Affordances for Risky Play in Preschool: The Importance of Features in the Play Environment |
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Authors: | Ellen Beate Hansen Sandseter |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Physical Education, Queen Maud University College of Early Childhood Education, Thoning Owesens Gate 18, 7044 Trondheim, Norway |
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Abstract: | The purpose of this article is to qualitatively explore the affordances for risky play in two different preschool outdoor
environments, an ordinary preschool playground and a nature playground, based on Gibson (The ecological approach to visual
perception, 1979) theory of affordances and Heft’s and Kytte?’s (Heft in Children’s Environ Qual 5(3) 29–37, 1988; Kytt? in J Environ Psychol 22:109–123, 2002, Kytt? in J Environ Psychol 24:179–198, 2004) extended work on this theory. Observations of risky play in two Norwegian preschools, one ordinary preschool (where play
took place on an ordinary playground) and one nature and outdoor preschool (where play took place in a nature area) were conducted.
In addition, the children were interviewed about their actualized affordances of risky play, their mobility license, and the
constraints on risky play. The results show that both play environments afford an extensive amount of risky play among the
children, and that the degree of mobility license tolerated by the staff is an important factor for the children to actualize
these affordances. Differences in the qualities and features in the two play environments were found to have an impact on
the degree of riskiness in the play situations. As such, the nature playground afforded a higher degree of risk in children’s
risky play. |
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Keywords: | Risky play Affordances Preschool Play environments Children |
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