Study of a child
Name: Lauren
Date of birth: 11 may 2000
Age: 3 years
Sex: Female
Physical (looks).
Hair: Blonde, light, straight, shoulder length
Eyes: Blue
Size (height): 97cm
(* Her height is average, she is about the right height for her age according to a centile chart in the text book child development by H.Brennand, J.Fairclough, V.Hall. E.Nicholson and E.Rees.)
Teeth: Lauren has all her primary teeth, which include her incisors, canines and molars. She has all 20 primary teeth and has had them sine she was about 3 years old. She brushes her own teeth.
Health: Lauren has good health as you can tell because she has good sound eating habits, normal opening of bowels, always interested in surrounding, contended child, breathing normally through the nose. She has very bright eyes, sleeps well, good, clear, firm skin, well developed muscles, no constantly running nose, normal progress and development for the age group and weight and height average for the age group. This was taken for the child development book.
Personality: Lauren is quite quiet but when she needs to ask questions she does. When with other children, she is lively and enjoys having them around her. She has very good behaviour, is rarely naughty and if she has done something wrong and she knows she has, she apologises. This shows a well-developed sense of right and wrong and socialisation. She goes to nursery and is excited to go, when it is the holidays and she isn't in nursery she thinks she has done something wrong because she hasn't gone to nursery.
She is happy when she plays with other children and toys; she likes to play with toys with her family/friends. She is sad when she doesn't get what she wants or when she has done something wrong, and knows that she has, she will sit on her own and keep her head down until someone says it is ok.
Environment
Family members
Alison is her mother and Chris is her dad. She has a twin brother called Cameron born 20 minutes before Lauren. These twins get on great without fighting and arguing with one another. To me they care and love one another. If one of them gets hurt the other one goes and helps nurse them.
Home
They live in a new set of detached houses, which is 6 miles from St Helens town centre and about 1/2 mile from the nearest shop. The estate that they live o has about 60 = houses and is well arranged. There is going to be a pub and shops built on the estate.
The house has 4 bedrooms, bathroom upstairs and downstairs, kitchen, dining room and living room. The house has a garage on the side of the house and long wide driveway. Lauren has her own bedroom and it is fairly big, the windows are small so there is no chance of her climbing though them. The windows are high; one of the other bedrooms is now a toy room for her and her brother. The house has a fairly big back garden and front garden. The garage contains all their outdoor toys like bikes, scooters, etc.
Physical development (large muscles) gross motor skills
Lauren has full control and support of her head. She can sit up with a straight back and a good posture. She can stand upright on her own. She can walk in a straight line. She can run about and go and down steps with one foot on each step. She can ride a bike using stabilisers. She can kick a ball and throw a ball. She can climb up a slide on her own and is confident to slide down it on her own. She can hop, skip and jump. She usually jumps the last 2 steps of the stairs. She can use a normal swing but someone has to push her to get her started, then she will begin to use her legs for a wile. (*Children are becoming more social and willing to play with other children. Speech modulating in loudness and range of pitch. Large vocabulary intelligible even to strangers, but speech still contains many immature phonetic substitutions and unconventional grammatical forms.)
Fine manipulative skills (The use & control of hands and fingers)
She can reach and grasp for objects. She can hold a toy in her hand and drink through a normal cup or glass. She can pass things from hand to hand e.g. a crayon. To colour she uses palmer grips to pick up Lego etc. She uses pincer grip. She can do jigsaws and build towers using building blocks she can build them to there highest. She eats using a spoon, knife and fork. She can thread beads but sometimes needs help doing the smaller ones.
She can draw pictures, which you can realise what hey look like! She can talk a lot with a wide range of vocabulary. She can paint, colour, draw and try and write letters. She uses play scissors and know that's they can be dangerous. She will share things with other children e.g. sweets, crayons etc. She doesn't really have nightmares but she food fads, when she doesn't like something she will tell you that she doesn't'. She can match colours together she knows what most of her colours are. She can wash and dry her hands once been the toilet and before her tea. She can put her own coat on and take it off and hang it up.
