an observation of young children at unstructured play

An Observation of Young Children at Unstructured Play John Paul Sharp

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John Paul Sharp

February 2013

An Observation of Young

Children at Unstructured Play


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I am a writer, director, and performing artist living atop the Capitol Hill

neighborhood in Seattle, Washington. For the purposes of furthering my

learning in human development, I visited the Northgate Mall on February

10th and sat down at the National Geographic Kids Play Area from 1:05

p.m. to 1:35 p.m. to observe children in an unstructured, interactive

environment.

The play area is located within a corridor of the indoor mall and spans

approximately 1500 square feet in a rectangular shape. The most interactive

part of the play area is a vertically mounted larger-than-life keyboard

where children can learn how to play the piano with their hands and feet.

Otherwise, the play area consists of large monuments (e.g., from left, to

right: a spaceship, a boat, a slide, a car). The children move around and

inside these stationary vehicles and interact with each other.

There were at least twelve children from six or seven families present

during the time of my observation. The particularly diverse group of

young children appeared to be ages ranging from late two to six or early

seven and from seemingly White, Black, and Latino families.

Seattle’s residents achieve the highest levels of education in comparison to

the rest of the nation and have a cost of living that ranks as the fifth highest

of all American cities (Office of Intergovernmental Relations, 2011). While

the minority segment of its population makes for less than one third, I can

express from my own experiences (e.g., living in Denver, San Francisco,

and Wichita for several years and living in Seattle for just two), how well-

integrated the people of Seattle seem to be in comparison to cities I’ve lived

in before.

The children reinforced this sense of racial integration for me when

watching them play, however, the social identification and segregation

norms for gender identity remained fully pervasive to their experiences

during my brief visit. I focus the following analysis on the ‘no-boys-

allowed’ attitude I heard expressed on multiple occasions.


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Understanding Gender Understanding

The most striking behaviors I observed were from two of the older girls,

seemingly five or six years old. Both attempted to forcefully direct the

younger children with varying levels of success and failure in achieving

their cooperation. One girl, in particular, seemed intent on driving the play

between her and five other children by not just telling them where to play,

but how to play: ‘no boys allowed!’

In a 1999 study by psychologists Kay Bussey and Albert Bandura, the

impact of peers was noted as perhaps the most central agency for gender

development in children, with purposeful gender segregation being a

common behavior at an earlier age for girls (Bussey & Bandura, 1999, p.

700). While peers can be central influencers, the development of gender

understanding is an interdependent process; everyone and everything can

influence a child’s concepts about gender.

Their study partly reflected upon the original work of Lawrence Kohlberg’s

theories on gender constancy, which include three sub-stages of gender

development in children: gender identity, gender stability, and gender

consistency (Bussey & Bandura, 1999, p. 677, 678). Bussey and Bandura

questioned the empirical value of his theory in terms of connecting

constancy with conduct and the lack of consistency in his methodology

(Bussy & Bandura, 1999, p. 678).

Kohlberg’s colleague, collaborator, and well-known critic, Carol Gilligan,

came to challenge the merit of his theories in the 1980s, arguing his work

was limited and unintentionally catered to the privilege of the male

experience (Flanagan & Jackson, 1987, p. 623). Gilligan portrayed the

female child’s development as connecting with her inequality and the

strong attachment to her maternal and paternal figures which lead her to


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seek justice and care as part of her moral compass (Flanagan & Jackson,

1987, p. 629).

Gender Segregation is … What it is?

Gender segregation happens early on in children’s lives all over the world

for a multitude of reasons that all point to inequality; Korean education,

Japanese child-rearing, Islamic financial law, and Indian and Nigerian

marriage law (Gardiner & Kozmitzki, 2004, p. 169 – 172). While some of

these inequalities would be considered barbaric to many Americans, we

have our own way of dividing the sexes and often these stereotypes exist to

serve us in some fashion or another.

Theoretical perspectives on gender difference suggest biological,

evolutionary, and environmental factors all play a part in how or why

women and men are different (Gardiner & Kozmitzki, 2004, p. 159, 160).

With that knowledge in mind, is gender segregation both good and bad,

and neither good, nor bad?

How critical is the intention behind a child’s desire for homosociality? Are

some acts of segregation to be embraced as part of young girl’s quest for

equality? What role do I have as an educator of young children to intercept

or enforce segregative activities and behaviors?

