Parenta Magazine July 2019

Calling all superheroes:
managing their play
Part of our role as early childhood educators is to facilitate play by observing what our children
do, how they use resources and the themes that regularly lead their play. Then we provide
opportunities to extend this play and develop their understanding. It is vital that we accept
differences between children’s preferences and value their interests, using them to tailor
an exciting and relevant learning environment for them. My forthcoming book, “Calling All
Superheroes” argues that a child’s interest in superheroes, in all its various guises, is no less
important and should be equally valued as an interest in dinosaurs, tractors or princesses. To deny
children the opportunity to engage in their interests disempowers them and gives them a negative
message about themselves.
This article is the last in the current
series on superhero play and
acknowledges that this type of play can
be very difficult to manage. It involves
balancing the needs and interests of
the children with supporting different
viewpoints of staff and parents and
carers. Some may love nothing more
than to engage in this play with their
children, whilst others might strongly
oppose it! The first and most important
thing within your setting is to consult
with staff, parents and children and
then decide upon your approach.
This will be unique to your setting and
dependent upon your context and the
views of all those involved. For some
providers, limiting superhero play or
banning gun play outright may appear
to be the easiest option. However, I
believe a simple ban is not the best
choice for the children as it would limit
their learning opportunities.
In my book, I share a case study about
Ben, who has created a gun in the
construction area. When a practitioner
asks him what he has made, he insists
that it isn’t a gun but a ‘zapper’ which
changes the TV channel. Ben then uses
his ‘zapper’ suspiciously like a gun when
far enough away from the practitioners!
Often educators turn a blind eye to this
play, which can be seen in many settings
around the world, or Ben might be told
to create something different or play
elsewhere. However, banning superhero
play in all its guises can give the
message to children that their interests
are wrong, bad or unacceptable. This
is not how we want children to feel!
Therefore we must think carefully about
our approach and perhaps design some
appropriate rules which will allow this
play, but on our terms.
Secondly, put a policy in place
which represents what you do in practice
and incorporates your values about
children’s play. This should summarise
your approach and clearly state what
you believe and why. It should also refer
to any rules that you have put in place,
for example, superheroes rescue and
protect other people, superheroes do not
hurt others or superheroes only shoot
people who are part of the game.
A superhero policy could include the
following points:
• How you will observe children
playing in your setting
• Your rationale about superhero play
– what you believe and why
• Your approach – how you will
respond to superhero play, e.g. role
model, join in, supervise
• An acknowledgement that there are
different perspectives on this
• How will children be involved or their
voice be represented in the policy
• Your approach to liaising with
parents and carers
• When you will review the policy and
evaluate how things are working.
It can also be useful to agree a pause
button or way to stop the play with
immediate effect and reflect this in both
policy and practice. This could be calling,
‘freeze!’ or ‘stop!’ Helping children to
be in control of when full-body play
starts and stops is also an important
way to empower and safeguard them.
If children know that they can say, “stop
it, I don’t like it!” at any time and that
other people MUST stop at that point, they
might feel more confident if they need to
safeguard themselves in the future.
Thirdly, do your research – find out which
characters your children are most interested
in and use these to support and extend
their learning. You could look into the back
stories of the heroes they are fascinated
by and gather information relating to their
superpowers, costume, logo and any arch
enemy or nemesis to assist you in playing
alongside the children.
It would be helpful to link with home
and work in partnership with parents and
carers around this. They will be able to tell
you about any interests that stem from TV,
film, comics or books and may have more
of an idea where their fascination with
particular heroes has stemmed from.
Finally, do not micro-manage the
play! To use Julie Fisher’s phrase: “Interact,
don’t interfere!” (Fisher, 2016). Children
Questions for reflection
1. In what ways do you find managing superhero play challenging or otherwise?
2. Is this type of play covered by any of your current policies? If not, what could you
include in a superhero policy?
3. Are there opportunities to notice children keeping your rules and being gentle and
kind when engaging in superhero play?
4. Which superpowers do you value in your children and to what extent do you
celebrate them?
CALLING ALL
SUPERHEROES
EMMA HUGHES-EVANS
AND SIMON BROWNHILL
Supporting and Developing
Superhero Play in the
Early Years
TAMSIN GRIMMER
A David Fulton Book
may need support in moving away from
the ‘bish, bash, bosh’ of superhero play by
thinking together about plots, storylines
and how these can develop over time.
This series of articles has looked at
superhero play and covers many of the
themes that I explore in my new book. I
have shared the benefits of letting children
engage in themes relating to superheroes
and how we can create an enabling
environment which embraces this play. I
discussed both rough-and-tumble activities
and how children engage with themes like
killing and death and also how sometimes
more boys than girls engage in this type of
play and how superheroes provide us with
an opportunity to consider our approach to
gendered play. In addition, I have discussed
how it can link fantasy with reality and how
we can develop super skills in children and
share with them how we can be heroes in
real life. So in calling all superheroes? Will
you respond to the call?
Tamsin’s exciting new book “Calling All
Superheroes” is available for pre-order here.
Tamsin Grimmer
Tamsin Grimmer is an
experienced early years
consultant and trainer and
parent who is passionate about
young children’s learning and
development. She believes
that all children deserve
practitioners who are inspiring,
dynamic, reflective and
committed to improving on their
current best. Tamsin particularly
enjoys planning and delivering
training and supporting
early years practitioners and
teachers to improve outcomes
for young children.
Tamsin has written two
books - “Observing and
Developing Schematic
Behaviour in Young Children”
and “School Readiness and
the Characteristics of Effective
Learning”.
Website:
tamsingrimmer.co.uk
Facebook:
facebook.com/earlyyears.
consultancy.5
Twitter:
@tamsingrimmer
Email:
info@tamsingrimmer.co.uk
14 Parenta.com For references and further reading material please click here.
July 2019 15