Intellectual development
Lauren has a good use of vocabulary. She can say 500 + words; make short sentences up like 'a yellow ball', 'my mum has gone work' things like that. She can ask questions when needed and answer them if you ask her a question. She can count from 1 to 10 easily maybe higher, she can count up to 20 sometimes needs helps, and she can say other numbers but doesn't know where they come when counting.
She can sing songs and remember them. She can listen to a story and tell you what happens. She remembers pop songs tunes and she can read picture books and label objects and people with their correct names. She knows hat her road is call that she lives in, and what her door number is but she doesn't know her postcode or telephone number.
She asks lots of questions. She can also sort out simple objects and recognises long and short objects. She knows some shapes and logos of sport were. E.g. Nike, Adidas, etc. She know lots of colours but mostly the simple ones like red, blue, green, yellow, etc. She can say if an object is heavy and light and the different textures e.g. smooth, hard, soft, etc. Her vocabulary is rather large and her sentences are getting longer day-by-day. She sometimes uses the incorrect endings e.g. drawed, sheeps, etc.
Emotional development (learning to handle and control feelings) and social development (learning to live with others).
Lauren is shy with strangers, but is talkative when with friends in nursery. I f she needs to ask a question she will. She plays with her brother (twin) and 2 children from next-door and she has fun playing with them. She plays with her family a lot.
She seems to spend a lot of time with her extended family members e.g. auntie's, uncle, nanny's etc. She goes to her family with her brother when her mum and dad are at work. Someone from her family will pick her and her brother up from nursery. She has quite a lot of confidence in front of her family but no in front off strangers. She doesn't have many tantrums; she will have odd ones but that is very rare.
She takes turn when she is playing a game and plays with children fairly. She has good relationship with adults and other children. She goes nursery and gets on great with her nursery teachers and the children. She plays with all the children in nursery. She plays with her cousins that go the nursery and her twin brother. Her older cousins attend the school as well. (*From around three years of age friendship will become increasingly important, and children will in many ways become less socially dependant on parents, Family and carers.) She would come home form nursery and tell us what she has done in nursery, e.g. played in the sandpit, painted, and played in the tent or dolls house. She will play with toys for long time and play with people. She likes playing with her cousins, as there are a lot of toddler cousins around her age. She knows their names and if she is in the can she knows whose house she is going towards. She will share her toys with her brother and her cousins and friends, she enjoys playing with them/
Lauren has good set of manners and she uses them in the correct places at the correct time. When someone gives her something she will say 'thank you'. She understands what manners are! Her attitude towards other people doesn't change. Unless they say something to her that she doesn't like. She treats people the way they treat her. Lauren has good table manners; she will eat with her knife and fork but doesn't always use her knife as most of her food is already cut up for her.
Lauren can play in a group with children. But ...
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Lauren has good set of manners and she uses them in the correct places at the correct time. When someone gives her something she will say 'thank you'. She understands what manners are! Her attitude towards other people doesn't change. Unless they say something to her that she doesn't like. She treats people the way they treat her. Lauren has good table manners; she will eat with her knife and fork but doesn't always use her knife as most of her food is already cut up for her.
Lauren can play in a group with children. But when the game gets tough or dangerous she will come out of the game and tell someone that they are playing naughty. (*From three years onwards, children are much more aware of other people, and their social circle needs to be much wider. Now is the time for them to attend playgroup or nursery on a regular basis. They need to learn how to react and respond to others, to be co-operative, 5o take turns, to share, and to consider other people. They can only do this if they are around others regularly - but they will still need parent and family support and help.)
Encouraging social development
(*Children need to 'meet and mix with other people in different situations to gain confidence, learn to respect, to be sympathetic, to communicate, to share and to become independent beings. At the start family and regular carers do this. Later they mix with other children and adults. This extract was taken from the children's development book, the same book as used about to find height.)
Identification of broad area of research
During my introductory observation of Lauren, I have decided to do my board area of research on toys and the safety of toys and play. I feel that this is an important part of Lauren's development because this is how she learns about her social and intellectual skills. My research is play. I'm going to be looking at:
Development areas:
* Physical
* Intellectual
* Emotional
* Social
Types of play:
* Discovery
* Physical
* Creative
* Imaginative
* Manipulative
* Social
* Why play is important to children
* Toys indoor and outdoor and how they help children's skills
Physical development
Physical development is about the development of the body, as physical development proceeds, the child acquires various physical skills.
