An Observation of Young Children at Unstructured Play

John Paul Sharp

John Paul Sharp February 2013 An Observation of Young Children at Unstructured Play

An Observation of Young Children at Unstructured Play

John Paul Sharp

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. Seattles 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 wellintegrated the people of Seattle seem to be in comparison to cities Ive 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-boysallowed attitude I heard expressed on multiple occasions.
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An Observation of Young Children at Unstructured Play

John Paul Sharp

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 childs concepts about gender. Their study partly reflected upon the original work of Lawrence Kohlbergs 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). Kohlbergs 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 childs development as connecting with her inequality and the strong attachment to her maternal and paternal figures which lead her to

An Observation of Young Children at Unstructured Play

John Paul Sharp

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 childrens 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 childs desire for homosociality? Are some acts of segregation to be embraced as part of young girls 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.

An Observation of Young Children at Unstructured Play

John Paul Sharp

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 KohlbergGilligan 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.

An Observation of Young Children at Unstructured Play

John Paul Sharp

Appendix Observation Notes

Northgate Mall, National Geographic Kids Play Area, Seattle, WA, 1:05 1:35 p.m. 1:06 p.m. 1:07 p.m. child jumping on hopscotch 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 thats 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. 1:12 p.m. One child calls for her daddy to take a picture of her. 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 cant 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

An Observation of Young Children at Unstructured Play

John Paul Sharp

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. Lets 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 doesnt 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 thats 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. 1:31 p.m. The older girl tells the group, Hey, lets go to the car. And they all follow. The young girl who was told to wait her turn on the slide is told once

again, when its her turn, she remains still, seemingly unsure of what to do. She looks like shes late 2. Her father tells her its her turn three more times and she slowly goes down the slide.
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An Observation of Young Children at Unstructured Play

John Paul Sharp

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.