Both children and trees participate in and benefit from play in a wooded environmentThis research is based on the understanding that many relationships between species (including between humans and non-humans) are mutual and collaborative. This study focused specifically on the relationship between children and trees in an adventure playground in England. One of the researchers volunteered as a play worker on the adventure playground over the course of the study. Her role as a practitioner-researcher (PR) included observing transactions between trees and children (age 3-15) at the adventure playground and recording both environmental and human impacts.
The site of this study was an adventure playground located in a wooded area next to one of the most deprived neighborhoods in the country. While the playground is generally used independently by local children, playworkers occasionally lead outdoor activities, some involving fires, cooking, and woodwork. The PR, in addition to actively supporting children’s play, used drawings and field notes to capture “the ongoing and layered exchanges between people and place”. She also used child-led walking interviews, map-making, and installations (including several tree houses) to inspire play and to capture and communicate the intra-activity of all partners, human and nonhuman. Children were actively involved in creating the maps and annotating the prints developed by the PR. In addition to creating “objective” diagrams of environment and activity, the focus of these activities was on capturing intangible aspects of place, such as ambience and sensations. The PR “paid close attention to the place and the plants that inhabited it, not only noting the types of tree and flora but also how they provoked responses in the young people and responded to children’s play.” This process allowed the plants to gain a voice.
Trees, sticks, and other plants and plant parts were frequently used for imaginary play scenarios and social interactions. At times, children’s play activities included stripping bark and breaking branches from trees. Children’s use of these and other natural “loose parts” enabled “construction of spaces, objects and play that altered the material, cultural and emotional texture” of the adventure playground. The way children used the different spaces and species visibly impacted the trees and terrain; yet such use seemed to be in response to the “plants’ invitations”. The trees, for example, “appeared to invite young players to climb and enjoy the sensations accompanying being raised up”. The intra-play that occurred suggested a partnership between children and the nonhuman environment – a partnership that gave children “valued opportunities to change their emotional mood and trees, to grow.”
This research supports the idea that as children play in natural environments both the children and the environment are active participants and that both are mutually transformed. While the heavy usage of the children's play “impacted and altered the woodland, like the children, it responded with resilience by continuing to grow.” Unfortunately, years later after the adventure playground was moved to another area, vandalism and other human impacts made this woodland unsafe for children, highlighting the fact that partnerships between humans and nonhumans can be equal.
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