Motor skills: Which require co-ordination between the brain and the muscles. These skills often require a great deal of practice before becoming automatic.
Gross motor skills: Use the large muscles in the body include walking, running, climbing, kicking a ball, etc.
Fine manipulative skills: Involve precise use of the hands and fingers for pointing, drawing, doing up buttons, using a knife and fork, etc.
Intellectual development
Intellectual development is development of the mind. The mind is the thinking part of the brain - the part that is used for recognising, reasoning, knowing and understanding.
A child's mind is active from the time he/she is born. Day by day, as the child grows the mind develops as he/she:
* Learns about people
* Learns about things
* Learns new skill
* Learns to communicate
* Acquire more memories
* Gains more experience
As a child's mind develops, he/she becomes more intelligent. How intelligent the child becomes will depend on two main things:
* Genes
* Environment
Throughout childhood, genes and environment continuously interact to produce people whose minds develop in a great variety of ways e.g. children vary in their ability to remember, their artistic or musical talents, skill at languages or mathematics, academic ability, cleverness with the hands, and whether they have a good understanding of people and their problems.
Emotional development
Emotional development is development of a child's ability to control his/her feelings - is influenced by the child's inborn temperament, her environment and her state of health.
Social development
Social development - socialisation - is the process of learning skills and attitudes which enable individuals to live easily with other members of their community.
Social development follows similar patterns all over the world although social customs vary in different countries and even between different groups in the came country.
Activities, which encourage social development, are those, which bring a child into company of other people both inside and outside the home:
* Family outings
* Parent and toddler groups
* Playgroups and nursery schools
* Opportunities to play with friends
Discovery play
This type of play enables a child to find out about things: what are they like - shape, size, texture, and colour, how they are made, what she/he can do with them. The child will also discover that they can be broken, and this can help to teach him/her to take care of their possessions.
Physical play
This type of play take place when a child is actively moving around - running, throwing a ball, jumping, climbing, crawling, balancing, swinging and so on.
Creative play
Creative play is when a child expresses their own ideas and feelings to make something which is original, for example, a picture, animal modelling dough, a house in building blocks, and so on. A young child is able to express feelings and ideas more easily b painting and drawing than by using words. As the child becomes more skilled with words, they may then be able to write a song, play or poem.
Imaginative play
This type of play is 'pretend' or fantasy play. The child imagines that they are someone else or an animal such as a rabbit or dog. Children imitate the ways of adults when playing in a Wendy house or play 'shopping'. Attempting to behave like someone else helps the child to understand more clearly the way other people behave.
Manipulative play
This involves skilful; use of the hands. During manipulative play the hands, eyes and brain are being trained to co-ordinate that is to work smoothly together. Babies become increasingly skilful with their hands as they ply with rattles, soft toys and other objects. Later on, they benefit from playing with such things as water, sand and modelling dough.
Social play
This takes place when children play together, It teachers them to co-operate, to share and to be honest. It also teaches them than antisocial behaviour, like cheating, leads to isolation and loss of friendship. Children often quarrel and in doing so learn about each other's reactions.
One of the most important things children do I play. Play is the essential joy of childhood and is also the ay children learning abut themselves, heir environment and the people around them. As they play, children learn to solve problems, get along with others people and control their bodies as they improve their creativity and develop leadership skills. When children play with a broad variety of toys, the experiences help them to develop to their fullest prospective.
Children bring endless amount of energy and imagination to their play with toys and constantly developing new and creative ways to play because there are so many different kinds of toys and novel way to play with them, children learn that the world is a diverse place with unlimited possibilities. Toys have an exciting role in helping children to become mature, confident and imaginative adults.
Many toys are used only during a particular stage of development. However, a few seem to appeal to children of all age and are used over long period of childhood. These include bricks, climbing frames, dolls and soft toys, and toys for bath time.
Bricks: Bricks probably have the longest life of any toy, building with brick encourages children to concentrate, be patient, to invent and to be skilful with their hands.
