Children's Play Activities Research Articles

РОЗВИТОК ТВОРЧИХ ЗДІБНОСТЕЙ ДІТЕЙ ДОШКІЛЬНОГО ВІКУ ЗАСОБАМИ ДИДАКТИЧНОЇ ГРИ

Theoretical issues of developing creative abilities of preschool children by means of didactic play are studied. The author of the article considers the essence of the development of creative abilities of preschool children by means of didactic play in preschool pedagogy (education and training of a preschool child), the relevance and necessity of education, starting from preschool childhood. The article reveals the role of didactic games in preschool pedagogy (education and training of a preschool child) in the educational process of a preschool educational institution. The essence of the development of creative abilities of preschool children in preschool pedagogy (upbringing and training of a preschool child) for the upbringing and correction of a preschool-age personality is determined. On the pages of the study, the analysis of the problem of developing creative activity of preschool children in a healthy ENVIRONMENT is carried out; the essence and structure of the didactic game as a means of developing creative activity of preschool children is clarified; pedagogical conditions for the development of creative activity of preschool children are identified; the effectiveness of using didactic games for the development of creative activity of preschool children is experimentally confirmed. It is established that the activity of preschool children has different forms, one of them is play activity. For the educator, the game is both a tool for teaching and upbringing and a form of organizing the life of children in a pre-school education institution (ZDO). It is scientifically proved and practically confirmed that the game is the most productive form of employment or directly educational activity of preschool children. It is proved that the necessary minimum of competencies of a teacher consists in the ability to distinguish a didactic game from other game forms, in knowledge of its structure, types, files of basic games, and basic regulatory requirements. Using game technologies, the teacher should not forget that by playing, the child meets their key needs, learns such activities as work and learning, develops and is formed as a person. Therefore, the teacher should approach the organization of children's play activities responsibly, based on basic pedagogical knowledge.

Family Support Relationship With Playing Activities Of 5-6 Years Old Children At Pandemic Time At TK IDATHA I

Play and children are an inseparable unity. Every activity carried out by children will always indicate play activities. Playing is very important for early childhood because through play it develops aspects of child development. The importance of fulfilling play when children are at home requires full support from the family to improve children's development in all aspects considering that at this time children's schools are closed and children's activities must be fully carried out at home. This research design used a cross-sectional study design. The sampling method used was nonprobability sampling, namely a purposive sampling technique. The research sample was 36 respondents. The research was conducted in August. Research by measuring or observing at the same time (Point Time Approach). The results of the study, namely the results of fisher's alternative chi-square test obtained p-value = 0.008 in the sense that the p-value is smaller than the value of α = 0.05. There is a significant relationship between family support and children's play activities. It is hoped that this research can become information material for parents in accompanying their children during the pandemic and always accompanying children while playing both during the pandemic period and after the pandemic has passed.

The Effects of Children's Play Activities through Forest Experience on Their Parents' Expectation and Their Multiple Intelligence Improvement

The Effects of Children's Play Activities through Forest Experience on Their Parents' Expectation and Their Multiple Intelligence Improvement

Children's active outdoor play: 'good' mothering and the organisation of children's free time.

This qualitative study draws on the Foucault-inspired notion of biopedagogies to examine and problematise the salient factors of contemporary motherhood impacting children's active outdoor play (AOP). The study positions mothering as a practice, through which children's health and bodies are constructed and disciplined. A discourse analysis of 21 interviews with Canadian mothers identified three discursive constructions of the 'good mother': mothers as time managers, risk managers and screen-time managers. Each was characterised by discursive conflicts that compromised the provision of AOP by mothers. This study provides data necessary for successfully including AOP as a leisure practice within family-centred health promotion.

