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Seeking balance in motion: the role of spontaneous free play in promoting social and emotional health in early childhood care and education

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dc.contributor.authorHewes, Jane
dc.date.accessioned2016-07-28
dc.date.accessioned2022-05-28T00:38:36Z
dc.date.available2022-05-28T00:38:36Z
dc.date.issued2014
dc.description.abstractThere is accumulating scientific evidence of the potential of play and playfulness to enhance human capacity to respond to adversity and cope with the stresses of everyday life. In play we build a repertoire of adaptive, flexible responses to unexpected events, in an environment separated from the real consequences of those events. Playfulness helps us maintain social and emotional equilibrium in times of rapid change and stress. Through play, we experience flow—A feeling of being taken to another place, out of time, where we have controlled of the world. This paper argues that spontaneous free play, controlled and directed by children and understood from the child’s perspective, contributes to children’s subjective experience of well-being, building a foundation for life-long social and emotional health. The paradoxical nature of young children’s spontaneous free play is explored. Adaptability, control, flexibility, resilience and balance result from the experience of uncertainty, unpredictability, novelty and non-productivity. These essential dimensions of young children’s spontaneous free play typically produce play which is experienced by adults as chaotic, nonsensical and disruptive. The article concludes with a preliminary discussion of the challenges and possibilities of providing for spontaneous free play indoors, in early childhood care and education programs.
dc.format.extent308.42 KB
dc.format.mimetypePDF
dc.identifier.citationHewes, J. (2014). Seeking balance in motion: The role of spontaneous free play in social and emotional health in early childhood care and education. Children, 1(3), 280-301. doi:10.3390/children1030280
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.3390/children1030280
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14078/1056
dc.languageEnglish
dc.language.isoen
dc.rightsAttribution (CC BY)
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.subjectspontaneous free play
dc.subjectplayfulness
dc.subjectsocial and emotional health
dc.subjectearly childhood care and education
dc.subjectrough and tumble play
dc.subjectdizzy play
dc.titleSeeking balance in motion: the role of spontaneous free play in promoting social and emotional health in early childhood care and educationen
dc.typeArticle

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