When young child first plays with bricks, they have difficulty in placing one brick on top another. They have to learn to use their hands and eyes together, to develop fine control, to concentrate and to carry on and keep on practising until the brick can be placed how they want it to be.
Climbing frame: This large and expensive toy takes up a great deal of space and, once put up, has to be left in a place. The advantages of a climbing frame are that it can be used throughout childhood both from physical play and for many other activities. It can be put wherever there is enough space, wither inside or outside the house.
A climbing frame is particularly useful for children who don't have a large garden or nearby adventure playground in which to play. It gives opportunity for children to use their muscles, gain control over their movement, test their hills and use up energy. A young child has to decide where to their hands and feet, how far to climb and hot to hold the body to balance.
Dolls and soft toys: The favourite doll or teddy or cuddly animal becomes a soft of 'person' to whom the child can turn for companionship or comfort. Unlike people, they are always ready for play, don't make demands, can be talked to in confidence and then left alone until wanted again. Sometimes children prefer to share grief, anger and pleasure with dolly or teddy rather than with people. Many children rely on them for comfort throughout childhood.
Toys for bath time: Children love playing with water and have fun with toy, which float, sponges for squeezing, and containers for scooping water up with. One way of getting children to wash themselves all over or to have their hair washed at bath time is a promise to give them time afterwards to playing the water. Supervision of children in a bath continues to be needed for safety reasons.
I sent off letters to different companies of toy manufactures and toyshops and other places to find out information about play, most companies I wrote to, replied with letters and leaflets and booklets. A copy of the letters is shown below:
32 Ashbrook Avenue,
Weaverside Village,
Runcorn,
Cheshire,
Wa7 3hd.
Dear sir/madam,
I am currently studying for my GCSEs in childcare and I was wondering if there was any chance you could help me to do my research on Toys and Play. I attend Fairfield High School and I am doing my work on Toys and Play is there a possibility you could send me any information you have on these subjects. I will be very grateful.
Thanks a lot for your time
Joanne Baker.
I sent letters to the following companies:
* Toys r us
* Early learning centre
* Lego
* Mother care
* National action plan
* Mother and babies
My emails were written in the same way and I send those too:
* Mother care
* Baby world
* Toys r us
* Early learning centre
And to other email address off links on internet programs- means they replied to my letter by email or post.
Identification of focused area of research: From my initial visit to Lauren, I have discovered that she is a friendly child who likes to play with other children. She enjoys dressing up and plying with her dolls and other toys.
Lauren likes to play with other girls and boys because she has got a twin brother who she plays with a lot. She likes drawing and other creative activities; she likes playing with ply dough and modelling things with it.
Lauren plays all the time after school, so its very important to her and her everyday lifestyle, sp that's why I chose play s my broad area of research I have now realised that for my focused area of research, I'm going to study physical play, cause Lauren seems to do more creative, imaginative and co-operative play, so I going to study Lauren's physical play and she how she reacts to the outdoors like the park.
Spider diagram to show the different types of physical play.
The things I'm going to look at in physical play are:
* Physical play as a whole
* The things that my child should be able to do at her age
* Benefits of physical play
* Toys for physical play
Although most play is physical in someway, physical play takes place where children are using their whole bodies, and their large muscles. It is usually very active, and involves lots of running around allowing children to use up all their energy. It usually takes place out of doors as lots of space is needed.
Physical help children by:
* Developing fine motor skills
* Developing balance and co-ordination
* Developing sense - sight, touch, taste, smell and hear
* Exercise body and limbs
The things that relate to a child aged 4:
Gross motor skills
* Can walk or run alone up[ and down the stairs
* Can walk along a straight line
* Hops on one foot
* Climbs ladders and trees
* Pedals and controls a tricycle confidently
* Is becoming increasingly skilled at ball - can throw, catch, bounce, kick and use a bat
Fine motor skills
* Can build a tower of ten or more cubes
* Can build 3 steps with 6 bricks if shown
* Controls a pencil with a mature pincer grasp
* Can fasten and unfasten buttons
* Can put together simple and large piece jigsaws
Benefits of physical play
Physical play encourages children to:
* Have fun and be happy
* Develops fine motor skills
* Develops large motor skills
* Learns new skills
* Relieve stressful situations
* Divert aggression
* Co-operate with others
* Use their imagination
Activities for physical play are:
* Playing hopscotch/skipping
* Playing team games such as football
* Playing on slides, swing, climbing frames
* Riding bicycles and tricycles
* Roller blading
* Swimming
Physical play helps the development of gross motor skill, co-ordination and balance, as well as fine motor skills it can help to develop concepts of size, speed and spatial awareness, as well as helping them to learn about the outside world when children are playing together. It will encourage language development and social development - taking turns, sharing. Emotionally it helps children 'let off steam', boost self-confidence and be adventurous.