Persepsi Orangtua tentang Bermain Berisiko pada Anak Usia Dini

Risk play is outdoors play which involves a lot of physical activity. Parents' concerns will limit the range of movement to explore when playing risky. This research explores parents 'perceptions about playing risk as viewed from the child's age, gender, and reviews parents' knowledge about playing risk. The study was conducted in Purbalingga, Indonesia. The research subjects involved 33 mothers and 33 fathers of preschool children with ages ranging from 4 to 6 years. The study findings show that mothers and fathers have the same risk playing perception. Parents provide the highest support for children's play activities at risk such as climbing and jumping from a height. As for other activities, parents have concerns about the safety of children during these activities. Judging from the age of the father and mother allow children aged 4 years with 40%, 5 years 45% and 6 years 50% while seen from jrniskelmin, parents allow boys more than girls to play at risk with percentage of 55% compared to 40%. Perceptions of parents have an impact on providing risky playing opportunities.

Using mixed methods to understand women's parenting practices related to their child's outdoor play and physical activity among families living in diverse neighborhood environments.

A convergent parallel mixed methods design was used to understand parenting practices for outdoor play, their influence on adolescent's physical activity and outdoor play and the role of the neighborhood and child's sex. Adolescents (n=263) and their parents completed questionnaires and wore accelerometers. Parents (n=30) participated in in-depth interviews. Parenting practices were examined by neighborhood disadvantage and child's sex in quantitative (Chi-square and T-tests) and qualitative (comparative thematic analysis) samples. Multi-level linear mixed models examined the associations between parenting practices and two adolescent outcomes: physical activity and outdoor play. Parents in high disadvantage neighborhoods and of female adolescents imposed more restrictions on outdoor play. Restrictive parenting practices were negatively associated with outdoor play, but not physical activity. Policy and environment change that improves neighborhood conditions may be necessary to reduce parents' fear and lessen restrictions on outdoor play.

Methods of Hydrokinesis Therapy for Children 3-5 Years with Cerebral Palsy of Spastic Form

Today there is a need to develop a method of hydrokinesis therapy as a means of gradual formation of motor skills in children with spastic diplegia of cerebral palsy of the chronic-residual stage of the disease in a comprehensive program of physical rehabilitation. The purpose of the study is to develop a method of hydrokinesis therapy for children 3-5 years with cerebral palsy of spastic form. The main novelties of the developed technique of hydrokinesis therapy: development of application of complexes of exercises in hydrokinesis therapy, which differs in structure from the generally accepted methods for patients with cerebral palsy of spastic form in the chronic-residual stage of the disease; combination of means of physical rehabilitation with the technique of hydrokinesis therapy during the annual cycle. The study involved 24 children 3-5 years of age with a diagnosis of "cerebral palsy, spastic diplegia" of the chronic-residual stage of the disease of moderate severity. To achieve this goal, theoretical analysis and generalization of data from scientific and methodological literature were used; pedagogical experiment and observation; medical and biological methods (used anthropometry and Pinier index; goniometry, assessment of basic motor functions (ABMF) on the Likert scale, muscle tone on the Ashfort scale, muscle strength on the Lovett scale; assessment of manipulative activity and speed response of the hands on trapping- the test made it possible to determine the level of development of fine motor skills); sociological methods (surveys of parents on questionnaires of social and emotional state and level of children's play activities); methods of mathematical statistics were used to process the actual experimental material, assess the reliability of the data. There were significant (p <0.01) changes in the indicators of social and emotional state in children with main group (MG) by 15.5%, in comparative group (CG) - by 11.7%, and there was a slight improvement in play activity in children with MG by 9.6%, in CG - by 5.75%. The developed method of hydrokinesiotherapy is effective and helps to improve the functions of general and fine motor skills, socio-emotional state and the level of activity of play activities of children 3-5 years with cerebral palsy of spastic form.

Mentalization, session-to-session negative emotion expression, symbolic play, and affect regulation in psychodynamic child psychotherapy.

