Creating Challenging
Outdoor Play Spaces
Helen Tovey
Photo: Alan Sutton. PlayLink Places for Play Exhibition www.freeplaynetwork.org.uk
A provocative environment invites curiosity and has infinite possibilities
Creating challenging outdoor
spaces
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Provocative environments
Space for the imagination
Transformable spaces
Natural spaces
Wild spaces
Opportunities for risky ‘dizzy’ play
Set and pursue their own tasks
Exploring,
experimenting,
solving
problems
Spaces for imagination
to flourish
Incidental
features of the
environment
offer rich
symbolic
potential for
play
Symbolic
transformation
is hugely significant
in children’s thinking
Materials which can be
transformed not ‘pre formed’
`Loose
parts’
Enclosures,
dens and
places to hide
Wild Spaces
Children love a
wilderness. So one
plot should be
allowed to grow wild
but many beautiful
things can be
planted in it.’
(McMillan 1919:47)
Importance of rough ground and change of levels
Engagement with
the natural world
Community playthings 2009
Spaces for being daring and adventurous
Opportunities for
challenge and taking risks
Culture of risk aversion
and risk anxiety ?
Too risky?
Unsafe?
Risk taking is associated with-
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Positive learning dispositions (Guy Claxton)
Mastery – an ‘I can do it’ attitude (Carole
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Playing at the very edge of capabilities
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Dweck)
(Vygotsky)
Emotional well being and resilience
‘Lack of risk in play is damaging
children’
Mental Health Foundation (2002)
We must not lose sight of the important
developmental role of play in pursuit of
the unachievable goal of absolute
safety.
UK Health and Safety Executive
cited in Ball, D, Gill, T & Spiegal, B ( 2008) Managing Risk in play provision
www.playengland.org.uk
Creating challenging spaces
for play
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Provocative environments
Space for the imagination
Direct engagement with the natural
world
Wild spaces and uneven terrain
Opportunities for risk and challenge
Adults who engage in and value such
play
Does environment make a
difference?
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Susan Herrington - project to change play area for
birth to threes
Aimed to translate knowledge of children’s
development into landscape design.
infants-more active
-used whole space
-more varied and complex play
-more interactions with natural environment
-significantly more interactions with adults
(Herrington 1997)
`If you are going to keep children safe …you
must provide places in which they can get the
thrills they need; there must be trees they can
climb and ways in which they can safely get
the experience of adventure and the sense of
challenge that they crave.’
Susan Isaacs 1936
References
Claxton, G (1999) Wise Up the Challenge of Life Long Learning London: Bloomsbury
Community Playthings (2008) I made a Unicorn. The value of open ended play Robertsbridge
Community Playthings
Herrington, S (1997 ) the Received view of Play and the Subculture of infants Landscape Journal
vol 16 no 2
Isaacs, S ( 1938) lecture to National Safety Congress in National Froebel Foundation Bulletin
1960 no 125
Mental health Foundation (1999) Bright Futures:Promoting Children and Young People's Mental
Health. London, Mental Health Foundation.
McMillan, M ( 1919) The Nursery School London Dent
Stephenson, A ( 2003) Physical risk taking: dangerous or endangered? Early Years Vol 23 no 1
Tovey, H (2007) Playing Outdoors, Spaces and Places, Risk and Challenge. Maidenhead: Open
University Press
Helen Tovey
Principal lecturer Early Childhood Studies
Roehampton University, London
[email protected]