Visit 1
Date of visit: 10.9.2003
Time: 16.00 - 18.00
Place: Lauren's house
People present: Alison, Cameron and me.
Aim of visit
Today I'm going to observe Lauren when making Bill and Ben biscuits with her and her brother.
I'm going to be looking at her intellectual development when I'm telling her the instructions. I'm also going to look at her, social skills to see how she communicates with her brother and me. I'm obviously going to look at her physical skills in making the biscuits. Emotional development comes into it slightly in her confidence and ability to cope with the new situations.
Expectations of the visit
I think she will understand what she has to do. When I'm in the kitchen with her and I think she will stand and listen to what she is told to do. She will also do it properly when she is told to do it and if she gets stuck she will no doubt ask for help. I'm also going top do them with her brother and see if they can work together and share things and help one another.
Observations
When I went to visit Lauren she was very excited when I told her what we was making, she followed the instructions, but when she found it hard to mix the ingredients together, when it was getting sticky and more harder to mix. He brother made them with her and they shared the equipment and helped one another. They copied of the box to see how they should decorate them and they followed it will, they made a Bill and Ben each, and they counted how many they made. Lauren asked could we make them again one day, so it shows she's enjoyed making them. She is good at using her hands and co-ordinating with her hands, fingers and brain.
I told her that they will take 10 minutes to cook and she told me when 10 minutes had gone, so it proves that she has a good sense of maths and numbers. I explained to her that they will be ready when the big finger reaches such a number and then she told me when it got there.
Evaluations of visit
I was practically correct in my expectations because I know the child pretty well so I knew what I would expect from her. She was very well behaved like I said she would be in the expectations. She likes to bake cakes and she asked me could she do them again in the next school holidays, because she enjoyed it so much.
She was more excited than I expected her to be and I think that was because it was her first time to make them and she knew that she could eat them afterwards and she love cakes and biscuits. Compared to Cameron, Lauren is very loud compared to him. I think this might have had something about hat we were doing because he isn't usually a quiet child as he is the nosiest out of the two of them. He was able to do the same things as she was just not as confidently and I think this has something to do with their sex because Cameron probably doesn't think that making biscuits is a boyish thing. Cameron is a child that only does boyish things and thinks it will be wrong to play with a doll or play with Barbie's or something along those lines.
Emotional development
Lauren was happy making cakes and enjoyed it very much; her expressions on her face were showing happiness and enjoyment.
Social development
Lauren got on well with her brother and me and talked a lot and didn't want to do it on her own, she wanted to share everything and wanted to help her brother if he was struggling.
Intellectual development
Lauren's intellectual development didn't play much of a big part in this visit but when it did, she used it well when talking to me and Cameron with her language skills, which are brilliant for a four year old, and her hand eye co-ordination, was also brilliant.
Physical development
Lauren used her dine manipulative and gross motor skills in baking the cakes as she was mixing the picking the stars up to stick on the icing of the cakes and all so the jelly sweets to stick on as well.
Visit 2
Date of visit: 10.10.2003
Time: 10.30 - 1.00
Place: A park
People present: Me and Lauren
Aims and planning
Today, I'm going to take Lauren to the park, I'm going to take Lauren on her own without her brother and see how she reacts with other children, to see does she communicate with them and talk to then, or does she ignore them and just play alone (solitary) because she is either shy or wants to do her own things.
I'm also going to see does Lauren have any major skills that she is good at like balancing, skipping, running and climbing up fake walls in the park (gross motor skills) and then co-ordinating of using her arms and legs along the ropes and see can she use her own imagination and do things by herself.
