A new play observation tool was designed to study child-initiated outdoor play and to evaluate the play environment itselfThis study was based on a concern about play observation tools generally not being able to adequately capture the unique characteristics of outdoor play. This concern lead to the development and testing of the Tool for Observing Play Outdoors (TOPO). A goal of the research team in developing this tool was to create an observational framework that could be used both for studying child-initiated outdoor play and for evaluating the play environment itself.
The development and refinement of the TOPO tool involved five distinct stages. The first stage consisted of an extensive review of the literature focusing on children’s play needs, the developmental role of children’s play, and research related to outdoor play. All types of data were considered in the search and evaluation of existing play typologies. The second stage focused on establishing the primary and sub-categories of play to be included in the TOPO. The third stage involved testing and refining of this initial typology. During the fourth stage, an external panel of 10 researchers, play providers, and design practitioners reviewed the proposed typology in relation to their experience with outdoor play. The “largest insight arising from the expert review was the inability of the current typology to capture the playful interactions we often see outdoors between children and living things”. The TOPO was subsequently expanded to include a new primary play type referred to as “bio play”. The fifth stage in the process tested the consistency and stability of the TOPO in relation to its intended use.
The TOPO includes nine primary play types, with five corresponding to categories of play incorporated in other play typologies: physical play, exploratory play, imaginative play, play with rules, and expressive play. Three of the play types are unique to the TOPO:—bio play, restorative play, and digital play. The ninth type is a non-play category, referring to behaviors which are common to outdoor play environments, but are generally not considered to be play activities. Examples of non-play include behaviors related to self-care, nutrition, distress, aggression, and transitions between activities. Two versions of the TOPO are available: a collapsed version and an expanded version. The collapsed version utilizes the nine primary play types to categorize play activities; the expanded version includes 32 associated subtypes, allowing each observed play episode to be designated in terms of primary-subtype combinations. TOPO can be used to evaluate the play behaviors of children of any age, and in both formal and informal indoor and outdoor play spaces. It can also be used for both person-based (focused on individual children) and place-based (focused on a group of children in a single setting) observations. Next steps in the development of TOPO will include widespread testing in a variety of outdoor play spaces.
In addition to evaluating the play behaviors of children in an outdoor environment, the TOPO also “represents a significant advance in the ability to fully and effectively study and plan outdoor play environments to provide more diverse, high-quality play settings that will support the healthy development of children across the spectrum.”
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