Internalizing and externalizing problems have been related to negative emotionality, and affect regulation deficits in several studies. Certain psychodynamic models of treatment use children's symbolic play activity as a medium to mentalize negative emotions in order to develop children's affect regulation. However, the complex associations among these constructs and their associations with outcome have not been examined. This study aimed to investigate, first, whether average mentalization practices in treatment, as well as session-to-session expression of negative emotions and symbolic play predict gains in affect regulation and, second, whether changes in these variables are associated with clinically significant change in symptoms and global function. The sample included 40 outpatient children, who underwent long-term psychodynamic treatment. Nine hundred seventy-five sessions were coded for children's symbolic play, affect expression (anger and dysphoric affect), and affect regulation characteristics, and each treatment was scored for average adherence to mentalizing principles. Time Series Panel Analyses (TSPA) indicated session-to session use of symbolic play predicted gains in affect regulation. A significant 2-way interaction indicated that dysphoric affect expression in high mentalization adherent treatments was associated with higher affect regulation than in low adherent treatments. Partial correlation analyses indicated that mentalization adherence in treatment was associated with symptomatic improvement at trend level of significance, and changes in affect regulation and symbolic play were significantly associated with gains in global function. Findings point to the importance of use of symbolic play, and dysphoric affect expression in the context of mentalization practices for gains in affect regulation and outcome. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Video art as digital play for young children

AbstractIn the 21st century, along with fine arts, media art has become an important genre for young children. Undoubtedly, early visual arts give children a powerful language with which to express themselves aesthetically, cognitively and creatively through the use of symbolic representations. However, digital play remains a controversial issue in early childhood education, causing many schools to delay implementing digital arts. Recently, a number of international scholars have studied how digital technologies relate to children's learning experiences at school, arguing that open‐ended digital devices (eg, tablet computers, cameras and video recorders) may allow children to produce more creative content, such as drawings, photos and films. This study explored the role of video art in early visual arts education by using digital devices in a summer workshop in Hong Kong on video making, applying the digital play framework to the data collected. The findings revealed that the children who participated were able to explore the professional device through epistemic play. Meanwhile, they were able to use film language to share their toy‐playing stories and make their own 1‐minute video through ludic play. In this study, the children engaged in concurrent exploratory activities, using a digital video recorder and toys to create innovative and imaginative play. The findings of this study increase practitioners' and leaders' awareness of the role of digital play in early childhood education. Practitioner NotesWhat is already known about this topic? Digital arts initiatives in early childhood education have been discussed around the world; however, the implementation of digital arts learning projects has been a challenging undertaking in schools. The digital play framework has been introduced in the previous literature. This framework helps teachers observe, plan for and integrate the use of still‐camera technologies in play‐based learning. What this paper adds This study aims to offer practical advice on the integration of video art in children's digital play activities. It adopts a theoretical lens related to video making to examine techniques and engagement among children in the Asia‐Pacific region. It supplements the existing digital play framework with additional indicators associated with learning to use video cameras through play. Implications for practice and policy This study sheds new light on the application of open‐ended digital devices in children's play and learning. The results highlight the value of children's play in digital arts and the possibility of integrating digital arts into the early childhood curriculum in schools.

Sociodemographic and Environmental Determinants of Indoor Versus Outdoor Active Play Among Children Living in the Washington, DC Area.

Sociodemographic and environmental factors play important roles in determining both indoor and outdoor play activities in children. The Built Environment and Active Play Study assessed neighborhood playability for children (7-12y), based on parental report of their children's active play behaviors, neighborhood characteristics, and geographic locations. Simple logistic regression modeling tested the associations between sociodemographic characteristics and the frequency of and access to venues for indoor and outdoor play. Children of higher socioeconomic status were almost 3 times more likely to live more than a 30-minute walk from indoor recreational facilities compared with their less affluent peers (odds ratio [OR] = 2.9; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.2-6.8). Non-Hispanic black children were less likely to live more than 30 minutes from indoor facilities (OR = 0.21; 95% CI, 0.08-0.57) and more were likely to engage in indoor activity (OR = 3.40; 95% CI, 1.17-9.88) than were white children. Boys were substantially more likely to play outdoors at a playing fields compared with girls (OR = 5.37; 95% CI, 2.10-13.69). Findings from this study could be used to enhance indoor and outdoor activity spaces for children and to reduce disparities in access to such spaces.

