Children's time to play: a literature review - Playday

Playday 2009 Make time! Children’s time to play: a literature review
7. Unsupervised, outdoor play
Research carried out in 2004 by Armitage (cited in Lester and Russell 2008),
found that children value time spent away from adults and actively seek public
areas that can offer this. However, a number of commentators believe that
children are spending less of their time in public spaces away from adults
(Veitch and others 2007, Mayall 2000a). A review of oral history and statistical
evidence research in Amsterdam suggests that outdoor play has largely been
replaced with supervised forms of play which, Karsten argues, has
transformed the very meaning of childhood. He found the majority of children
studied could be described as ‘backseat children’, in the sense that they are
escorted to and from places by their parents and play mostly consists of adultorganised
activities. Armitage has argued that more resources should be
allocated to children’s free play, but that they are instead channelled towards
more supervised forms of activities.
Berry Mayall (2000a) was interested in children’s daily routines with particular
reference to how their time is divided. She conducted conversations with 139
children aged 9–10 and 12–13 during the school day. Children took part either
alone or with peers and were given a short topic list as a prompt for
conversations. The vast majority of 9-year-olds were accompanied to school,
where as only a few 12-year-olds travelled with an adult. Girls were more
likely than boys to be accompanied, regardless of their age. Although the
children did claim that they could spend some of their free time ‘playing out’,
this was most frequently in their local estate under adult supervision rather
than in the public streets or parks. In fact, some children claimed they were
not allowed outside the home alone at all. The research concludes that
although structured or supervised play can be beneficial, time for play that is
self-directed and away from adult control is equally if not more important.
Evidence suggests that children value having time to play outdoors. Veitch
and others (2007) conducted a study in Victoria, Australia with 132 children
(54 per cent of whom were female) aged between six and twelve. Children
were recruited through five primary schools to take part in focus groups,
taking into account a range of socio-economic backgrounds. Focus groups
were divided into ages and in accordance with children’s use of public space.
The children who frequently used public open space claimed they liked doing
so because they enjoyed the active play, equipment available and they
enjoyed the natural setting. Older children also pointed to the freedom away
from adult supervision that open spaces can offer them (Veitch and others
2007).
Children who did not use public space on a regular basis, frequently
expressed feelings of being ‘stuck’ indoors and said they would like to spend
more time in public areas, although others expressed no desire to ‘waste time’
outside. The researchers found that a range of intrapersonal, social and
environmental factors influenced children’s presence in outdoor open space,
one of which was a lack of time to play outdoors. Children’s commitment to
taking part in organised activities or complete homework acted to prevent
them from taking part in self-directed outdoor play. Limited independent
mobility was also noted, in the sense that many children did not have access
to open space near their homes and depended on adults taking them to it.
Many adults did not feel they had the time do to so (Veitch and others 2007).
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