported by adults in all cultures by the manufacture of play equipment and toys. Different types of play are more or less emphasised, however, between cultures, based on attitudes to childhood and to play, which are affected by social and economic circumstances.
2.2
In many ways, children’s right and opportunities for play are constrained within modern urbanised societies within Europe. This appears to be a consequence of the environmental ‘stressors’ of contemporary life, the development of a risk-averse society, the separation from nature, and tensions within the educational arena, with an emphasis on ‘earlier is better’.
2.3
The evolutionary and psychological evidence points to the crucial contribution of play in humans to our success as a highly adaptable species. Playfulness is strongly related to cognitive development and emotional well-being. The mechanisms underlying these relationships appear to involve play’s role in the development of linguistic and other representational abilities, and its support for the development of metacognitive and selfregulatory abilities.
2.4
Psychological research has established that there are five fundamental types of human play, commonly referred to as physical play, play with objects, symbolic play, pretence or socio-dramatic play, and games with rules. Each supports a range of cognitive and emotional developments, and a good balance of play experience is regarded as a healthy play diet for children. Some types of play are more fully researched than others, and much remains to be understood concerning the underlying psychological processes involved.
2.5
Children vary in the degree to which they are playful, and have opportunities to play. Playful children are securely attached emotionally to significant adults. Poverty and urban living, resulting in stressed parenting and lack of access to natural and outdoor environments, 6 can lead to relative play deprivation. At the same time, children brought up in relatively affluent households may be over-scheduled and over-supervised as a consequence of perceptions of urban environments as dangerous for children, and a growing culture of riskaverse parenting. Children suffering from severe play deprivation suffer abnormalities in neurological development; however, the provision of play opportunities can at least partially remediate the situation.
2.6
Leading play researchers from eight European countries were consulted about their work and their views on the important aspects of play for learning and development. While there were differences in emphasis, there was general consensus that play is difficult to define, that it is not the only context for children’s learning, but makes unique and beneficial contributions, that play provision is under threat in Europe, and that there are dangers but also contributions from screen-based play. The role of adults in supporting children’s play is complex, often poorly executed and counter-productive, and different views were expressed. This is an area which would benefit from further research.
by Dave_B_
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