What is inclusive play

What is inclusion?

Children can be different in many ways. Some of the differences are minor and hardly noticeable, others are bigger and will lead to challenges in participating in activities together with other children. The extend of variation in abilities, skill performance, behaviours and other personal attributes, is called diversity.

Inclusion is the practice in which groups or individual with different backgrounds or abilities are culturally and socially accepted and welcomed. Respecting and appreciating what makes other people different, in terms of age, gender, ethnicity, disability or any other personal characteristic. In some cases, it also means actively making changes to an environment or organisation to accommodate the presence and participation of certain people. Simply put, diversity is the mix and inclusion is making that mix work. In the context of playgrounds, inclusion means offering equal access and varied play opportunities for all children and to create an atmosphere where everyone feels welcome, feels heard and is able to play along.

What do we mean when we talk about disabilities or special needs?

The definition of ‘handicap’ or ‘disability’ depends on the context it’s being used in. There’s a distinction between the medical definition – mostly denoted as ‘impairment’ or ‘deficit’ – and the more social use of the word. The social meaning of ‘disability’ places someone’s health condition (the sum of a person’s body functions, structure and personal factors) against their life’s context (the sum of all environmental and personal factors outside of the person). When a person’s context negatively influences their abilities to perform activities or participate in society, that’s seen as a disability. This negative influence is usually called a barrier. In this understanding, people are not disabled because of their own body or abilities, but because of the barriers in their environment. Should the barriers be taken away or features be added, the person’s health condition would be less of an issue.

Around 10 to 15 percent of children between ages 0 and 18 experience certain barriers or disabilities. This number depends partly on the geographical region and the used definitions. Disabilities can roughly be divided into three main categories: sensory-motor, cognitive and social-emotional deficits. Out of all children with a disability, around 60 to 65 percent experience a social-emotional deficit (like ASD or ADHD), 30 to 35 percent experience a cognitive deficit (like Down Syndrome or educational and learning disorders) and 5 to 10 percent experience a sensory or motoric deficit (visual and hearing impairments and deficits in the use of limbs) or a severe combination of deficits. This last group faces the most barriers while playing.

What is play?

Although everyone clearly knows what playing is, giving a definitive definition seems to be more difficult. Play is commonly defined as an activity build on the concept of engagement, intrinsic-motivation and the need of doing. Important factors are the role of imagination and fantasy, rules and social aspects and the capacity to evolve in childhood. Play often includes physical activity but can also be based on mental activity or even be purely linguistic (playing with words). A key characteristic of play is that it evolves when children grow and develop. To play, children use a combination of sensory-motor, cognitive, social-emotional abilities and skills. As children grow older, they learn new movements and grasp more complex things, and as such their play also evolves further.

How does play evolve in childhood

In the first years of a child's life, practice play appears. Children reach towards caregivers, handle objects, learn to roll over, crawl and walk. These activities involve basic sensory and motor competences and require only basic cognitive abilities. During the first 2 years of a child’s life, play happens mostly solitary, even when surrounded by other children. Around 2 or 3 years, onlooker play and parallel play emerge. Children start looking at and copying each other and develop a social interest in other children. They still play independently but will do similar activities at the same time, share and take turns. As cognitive abilities and capacity for imagination develop, constructive play and symbolic play start to develop. Children build little houses of blocks, play with puppets or toy cars and imitate their caregivers. On a sensory-motor level, they quickly develop fine motor skills like manipulating small objects, better balance, posture and eye-hand/foot coordination. Games with rules emerge in the preschool age, when the child is able to manage easy rules and develop a social understanding of the needs and wishes of other children. Play becomes more of a social activity as associative and cooperative play emerges. Children learn how to organize their play cooperatively with a common goal and assigned roles (think of games like freeze tag, hide and seek or roleplaying).

3D-model of play

Although most children develop more or less along the described path, some of them will experience delays or limitations in their development. Every combination of skills at a given time, will lead to a different ability or interest in types of play. This way you can see that all children have different needs, depending on their personal development and their aspirations. Designing for inclusive play, means to understand the different abilities of all children, to facilitate all the different modes of play and to address all issues that may occur. To build a playground that suits every child, all their needs must be recognised, and barriers removed. To learn more about barriers and the different types of play related to different forms of impairments or development, check out our article about the 3D-model of play.

 

About the authors:

Filip Gerits and Yves De Keuster are designers and researchers specialised in design and safety of activity toys and play infrastructure. For this topic we were happy to count on the indispensable support of a range of experts, children and parents with experience in the field of inclusive play. We especially like to thank Kathleen Op De Beeck - specialised in occupational therapy and inclusive education at AP – university college in Antwerp, Belgium – for her input and enthusiasm.

Many of the ideas and concepts in this article have been checked against published scientific sources and research. The researchers, projects and publications listed below are recommended sources for further reading.  

• Helen Lynch, Alice Moore – 2019 – Community Parks and Playgrounds: Intergenerational Participation through Universal Design
• Ines Wenger, Christina Schulze, Ulrica Lundström & Maria Prellwitz – 2020 –Children’s perceptions of playing on inclusive playgrounds: A qualitative study
• Serenella Besio, Daniela Bulgarelli, Vaska Stancheva-Popkostadinova – 2017 – Play Development in Children with Disabilities
• P4Play – European Joint Doctorates programme in Occupational Science for Occupational Therapists – p4play.eu
• Susan Herrington – 2006 – The design of landscapes at child-care centres: Seven Cs