This research is based on the understanding that spatial autonomy plays a formative role in children's identity formation. Spatial autonomy generally refers to individuals exercising their own agency in particular places and with others within these spaces. This research focuses specifically on young children's spatial autonomy and how it is enacted in two contrasting environments: their home and a forest setting. A child's home environment is largely structured by parents. A forest environment, on the other hand, tends to be less structured and restrictive.
Data for this research is based on two different studies conducted in two different regions of the United States. Each study engaged 31 children, age 3-6, in child-led tours of their environment. For the first study, children living in a small Rocky Mountain community were invited to lead a “place tour” in their home (indoors and outdoors) focusing on places that were important to them. For the second study, children attending a university early childhood education program in Alaska were invited to wear cameras while they explored and played in a forest environment. The wearable cameras captured details of children's play activities while they were authentically engaged in the act. Data from the first study reflected children's descriptions of what they typically do in places, without actually being engaged in those activities.
Three themes emerged across the findings of the two studies: one focusing on children's enactment of independence; another focusing on their negotiation of agency within adult structure and regulations; and the third focusing on children's relational dynamics. Children's independence was enacted through symbolic play and hiding activities. Symbolic play allows children to use their imagination or role-playing to transform themselves or objects into something else. Hiding allows them to enter places where they can maintain autonomy while still seeing others. Children's exercise of independence, however, is influenced and negotiated within adult boundaries. This research shows that even young children can negotiate the boundaries set by adults. While children's activities were influenced by adult boundaries in both the home and forest setting, the forest environment appeared less restrictive and controlled by adults. The outdoor play spaces selected by the children were also more open-ended and abstract than the indoor spaces they selected. Non-human elements of the environment – along with adults, peers, and siblings -- played a role in children's exercise of independence. These influences highlight the relational aspects of children's spatial autonomy. While some of the children seemed to achieve their spatial autonomy independently, many discovered it with others through play and creative innovation. Some of the children in the forest study seemed quite confident in entering the forest environment. Others, however, seemed reluctant. These differences were probably due to family and parental influences.
This research shows that the exercise of spatial autonomy gave children opportunities to form a relationship with their environment and the objects and spaces within those environments. The exercise of spatial autonomy also seemed to help the children feel strong and confident. The achievement of spatial autonomy should be recognized as a positive construct for the role it plays in promoting children's emerging sense of self, their self-confidence, and the relationships they develop with place and their environments.
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