Associations between the home yard and preschoolers' outdoor play and physical activity.

Cross-sectional observational study. The PLAY Spaces and Environments for Children's Physical Activity (PLAYCE) study (2015-2017) included 1596 children aged 2-5 years attending early childhood education and care (ECEC) services throughout metropolitan Perth, Western Australia. In this study, a subsample of 224 parents from the PLAYCE study completed an online questionnaire about home-yard features (yard size, lawn quality, natural features, fixed and portable play equipment, and flowers and vegetables/herbs). Accelerometers measured the duration of preschoolers' moderate-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) on non-ECEC days. Parent-reported outdoor play at home, sociodemographic factors and social environment factors were collected via the PLAYCE parent survey. Multiple linear regression models were used to determine associations between home-yard features and preschoolers' outdoor play and physical activity. Children spent 68.9 (SD 2.2) minutes playing outdoors in the home yard per day, and 93.3 (SD 37.1) minutes in MVPA per day on non-ECEC days. After adjusting for child and parent factors, home-yard features positively associated with outdoor play included yard size, lawn quality, number of types of fixed and portable play equipment, natural features and play areas (all p ≤ 0.05). When all significant home-yard features were placed in a model, only the number of types of fixed play equipment was positively associated with minutes of outdoor play per day (β = 5.3, p < 0.001). After adjusting for sociodemographic factors, the number of types of portable play equipment in the yard was positively associated with MVPA minutes per day (β = 2.16, p = 0.019); however, this became nonsignificant after further adjusting for social environment factors. Features of the home-yard physical environment were positively associated with preschoolers' outdoor play and physical activity. Each additional type of fixed play equipment present was associated with an additional 5 minutes of outdoor play per day. These findings suggest that the home-yard space has the potential to facilitate increased outdoor play in young children. Further research is warranted to explore causal relationships between home-yard attributes and young children's outdoor play and physical activity.

Effects of elementary school neighbourhood environment on children’s play activities: a case study of GaeMyong elementary school neighbourhood

ABSTRACTAlthough play activity is essential for children, opportunities for play is decreasing due to changes in life patterns. Urban neighbourhoods should be part of the provision of space where children can play freely and should help children play as part of their daily routine. This study analysed the elementary school neighbourhood environment features influencing the play activity of children. Study results showed that traffic safety, crime safety, walking environment, and community consciousness influenced the activity of children. It was also found that children tended to play adventurously, such as climbing up to a high position on a handrail or jungle gym and walking atop high places. This study will help to promote the play activity of children through improving an elementary school neighbourhood environment by focusing on the features that affect children’s play activity.

Differences Between Mothers and Fathers of Young Children in Their Use of the Internet to Support Healthy Family Lifestyle Behaviors: Cross-Sectional Study.

