Play through children's eyes: The subjective meaning of play to young children

Play is fundamental to children’s daily activities and provides a critical avenue for learning and development. However, attempts to describe and operationalize play are dominated by adults’ perspectives. This study aims to explore the subjec­tive meaning of play to young children. Using a qualitative approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 327 children aged 4 to 8 years from [a Western European country]. These interviews were analyzed using both deductive and inductive content analysis methods to categorize children’s descriptions of play. Approximately half of the children provided coherent, differentiated descriptions of play. Results indicate that children’s perceptions align deductively with the features of play seminally defined by Krasnor and Pepler (1980) and expanded by Smith and Vollstedt (1985): positive affect, flexibility, intrinsic motivation, nonliterality, and means before end. The inductive analysis identified three addi­tional categories, children’s business, social interactions, and object reference and therefore revealed additional features of play relevant for children. This study underscores the importance of recognizing children’s voices in research and highlights the complex, multifaceted nature of play from a child’s perspective. These insights into children’s perspec­tives contribute to a deeper understanding of play and inform educators, parents, and policymakers about the elements to play in early childhood. Future research should continue to explore the nuanced views of children to better support their developmental needs through play.

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