Expectations
I expect that Lauren will be able to run, jump, hop and skip, walk along a beam, enjoy climbing and sliding down the slide.
I think that she will enjoy funning around and having a bit of freedom to play on what she wants to play on, in the park.
FAR investigation
When I returned to Lauren's house I hope to talk to Lauren's parents about their views on the importance of play and how they encourage this in Lauren. I have planned a simple questionnaire for them to complete while I'm t the park with Lauren. I then hope to interview them and ask them a few more questions.
FAR predictions
I think that I may find that Lauren's parents will find physical play important to her lifestyle. I don't think they find it as important as they should do because she is more imaginative and creative, and she is always playing with toys in her toy room with her brother.
Observations
When I arrived at Lauren's house she and Cameron came running up to me because they haven't seen me for a couple of weeks because they have been on holiday. I told Lauren that I was going to take her to the park and I brought Cameron a game for him to play with, so that he wouldn't get jealous, of me taking Lauren out and him as well. Lauren became excited when I told her that I was taking her to the park. The park isn't far from Lauren's house so we walked it there and when we was on the way she held my hand and she was skipping and running on the way there. When we got to the park Lauren wanted to go on a swing straight away and she ran straight over to it, She was on the swing for about 10 minutes and she needed me to start her off pushing her then she used her legs to make her keep moving.
Lauren then went on the climbing frame were she was climbing up a fake wall, I had to tell her where to put her foot as she got a bit stuck when she was near the top of the wall. When she got to the top she had to slide down at the other side and she did that with no problem at all. She then did that a few times and once she done it a few times she didn't need help with co-ordination and where to put her feet, etc.
She then played on the see saw with another girl on the other side, but she knew the girl from primary school so she had a friend there that she was communicating with. She then went on the roundabout, I pushed her round on it and when she got dizzy she asked me to stop. She then wanted to go for a kick about in the park with her friend so she started to kick the ball about the park with her friend. I was talking to her friends mum about her little girl and asking how often she brings her little girl to the park, etc.
Lauren then got fed up with doing that and she anted to go home to play with Cameron, so we walked home and when we got home she started to with Cameron and it wasn't long before she feel asleep it shows that taking her the park and letting her do her own things makes her tried and them she will sleep.
When we got back and Lauren was playing with her toys, I was able to talked to her mum and dad about my focused area of research and ask them questions.
Evaluation
Lauren was well behaved on this visit to the park and I think with her friend being there, it boosts up her confidence even more, but if her friend wasn't there she would have been shy. When I was listening to Lauren and her friend they have the same type of skills both like the same things and both seemed at the same stage off development the one thing I did notice about Lauren's friend was that she seemed to have a speech problem she didn't pronounce all her words correctly compared to how Lauren pronounces hers.
Social development
I noticed that Lauren having a fiend that she new at the park made and helped her socialise with people, if her friend wasn't there I think she would have been fed up earlier and she wouldn't have talked to anyone. Lauren was happy at the park and she enjoyed it very much, I think she will go again and next time we will take her brother.
Emotional development
I think Lauren was happy that she didn't go the park with Cameron but I think she missed him being there, because she had no one to play with until hr friend came. I think she is close to her brother and she likes him being around.
Intellectual development
I couldn't really study many aspects of Lauren's intellectual development from this visit. I noticed that her language is well developed and her speech was completely understandable, and that she does ask for things if needed and if she says something wrong she will correct herself.
Physical development
I managed to study Lauren's physical development, especially her motor skills in a lot of this visit.
When she used her arm and legs on the fake wall and when she used her legs to push her self on the swing. She is very strong in her arms to pull her up on the wall and strong in legs to support her on the wall.
She can skip which she was doing on the way to the park, she can run about a lot.
She can even use co-ordination and kick a ball in a straight line, and she knows to place her foot at the side of the ball and which ever way her foot next to the ball is facing the way the ball will go, this shows that when people tell her things she remembers them and then she can explain them to other people. I think she learnt that off her dad when she has taught her little brother.