BackgroundIn early life, both mothers and fathers are important influences on their children’s diet, active play, and obesity risk. Parents are increasingly relying on the internet and social media as a source of information on all aspects of parenting. However, little is known about the use of Web-based sources of information relevant to family lifestyle behaviors and, in particular, differences between mothers’ and fathers’ use and sociodemographic predictors.ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to examine if mothers and fathers differ in their use of the internet for information on their own health and their child’s health, feeding, and playing and to examine sociodemographic predictors of the use of the internet for information on these topics.MethodsWe conducted a secondary analysis on data collected from mothers (n=297) and fathers (n=207) participating in the extended Infant Feeding, Activity and Nutrition Trial (InFANT Extend) when their children were 36 months of age. The main outcome variables were the use of the internet for information gathering for parents’ own health and child health, feeding, and playing. Binary logistic regression was used to examine the sociodemographic predictors of outcomes.ResultsCompared with fathers (n=296), a higher proportion of mothers (n=198) used the internet for information on their own health (230, 78.5% vs 93, 46.5%), child health (226, 77.1% vs 84, 42.4%), child feeding (136, 46.3% vs 35, 17.5%), and child play (123, 42.1% vs 28, 14.0%) and intended to use Facebook to connect with other parents (200, 74.9% vs 43, 30.5%). Despite the high use of the internet to support family health behaviors, only 15.9% (47/296) of mothers reported consulting health practitioners for advice and help for their own or their child’s weight, diet, or physical activity. Sociodemographic predictors of internet use differed between mothers and fathers and explained only a small proportion of the variance in internet use to support healthy family lifestyle behaviors.ConclusionsOur findings support the use of the internet and Facebook as an important potential avenue for reaching mothers with information relevant to their own health, child health, child diet, and active play. However, further research is required to understand the best avenues for engaging fathers with information on healthy family lifestyle behaviors to support this important role in their child’s life.Trial RegistrationISRCTN Registry ISRCTN81847050; http://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN81847050

A DESIGN APPROACH IN THE LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE EDUCATION: INSPIRATION FROM NATURAL PATTERNS

A design education that implements the natural inspiration approach in design is an important influence on the training of environmental designers who are more sensitive to nature and have environmental awareness. For this reason, in this study, the pattern-oriented design process which is shaped by adopting the approach of nature inspiration in landscape architecture education is examined. The natural components form a composition in themselves, and these compositions consist of patterns. Analysis and understanding of natural patterns play a key role in directing designs inspired from nature. Within this context, the approach of utilizing inspiration from nature within the scope of "Environmental Design Project1" course of the 1st grade classes of Karadeniz Technical University, Landscape Architecture Department was seen as a subject to be considered in landscape architecture. This derste made up the material of working with models called "children's play and gaming activities". 4 students selected in the application section (model); research process (natural samples), and creative product (model), and the process of natural inspiration in design was examined in the context of the pattern. As a result, this design education, which implements the pattern inspiration approach, it has become easier for pupils to design their form, to determine concept-activity, and to achieve spatial fiction. Keywords: Landscape Architecture, Design, Inspiration, Nature, Pattern

비디오재방문 토의활동과 비디오재방문 토의활동 후 유아의 사회극놀이에 나타난 갈등해결방법

The purpose of this study is to find out how to resolve conflicts in young children s 5 years old video reviewing activities and to find out how to resolve conflicts in children The subjects of this study were 27 elementary school children in A elementary school located in Daejeon Metropolitan City, and 27 children 5 years old. From March 11 to June 29, 2016, A total of 21 participating observations and 10 video re-visiting discussions were held. The video review discussion activity showed the images of the conflict situation in the actual social play of the young children and then proceeded to discuss how to solve the conflict. As a result of observing the conflict resolution method in the social drama play activities after the video re - visit discussion activities, there was a difference in the method of resolving the conflict between young children in the video re - visit discussion and social drama play. First, the conflict resolution methods used in the video revisit discussion activities were fair use, equitable sharing, and equitable role. Second, after the revisit of the video review, children s social drama plays a role of resolving conflicts by scissors rocks, sharing according to situations and objects, and role in fairness.

Children's Play Activity through the Paradigm of Sociological Imagination

In this paper, based on the oral presentation at the 12th Conference of the European Sociological Association 2015, 25.8-28.8 (Prague, Czech Republic), I argue the children’s play activity can be considered through the paradigm of sociological imagination. This fact gives us the opportunity to understand the sociological significance of children’s play because this activity of children is the route into understanding the complex relationship between everyday lives of children and a broad sociocultural context. A simple play or a structured game with rules is closely tied to historical circumstances, contains a power relationship and the preparation of the child for the future life. At the same time, the children’s play is produced by children. The play activity has a lot of variations, which throw light on the behaviour and the aspirations of children. These facts give us an opportunity to understand, what we can expect from the modern children. The methods of the research include visually narratives approach, the analysis of art and historical literature.

