Ten Ways to Restrict Children's Freedom to Play: The Problem of Surplus Safety

Wyver, Shirley; Tranter, Paul; Naughton, Géraldine; Little, Helen; Sandseter, Ellen Beate Hansen; Bundy, Anita

doi:10.2304/ciec.2010.11.3.263

Cited by 114 publications

(90 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…Sandseter and Kennair (2011) argue limiting children's access to risky play may have long-term negative impacts including an increase in neuroticism or psychopathology. This is evident in Australia where Wyver et al (2010) argue safety concerns are linked with increasing child obesity, other health problems associated with inactivity and even increased exposure to vehicle pollution as children spend more time in cars being driven places.…”

Section: Quality Is About Keeping Children Safe-risky Play Hazards Amentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the Australian context Wyver et al (2010) argue that EC educators' understandings of, and attitudes towards safety/risk/hazard are key in determining their pedagogical approach to risky play. In particular they argue that adults position themselves as the best people to manage children's risk-taking, that adults see themselves as responsible for creating "good" (ie safe) play spaces and that the regulation of these play spaces is more important that the pedagogy that supports children's engagement in these spaces.…”

Section: Quality Is About Keeping Children Safe-risky Play Hazards Amentioning

confidence: 99%

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Short-term International Experience (STIE) and Students’ Understanding of Quality Early Childhood Service Provision

Sims¹,

Nishida²

2017

JEL

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Exposing pre-service teachers to international professional experiences through a short-term visiting programme serves to challenge their understandings of good quality practice through disturbing assumptions and expectations previously formed through experiences in their own country/culture. Much of the research in international study focuses on pre-service teachers preparing to teach in primary, secondary or language classes. In this study we present the perceptions of pre-service early childhood students who underwent a short-term international experience. In particular we explore the ways in which their experiences impacted on their understandings of quality early childhood service provision. In the increasingly neoliberal Australian early childhood sector externally imposed standards define quality and this is enacted in relatively homogenous ways in practice, opportunities to observe practice arising from different understandings serves to challenge thinking, potentially leading to different world views (Piaget's accommodation).

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Section: Quality Is About Keeping Children Safe-risky Play Hazards Amentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Quality Is About Keeping Children Safe-risky Play Hazards Amentioning

confidence: 99%

Short-term International Experience (STIE) and Students’ Understanding of Quality Early Childhood Service Provision

Sims¹,

Nishida²

2017

JEL

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“…It is important to interpret the findings of these studies with reference to the sociocultural context in which they are embedded. Some of the culturally specific scripts of middle class Western society are that a culture of fear (Furedi, 2008) and risk aversion (Gill, 2007;Wyver et al, 2010b) are pervasive and contribute to decreased opportunities for children's play.…”

Section: The Macrosystem: the Sociocultural Contexts For Playmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The severity of harm that is deemed acceptable appears to have contracted over generations Wyver et al, 2010b). Terms such as "surplus safety" have been used to describe how adults take excessive restrictive actions to prevent any level of injury from occurring Wyver et al, 2010b).…”

Section: Keeping Children Safe During Play Without Being Overprotectivementioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the multidisciplinary play literature there are frequent references to the common Western attitude, that, in enacting the parental role of keeping their children safe from harm, parents can tend to be overprotective, resulting in limitations to children's play (e.g., Bundy et al, 2009;Frost, 2012;Gill, 2007;Wyver et al, 2010b). When parents are notified of a specific risk in society, for example, through signage, they may think that the risk must be unacceptable and therefore it should be eliminated.…”

Section: The Challenge Of Keeping Children Safe While Supporting Playmentioning

confidence: 99%

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How mothers shape the context of their preschool children’s play: a grounded theory

Brough¹

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Play is an integral part of preschool children's lives. Widespread concerns that children have less free, child-led play than in previous generations permeate the general public and academia, with parents criticised for: 1. limiting children's play opportunities by being overprotective; 2. not prioritising play with their children; and 3. choosing structured, enrichment activities rather than free play for their children. Preschool children's play is highly contextualised, yet how opportunities for play are created in the everyday context of family life has received limited attention. Mothers are often the primary caregivers and major decision makers regarding opportunities their children have for play. However, policy makers, educators, and health professionals have arguably neglected mothers' experiences underpinning these decisions.The foundations underlying these criticisms cannot be understood without asking:1. How do mothers describe, experience and participate in their preschool children's play? 2. What influences mothers' actions to create or limit opportunities for their preschool children's play? To answer these questions meaningfully, I took an ecological perspective using a constructivist grounded theory methodology. From 24 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with ten tertiary-educated, middle class mothers of preschool children (children aged three to five years who had not commenced formal schooling), I developed a grounded theory of How mothers shape the context of their preschool children's play. Using photo elicitation, eight mothers also shared photos of their children's play in the interviews.The theory explores the process by which the mothers constructed their actions in relation to their preschool children's play. These actions were based on a foundation of mothers' guiding motivations that were moderated through their perceptions of their child, their child's play and the context. By diagramming and grouping mothers' actions on two intersecting axes in terms of both the degree to which they facilitated or restricted play as 2. engaging meaningfully with their children through play, without being limited to direct play; and 3. fostering the developmental needs of their children, without over-engineering children's activities. Through the sharing actions of incorporating play in everyday activities and peripherally supervising their children's play in particular, mothers in the study created opportunities for their preschool children to play. These actions are typically associated with parents from developing societies, challenging the assumption that middle class parent-child play is characterised by direct play with children, a sharing action I labeled as co-playing.This constructivist theory provides novel insights into the process of how mothers shape the context of their preschool children's play and a new, data-driven understanding for families, policy makers, health professionals and educators seeking to facilitate preschool children's opportunities for play. Mothers are pro...

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Singing in the Forest: Outdoor Education as Early Childhood Curriculum

Ward

2018

The Palgrave International Handbook of Women and Outdoor Learning

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Ten Ways to Restrict Children's Freedom to Play: The Problem of Surplus Safety

Cited by 114 publications

References 46 publications

Short-term International Experience (STIE) and Students’ Understanding of Quality Early Childhood Service Provision

Short-term International Experience (STIE) and Students’ Understanding of Quality Early Childhood Service Provision

How mothers shape the context of their preschool children’s play: a grounded theory

Singing in the Forest: Outdoor Education as Early Childhood Curriculum

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