Public health policy and interventions seek to arrest declining physical activity rates in childhood. Two prominent settings for intervening in childhood physical activity are schools and the home. This paper critically examines how these two spaces are constructed in a way that leads to different physical activity outcomes for children in their…

Playgrounds are crucial spaces where children can develop within their formative years. Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) require additional support that caters to their sensory and social needs. A systematic literature review identified design characteristics to transform a play space into an environment where physical, social, and…

In this article, the author deploys Erving Goffman's concept of territories of the self as an analytical tool to understand the challenges and opportunities a childcare setting presents for children engaged in social fantasy play. He uses this concept to unpack the unique institutional play habitat of a childcare facility and shows how Goffman's…

Playwork is a recognised profession in the United Kingdom (UK) and is currently a growing area of interest internationally. However, debates about the nature and purpose of playwork have raged in the playwork field since the profession was invented in the early adventure playgrounds. This study is the first to capture data about what the now…

When playwork settings re-opened in July 2020 after the first lockdown in March 2020, playwork as a profession demonstrated its adaptable and flexible nature for children to access the provision. This included open access provision becoming closed access and bookable, a reduction in the number of children, resources, and space to play, and…

In this article, we explore the dynamic interplay of youth agency, spatial justice, and literacy practices across community spaces through micro-analysis of photographs and interviews of children and youth. Through a lens of spatial reclamation, the study investigates how children and youth disrupt adult-designed spaces to restory and reclaim…

Understanding children's willingness to take risks is crucial for sound educational strategies and play environments. This study investigates children's risk willingness using a virtual reality (VR) playground balancing scenario and examines its associations with sensation-seeking personality trait, age, gender, and the likelihood of failing the…

The prevalence of bullying worldwide is high (UNESCO, 2018). Over the past decades, many anti-bullying interventions have been developed to remediate this problem. However, we lack insight into for whom these interventions work and what individual intervention components drive the total intervention effects. We conducted a large-scale individual…

The day-to-day environment surrounding the child influences its physical, social, and emotional wellbeing. The study was conducted to understand how the perception of children and their parents about the outdoor play spaces influences their outdoor participation. Face-to-face interviews with parents, a walk-along interview with children and audit…

In the nineteenth century city child rescuers developed 'a taxonomy of space' in which geography determined destiny. The privatised spaces of the middle classes were contrasted with the 'dirt, disease and delinquency' of the slums. Yet at the same time as 'dirt' was viewed as 'destructive' and proof of urban neglect it was also accepted in the…

In the context of total world urbanization, the problem of play activity and outdoor activities is becoming more urgent. This article presents the results of a public opinion poll on the services of children's playgrounds. The voluntary online survey provided us with answers of 1030 Shanghai respondents who are the parents of children aged 3-9…

Purpose: During the past decades, China has seen a rapid urbanization that has (re)shaped not only its city landscape but also (re)created public space where children live, play, and learn. However, little research has focused on how urban public space influences young children's learning and development and how parents navigate children's…

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often face barriers when establishing peer connections at school. This aim of this study is to explore how social network inclusion in the classroom is associated with playground peer engagement. Independent observers administered friendship surveys to determine social network inclusion in the classroom…

Using data from a 4-year longitudinal ethnography, this study moves from a classroom to the playground to examine a multiage community engaged in a deeply revered playground game with a history stretching back nearly a decade. Mediated discourse analysis is leveraged to examine the game's historical nexus of practice, rooted in embodied and oral…

In this study, it was aimed to reveal the progress that the games follow in the process of transferring from Generation X to Generation Z. Being a qualitative study, interviews were used for data collection; interviews were conducted with 10 participants and the data was analysed using descriptive analysis. According to the results of the analysis…