Professor Aili Helenius and Dr Riitta Korhonen

Developmental Trends of Children’s
Play Cultures in Finland from 1950
to 2012
preliminary impressions
Aili Helenius & Riitta Korhonen, University of Turku, Finland
Play Conference in Tallinn 17.-20.6.2012

Culture
Culture is the totality of mental
and material affordances of
mankind or locality, something
that forms the context of our
living. Tradition is part of the
culture, typically anonymous and
memorized. (Virtanen 1991)

Forms of tradition
Tradition can be understood as
past, present and future.
The past consists of
(1) times which are almost
unknown
(2) past times which exist
passively in people’s minds
(3) aspects of the past which are
still a part of people’s lives.
(Suojanen 1999)

Children's folklore 1/2
Children's folklore is one of the most
ancient of continuous traditions, and
may be divided into two main sections -
the folklore of children, and folklore for
children.
The folklore of children -children's
own lore – includes playing, the playground
rhymes, games, chants, counting-out rituals,
taunts and insults which are passed on from
one 'generation' of primary-school children to
another, usually in the school playground.

Children’s folklore 2/2
Children's own lore It includes
nursery rhymes, bouncing or 'dandling'
games, traditional fairytale stories and
family sayings.
It is transmitted from child to child,
whereas folklore for children is passed
on from adults to children, who in turn
pass it on to their children.

Questions
• What is happening to the culture
for children?
• What is happening to the
children`s culture and play?
- especially in institutional settings
of early childhood education

Data
1) Observations from contemporary teachers
2) A collection of play episodes, gathered from ( female)
persons, asked to write down just the first episode
entering to mind, while thinking about their play in
their earliest childhood.
Are we able to read something important from these
circa thousand peaces of childhood memories as well
as recent observations?
This paper contains just
preliminary observations concerning
will be analysed later in more detail.
the data which
7

Memory
Autobiographical memory is possible not
before the emergence of the cognitive self.
(“childhood amnesia” is typical for the first
years).
Implicit (nondeclarative) memory begins
early, perhaps before birth.
Memory is compressing, reducing,
simplifying,
8

Characteristics of the data
A minority of the experiences are single
object-specific play actions of
the toddlers and they differ
qualitatively from the narratives of the
later ages.
The majority of the data concerns role
play of children in the pre–school years or
in the early school years.
Circa one third of the data come from
group-play of older children playing
traditional outdoor rule games.
9

Typical contents of the
narratives
1)With whom?
Whom the informant was playing with in the recalled
episode?
2) Where?
Where did the children play?
3) Equipment ?
What do the participants tell about the equipment ?
10

Narrative – example 1
“My friend from the neighbour house was one
year older than me. Insulator from the electric
pole, and the porcelain handle of the milk jug
made an excellent telephone. Cups were made
from the broken dishes. The blooms of lily-ofthe
valley were put in a porcelain container to
make a scent-powder. I had a ragdoll made
from my sister. It was wonderful to shake the
old piece of rag dug and sweep the floor in the
site hut, which as if was our home.”
11

Pre-school tearcher’s view –
Excample 2
” Heroes in the series of TV are strongly
present in children’s role plays. The
plays of caring are less than earlier.
More than earlier children need support
and active participation from adults.
Are abilities of playing and models
from everyday life disappearing? -
everyday life in families, ent routines in
evenings - hectic life with hobby
activities -the missing of everyday life
all together.”

Conclusions 1/2
Role-play – leading activity –
personality development in play
Playing=learning
?
Is play-activity missing in the planning
practice of practitioners?
Is it missing in the curriculum of the
teachers or coming too short?
13

Conclusions 2/2
Children's folklore is one of the
most ancient of continuous
traditions:
1) What happens to the folklore of
children?
2) What happens to the folklore for
children?