Creating play opportunities on the school playground: Educator experiences of the Sydney playground project

Abstract

Introduction: Children with disabilities often experience unsupportive environments that restrict their play opportunities and inclusion on the school playground. This exclusion can perpetuate inequities for children with disabilities, with lifelong implications. The Sydney Playground Project uses a simple, innovative intervention consisting of placing recycled materials on the playground and engaging parents and educators in risk reframing sessions to create increased playground choice, control, independence and inclusion for all children. Methods: The purpose of this study was to learn from participants about the utility of the intervention for promoting choice and control among children with disability on the school playground. Data included evaluative interviews with 27 school staff (teaching assistants, teachers, therapists, school leadership) across five participating schools after completing of the intervention. Analysis was thematic and explored prominent ideas first within schools, and then between schools. Results: Prior to the intervention, participating school staff focused on active supervision to support play and student needs. During the intervention, school staff experienced role shift and confusion as they allowed the children increased independence while using the recycled materials and learned to navigate how much independence to give the children. Children engaged in increased imaginative and social play, and school staff adopted higher expectations of children's capabilities. Conclusion: Interventions such as the Sydney Playground Project that collaboratively shift adult perceptions to focus on the capabilities of children with disabilities and increase the supportiveness of the physical environment have great promise in increasing play choice and inclusion on the school playground. | 63 STERMAN ET Al.

Children’s perceptions of playing on inclusive playgrounds: A qualitative study

“…by watching other children play, as compared to children without disabilities. Furthermore, adults often underestimate the play capabilities of children with disabilities [40]. Thus, it might be important to consider the children's view in order to fully understand their experiences on inclusive playgrounds.…”

A Scoping Review of Evidence-Informed Recommendations for Designing Inclusive Playgrounds

“…Trained staff can play a critical role in filling this void through providing children with disabilities with several types of support as well as facilitating social interactions among children with and without disabilities alike. For example, trained staff can provide physical or instructional assistance to use equipment (9,14,24,48), while also helping to initiate social interactions with other children through playground play (55,56). Our recommendation for playground staffing and supervision is focused on playground programming where trained staff are knowledgeable about strategies to foster inclusive play and are cognizant of where and how liability issues can be properly addressed.…”

“…This playground element refers to the presence of trained staff who can supervise and assist children on playgrounds. Seven of the 35 reviewed studies recognized the importance of having trained staff present to promote playground inclusion (9,14,24,40,48,55,56). The presence of trained staff was acknowledged as being important to initiating play (56), as staff can help to facilitate integrated play among children with and without disabilities (55), and provide children with disabilities with physical or instructional assistance to use equipment (9,14,24,48).…”

Perceived Barriers and Facilitators of Adventurous Play in Schools: A qualitative systematic review

“…Four articles met criteria for inclusion within the meta-aggregative synthesis (see Table 2 for details). Two of these studies were conducted in Australia [29,30], one in Turkey [26] and one in the UK [32]. Three of the four articles were published in peer-reviewed journals [25][26][27], the remaining article was a Masters thesis [32].…”

“…One study focussed on the pre-service teachers (i.e., student teachers in training) who were taking part in a six-week intervention designed to change their understanding of children's risky play [26]. Two of the articles [29,30] were related to The Sydney Playground Project (SPP), -a cluster randomised control trial designed to evaluate the effectiveness of a programme that aimed to change adult views around managing risk-taking in play. Spencer et al [29] examined teachers' sense-making in the management of risks with children with disabilities and Sterman et al, [30] examined educators' experience of participating in the SPP more broadly.…”