Children at play / Department of the Environment.

  • Great Britain. Department of the Environment.
Date:
1973
Catalogue details

Licence: Open Government Licence

Credit: Children at play / Department of the Environment. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    190. For children of all ages adult leadership can provide a relaxed creative atmosphere in which a child can develop his interests and learn to relate to other children. For the child from a normal home this will be the ‘bonus’ resulting from attending a good supervised play scheme. For children from disadvantaged homes this may be their only opportunity before reaching com- pulsory school age of learning even the basic social and educa- tional skills which are essential for subsequent scholastic pro- gress.°° However, it cannot be assumed that all children’ will readily benefit and enjoy using the facilities. Those experienced in running play schemes in deprived areas say that some children have to be taught how to play first. As we have already seen, chil- dren with difficult home backgrounds spent a higher proportion of their spare time doing household chores than other children. 191. From interviewing children it seemed that West Indian ones spent little time playing with others, had few friends and played outdoors less. Without closer study it would be impossible to say whether their own culture was providing them with compensa- tions not readily detected in one interview. Few of them had housing conditions suitable for unrestricted indoor activities, and certainly significantly fewer West Indian children had been taken to local places of interest such as the swimming baths and the zoo or away for a holiday than their white counterparts. We cannot say whether children from other ethnic groups are in a similar situation. This raises the question of whether special efforts have to be made to provide children who have different cultural back- grounds and who intend to settle in this country with special opportunities for play and recreation. In the last few years multi-racial playgroups have sprung up with this aim in mind, and there are many local examples of how, under skilled super- vision, children and mothers of different cultures can learn about each other in a relaxed play atmosphere.°®°® f 195 and 196 Indoor facilities increased the range of play activities 94 Indoor play 192. The fact that supervision makes possible the use of indoor play premises is extremely important. Many essential activities, such as painting, are not feasible out of doors for most of the year. Apart from the Warwick Estate Adventure Playground none of the play areas studied provided facilities for wet-weather play, even though in the areas studied there are between 160 to 180 days a year when there is some rain; and this does not take into account exceptionally cold or foggy days which a number of mothers might also reasonably say were unsuitable for outside play. Not unexpectedly the children seen in the play areas sharply decreased in wet weather, whereas at the Adventure Playground they increased from 10% to 15% (Figure 197). 197 Percentage of children in play areas in dry and in wet weather Estate % No. Park Hill 19 St Mary’s 18 3,708 eA ee) —7 ee ——! nak a 3579 ‘aay bar ea —_ ee Canada 2,920 642 Winstanley 1 1,624 108 Sceaux 3 Warwick (in play areas excluding 3 adventure playground) 2 2,787 1,986 4,806 55 Edith 28,650 3,383 Total 11 2 Sa 1,986 Warwick Estate 10 Adventure Playground 15 DRY weather WET weather * Figures relate to total number of children observed on Warwick 196 Warwick Estate Adventure Playground