My thirty-minute observation left me with more questions than answers;

the kind of questions important to consider in both personal and

professional aspects of life. I suspect there are great benefits to engaging

five- and six-year-old girls to discover more answers and more questions

together. Ultimately, I have only speculative avenues to mull as to why the

young girl was so insistent on excluding boys from her play group. The

next time I hear that phrase spoken by a young girl, I intend to ask her to

think about and share with me her rationale.


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References

Bussey, K., & Bandura, A. (1999). Social cognitive theory of gender

development and differentiation. Psychological Review, 106(4), 676-713.

doi:10.1037/0033-295X.10

Flanagan, O., & Jackson, K. (1987). Justice, care, and gender: The Kohlberg-

Gilligan debate. Ethics, 97(3), 622-637. doi:10.1086/292870

Gardiner, H., & Kosmitzki, C. (2004). Lives across cultures: Cross-cultural

human development (3rd ed.). Boston: Pearson Education.

Office of Intergovernmental Relations. (2011). The greater Seattle datasheet,

2011 edition. Retrieved February 11th, 2013, from

http://www.seattle.gov/OIR/datasheet/Datasheet2010.pdf.

http://www.seattle.gov/OIR/datasheet/Datasheet2010.pdf


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Appendix – Observation Notes

Northgate Mall, National Geographic Kids Play Area, Seattle, WA, 1:05 – 1:35 p.m.

1:06 p.m. child jumping on hopscotch

1:07 p.m. parent tells child “wait your turn.” Child screams when other child does not

get out of the way. Three y/o/a? Child has problems “waiting for turn” mother says wait

your turn. Child asks why. Mother says “because that’s what we do. We wait for our

turn.” Child likes to go down the slide on her stomach. Another, younger child, follows

suit. Another child imitates the them.

1:10 p.m. One child calls for her daddy to take a picture of her.

1:12 p.m. Two children play together in the space ship. One girl is trying to control

the play and tells the younger boy to “stop” twice.

1:14 p.m. The girl begins introducing other children to each other and waits at the

slide to tell other children the rules of play. She waits at the bottom, blocking the

children from sliding down. Her mother grabs her and takes her away. She looks to be

five.

1:16 p.m. A mother takes a picture of her three daughters on the spaceship. The

oldest girl pretends to be on the ship, getting ready for launch: “3, 2, 1, Blast off!” The

younger girl is very impatient. Every time a picture is taken, she says, “I wanna’ see! I

can’t see!”

1:20 p.m. A four-year-old girl tells a boy he has to take off his shoes. “Ok.” The boy

walks off and takes his shoes off. Maybe three or four years old.

1:20 p.m. The eldest girl tells other children to get on the boat. “Only girls!” she

insists. One of the boys tries to get on the boat and she yells at him. They eventually


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leave to the other end of the play area under her direction. The boy mostly plays by

himself, about three years old. He does not respond to the older girl, but does not move

away from them, following them.

1:22 p.m. The girls come back to the boat, the boy following. The same scenario

takes place. “No boys. Let’s get out of here.” The girls move to the space ship.

1:23 p.m. The girls are trying to decide who gets to sit where on the space ship. The

older girl is able to tell the others what to do and they comply. She then tells them to

move their play back to the other side of the area and the three girls follow her to the

slide. She introduces her two younger sisters to the other girls and instructs them on

how to play tag. The game doesn’t last very long, as some parents grab their children.

1:26 p.m. The older girl (5 or 6) continues to try and play tag, but quickly changes

the rules to “get away from the boys.”

1:27 p.m. She tells her younger sister to say hi to one of the girls. She tells the other

children she will be right back. She goes to her mother and rus back, letting them know

she is thirsty and her mom will go get her water. Her mother approaches and the girl

tells everyone that’s her mom.

1:29 p.m. Seeing her younger sister playing with the keyboard, she yells to her,

“Hey! I can do that!” and they all join her at the keyboard, pressing the keys with their

feet and their back to the floor.

1:30 p.m. The older girl tells the group, “Hey, let’s go to the car.” And they all follow.

1:31 p.m. The young girl who was told to wait her turn on the slide is told once

again, when it’s her turn, she remains still, seemingly unsure of what to do. She looks

like she’s late 2. Her father tells her it’s her turn three more times and she slowly goes

down the slide.


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1:33 p.m. An older girl helps her two- or three-year-old brother down the slide, giving

him step-by-step instructions “wait here” “let me hold your hand” the younger brother

silently complies.

1:35 p.m. The group of girls are once again trying to find a place to play without boys

interfering, unsuccessfully as the three-year-old boy has come back to them.

an observation of young children at unstructured play

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