Childhood Transformed? Risk Perceptions and the Decline of Free Play

Abstract

Occupational therapists have been concerned with the health-promoting aspects of children's play. The evidence suggests that children's freedom to play away from adult supervision has declined in recent years and that parental perception of risk may be a factor in this. This research used a qualitative approach to explore six parents' views on how their fear of risk might be shaping their children's play. The parents stated that their children were now more likely to take part in activities supervised by adults.The article shows that these findings may be linked to national trends and that occupational therapists should be concerned about the health implications of these changes. It is suggested that further research should take into account other factors that might affect children's play.COTAS offers a complete external assessors package to ensure that vacancies are filled by occupational therapists professionally up to date and competent to meet the demands of the post in order to provide the best possible service to clients.

Usability of playgrounds for children with different abilities

“…According to Mårtensson (2004) the jungle gyms with several climbing functions are one attempt to meet children's needs for challenges; however, children are capable of creating their own challenges, with a diversity of experi-ences where the challenge was more on a mental level. Therefore can today's modern playgrounds, built on small areas with one or two large multi-functional jungle gyms, seem boring to children and make them look for challenges elsewhere (O'Brien and Smith, 2002;Mårtensson, 2004;Solomon, 2005). In the present study, children looked for challenges but none of them wished for large multi-functional jungle gyms; instead, all the children wished for more recognizable things or 'real things', meaning houses, cars and boats.…”

Children's Places: Rural–Urban Comparisons Using Participatory Photography in the Bodrum Peninsula, Turkey

“…A study that employed this approach with children aged 12 and 15 identified a number of themes related to health and well-being, including use of neighbourhood space and public parks and urban spaces (Morrow, 2001). For adolescents, who are drenched in television and movies (as shown by Hofferth & Sandberg, 2001;O'Brien & Smith, 2002;Gorely et al, 2004;Louv, 2006), visual communication of their perceptions and concerns may be particularly appropriate. Wang & Pies (2004) have used the photovoice method to explore children's and their parents' views about places that promote or inhibit their physical activity.…”

A model describing play as a child‐chosen activity — is this still valid in contemporary Australia?

“…Reports in academic literature (Fromberg & Bergen, 1998; O’Brien & Smith, 2002) and the press (e.g. Courier Mail June 4, 2002) about threats and limits to children's play are increasing.…”

“…The use of available space is affected by parents’ fears of strangers and of traffic. Many parents admit to giving less freedom to their children to play outside and unsupervised than they had themselves (O’Brien & Smith, 2002). Children have less time and opportunity to play unsupervised, and there is evidence that this has had an effect in reducing children's social skills and sense of self‐efficacy (Fromberg & Bergen, 1998).…”