‘Oh no, the stick keeps falling!’: An analytical framework for conceptualising young children’s interactions during free play in a woodland setting

Abstract

It is widely accepted that play and ‘free play’ in particular, is beneficial to young children’s holistic development. However, there is a lack of evidence of the role that the natural environment can have in relation to young children’s play. This study examined the elements of ‘free play’ of children aged 4–5 years within a woodland university campus setting. The children chose to wear camera glasses which recorded both the gaze and speech of the individual. This provided a valuable insight into the ‘free play’ of the children and provided a rich data set to enable the development of an analytical framework which maps out the interactions which took place during the ‘free play’ within the woodland environment. Results showed that the children engaged in six key interactions including interactions with the natural environment as part of their play, including the use of sticks, leaves and branches as tools and props ‘as is’ (i.e. in its current form) and ‘as if’ (in conjunction with children’s imaginations). The framework highlights key aspects of their play which tended to be autonomous, child led and imaginary. Recommendations for future research include the use of the framework in alternative environments to explore the impact of different physical environments on the interactions of children within their ‘free play’.

‘It has also happened to me’: Children’s peer exclusion experiences in Finnish pre-primary school through children’s narrations

“…It may also be that the children interviewed were used to being in situations that required negotiation and had learned ways to join in ongoing games. Overall, the results were in line with previous studies in showing exclusion to be part of pre-primary school life and children’s interaction (Chesworth, 2016; Ellis et al, 2021; Fanger et al, 2012; Juutinen, 2018; Tay-Lim and Gan, 2012; Wainryb and Brehl, 2014). Attempting to be part of a group effects all human’s actions (Baumeister and Leary, 1995) and children are no exception.…”

“…Peer exclusion is a common element of children's interaction and has been seen as part of children's free play and peer culture (Corsaro, 2018(Corsaro, , 2020Ellis et al, 2021;Fanger et al, 2012;Lundström et al, 2022). Fanger et al (2012) see peer exclusion as 'naturalistic situations in which one peer intentionally tries to prevent another from engaging in a social interaction ' (p. 226).…”

Body-worn cameras as a research tool in early years settings: Strengths and weaknesses

“…To ensure that the children were acclimatised to the body-worn cameras, a pilot was undertaken, and at that one visit the cameras were fitted and set to record but the data was not utilised in the research. This habituation was to aid the children with the idea of the cameras being utilised, to ensure that the reliability of the data was enhanced and also to erase any technical complications at outset (Ellis et al, 2021). Each camera was numbered and allocated to the same child each week to enable patterns to be identified if need be.…”