Children Draw Playing data analysis: "How is playing good for the world?"

This morning our team analysed the Children Draw Playing journal about "How is playing good for the world". We had 67 children answer this question.

Dr Jo Grimmond, Prof Sharynne  McLeod, Dr Belinda Downey, Dr Katrina Gersbach, Dr Van H. Tran, Dr Kate Freire

Our overarching themes from the content analysis were:

Playing:

• fun, good and entertains us (n = 23)
• keeps us healthy and energetic (n = 17)
• makes the world happy (n = 16)
• brings people together (n = 9)
• we can try new things (n = 9)
• not good/don’t know (n = 4)

 We discussed the following theories

Classical theories of play

• Surplus energy theory
• Recreation or relaxation theory
• Practice or pre-exercise theory
• Recapitulation theory

 Contemporary or modern theories of play:

• Psychoanalytic theory (Freud and Erikson)
• Arousal-seeking or modulation theory
• Metacommunicative theory
• Cognitive theory (Piaget)
• Sociocultural theory (Vygotsky)