Conclusion
I think Lauren's visit went well. I was a bit worried about how she would react with out taking Cameron and how Cameron would react without me taking him with us. Lauren was very co-operative and a very exciting child and she enjoyed her time at the park.
I also was able to study the aspects of Lauren's development, which I wanted on the visit to the park. I observed her using gross motor skills at the park, which she seemed to manage quite, will and in which she fitted the theory I had discovered.
I also looked at her emotional and social development and they was what I expected but I think she was more shy then I thought she would be, she seemed very clingy until her friend came. I think if her brother were there, we would have seen a different side to her. She doesn't like being on her own with people she doesn't know, she likes to be with people her age and people she knows or has seen before.
FAR assignment
I gave Lauren's mum and dad a questionnaire to complete while we were at the park (see below)
When we returned I interviewed both parents and asked them the following questions:
. Does Lauren enjoy outdoor activities?
2. Which activities do you think she enjoys the most/least?
3. How do you encourage he outdoor play and how do you get involved?
4. Do you think it is important for children to have lots of play outdoors as well as indoors?
Questionnaire
* Which of the following does Lauren do:
Activity
Regularly
Sometimes
Never
Visit park
Go swimming
Play outside with friends
From her estate
Go to the beach
Play in the garden
Have friends round
Play on a bicycle/scooter
Others - please specify
* Which of the following outdoor toys o you have for your children to use? Please tick
Toys
Climbing frame
Swings
Slide
Bicycle/scooter
Trampoline
Paddling pool
Balls
Sand pit
Others
Results of the interview
Question
Mum
Dad
She likes to dance about and playing in the garden with her cousins, but really she likes to play indoors
Yes, most of the time but not s much as Cameron. She prefers to watch videos and to draw pictures for us, etc.
2
She likes the park and its equipment there. She doesn't like to playing the cold, but she moans when it is too hot, she love to dance around the house
She likes dancing very much she non-stop dances round the house. She also like to go the park and kick a ball with her brother, she doesn't dislike much really
3
I take her to the park when it is warm, and we go the beach during summer. She likes to play with the children from next door because they have got a big Wendy house that she likes to play in
I take her to the park when I take Cameron to his football practices, and she likes to kick the ball around. We go out on days trips on a weekend like to Chester Zoo or somewhere like that we also like to take the children tot the cousins to place because they like gong there.
4
I think it's important especially these days when all they seem to want to do is play on a computer or watch television and videos. They need fresh it to help them sleep and to give them more appetite, I also think it is important because they socialise with people
I think it is important but it's not safe enough nowadays to let a child outside on their own or with brother or sister because you never know what might happen, also you don't know what is safe and what isn't safe anymore
Evaluation for FARs activities
I feel I gained a lot of information that is very useful to my research topic. I have learnt a lot about Lauren and her lifestyle and what her parents think of play as a whole. From the questionnaire I found out that Lauren does go outdoors quite a lot but she prefers the indoors because its warmer and she doesn't like to go outside in the cold to often.
She likes to play with toys outside that are big and more exciting than riding a bike or something like that. She also like to play with footballs and kick them about, maybe that is just because she has been brought up with her brother playing football or she has decided to choose to do that herself.
From the questionnaire I found out that, Lauren's family have brought Lauren and Cameron a lot of outdoor toys such as:
* Swings
* Bicycles
* Balls
* Sandpit
* Paddling pool
* Slide
* Climbing frame
* A see-saw
* Tent
* Tunnel ball pool
* Bouncy castle
* Football post (which is for Cameron)
It seems from the questionnaire that Lauren has her fair share of outdoors and indoor activities it's just that she likes the indoors more, probably something to do with the weather or something to do with she would be more creative.
This whole thing I think has something to do with the sex' of the twins as one being a girl and other being a boy. I think Chris thinks that Cameron can only do boyish stuff and it's not right for him to pay with girl's toys. I think Cameron is the same as Chris because he picked a blue room when he wanted it decorating and Lauren picked a pink room, this could have something to do with, what they have been told. That pink is for girls and blue is for boys or something like that. But with Lauren and Cameron being different sex's they have probably been brought up in slightly different ways, like Cameron like's football, and Lauren like's dolls and Barbie's.
