The purpose of this study was to find out the differences in engagement of children in the sand play and their play forms in a natural sand play which was part of their outdoor free optional time, depending on the existence of toys or water supply, an...
The purpose of this study was to find out the differences in engagement of children in the sand play and their play forms in a natural sand play which was part of their outdoor free optional time, depending on the existence of toys or water supply, and also the differences depending on the gender of children under the circumstances with those provided. The research questions of this study were as follows:
1. How is the engagement rate in the sand play depending on the existence of toys and water supply?
2. How are the children's play forms depending on the existence of toys and water supply in sand play area?
2-1. Haw are the children's play forms in case of existence of only sand in sand play area?
2-2. How are the children's play forms in case of existence of toys in sand play area?
2-3. How is the children's play forms in case of existence of toys and water supply in sand play area?
3. Are there differences in play forms of the children depending on their gender under the circumstances with or without toys and water in sand play area?
3-1. Are there differences in the play forms of the children depending on their gender under the circumstances with only sand provided in sand play area?
3-2. Are there differences in play forms of the children depending on their gender under the circumstances with toys provided in sand play area?
3-3. Are there differences in play forms of the children depending on their gender under the circumstances with toys and water provided in sand play area?
The subjects of this study were 30 children (female-15, male-15) selected among the middle class children from H kindergarten located in Seongdong District, Seoul. The data of the study were gathered based on play behavior categories developed by Frost (1992) by adding non-play behavior as well as other play behaviors to Smilansky's cognitive play categories and Parten's social play categories. Time sampling method was applied for 15 seconds for observation.
For analysis of this study, the repeated measure multivariate test was adopted in order to find out children's engagement rate in the sand play and their play forms depending on the existence of toys in the play, and then the paired t-test was performed to reveal the differences among the play forms. Furthermore, t-test was proceeded to look into the differences among play forms with or without toys depending on the gender of the children.
The results from this study showed as below.
Firstly, the result from looking into the engagement rate in the sand play depending on the existence of toys and water in the play indicated that the rate rose high when toys and water were provided together with sand, whereas when only sand was given, children's engagement was shown in swinging, complex play bars, feeding animals, seesaw, etc. in order, besides the sand play.
Secondly, as a result of observing play forms depending on the existence of toys and water in the sand play, group play appeared to be very active regardless of the existence of toys and water supply in the sand play in terms of social play forms. Moreover, the group play was the most active when sand and toys were provided. In terms of cognitive play forms, constructive play was the most common when only sand or sand and toys were provided, whereas dramatic play was shown more when sand, toys and water were given. When only sand was given in the sand play, group play appeared to be more than parallel play in terms of the children's social play farms and also group play was shown more than solitary play, whereas in terms of their cognitive play forms with only sand given, constructive play was more active than function play, and dramatic play appeared to be more than function play. When toys were provided in the sand play, social play forms showed the activity of plays in order of group play, parallel play and solitary play, but in their cognitive play forms under the same circumstances, constructive play showed more than function play and dramatic play was more than function play. When toys and water were provided in the sand play, social play forms showed the activity of plays in order of group play, parallel play and solitary play, but in their cognitive play forms under the same circumstances, constructive play and dramatic play showed more than function play.
Thirdly, when only sand was provided in the sand play, children's social play forms was not different depending on their gender. When only sand was provided in the sand play, in terms of cognitive play forms, constructive play was more common to the male than the female. The result from looking into the differences in children's play farms depending on the gender when toys were provided in the sand play indicated that in social play forms more of the male engaged in parallel play than the female, and in cognitive play forms, constructive play was more common to the male than the female, whereas dramatic play was more popular to the female than the male. The result from looking into the differences in children's play forms depending on the gender when toys and water were provided in the play showed that in social play forms more of the male engaged in parallel play than the female, whereas more of the female joined group play than the male. In cognitive play forms, constructive play was more common to the male than the female, whereas dramatic play was more popular to the female than the male.