Lego Bricks: Fit for the Big Screen?

For years Danish toymaker LEGO had turned down multiple attempts from directors and producers to make a LEGO movie. Now the CEO of the Danish toymaker has gotten a movie pitch from Warner Brothers. The entire LEGO brand is at risk if the movie is poorly executed or received. The CEO wonders if attempting to compete with Disney and Pixar in developing a successful children's movie was another case of over-diversification. Excerpt UVA-S-0296 Jun. 15, 2017 LEGO Bricks: Fit for the Big Screen? When JOrgen Vig Knudstorp, the celebrated CEO of Danish toymaker LEGO, and his colleagues welcomed Warner Brothers (WB) producer Dan Lin and screenwriters Dan and Kevin Hageman to the company's Billund, Denmark, headquarters in 2008, it was not the first time the company had fielded a movie pitch from Hollywood creatives. In fact, for years LEGO had turned down multiple attempts from directors and producers to make a LEGO movie. During that day's pitch, Lin explained that his recent observation of his young son playing with a LEGO spaceship was what inspired the WB film proposal. His movie concept hinged on LEGO's active partnership and participation: the idea was “that anything in the movie [could] be constructed using real LEGOs.” Despite the enthusiastic pitch, Knudstorp and his colleagues conveyed their lack of interest to Lin at the meeting's conclusion. Lin summarized their aversion to the idea. “They didn't feel they needed a movie. They were already a very successful brand. Why take the risk [on a movie when] they were doing really well without [one?].” Indeed, by 2008, the iconic toy company had finally recovered from near bankruptcy several years earlier, with its revenues having grown nearly 20% over the past year. Furthermore, starting in 2003, LEGO had released several toy-centric DVDs, but the company's recent course-correcting strategy focused on its core construction products and encouraged children's active play, as opposed to over-diversifying into digital entertainment and screen time. While it was obvious that WB's motivation for attaching itself to the LEGO brand was the brand's pervasive recognition, it was far less clear what was in the deal for LEGO. As Knudstorp reflected on the pitch later that afternoon, he kept returning to the same nagging questions regarding a potential LEGO movie release. The year 2009 would kick off the growth phase of his long-term strategic plan for the company. He wondered if there was a way to find any positive opportunities within the risky undertaking of releasing a LEGO film. Was the company ready to make its Hollywood debut? Would a movie damage the brand and its quality reputation—perhaps irreparably? In addition, in the making of the movie, how could the story and characters reflect LEGO's mission, and who would be the movie's ideal audience? . . .

”Ser ni att det är någon som är ledsen här nu?”

This study focuses on moral work-in-interaction between teachers and children during a circle time episode, focusing on a moral problem related to the children's peer play activities. The data are drawn from ethnographic research combined with video-recordings of routine activities in a Swedish preschool. Using an ethnomethodological conversation analytical approach examining talk-in-interaction in its’ sequential and social context. In the particular case the moral problem concerns a girl’s emotional reactions (i.e. being sad) from being excluded from peer play. The particular problem is dealt with by the teachers through a) holding other children publically accountable and b) making them share the girl’s negative feelings through the telling of hypothetical scenarios. At the same time, the children navigate from a subordinate position and can be seen as doing different forms of moral defense work. In so doing they manifest their own moral agenda, which is different from the teachers’ or the institutional agenda. Thus, the interactional moral work in the circle time episode can be described as an encounter between two worlds or orders. On the one side an institutional order, represented by the teachers, morally fostering children, and on the other side the children´s peer culture, where children learn to use different strategies to handle the moral work of the preschool teachers.

Validity of a scale of neighbourhood informal social control relevant to pre-schoolers’ physical activity: A cross-sectional study

Childhood physical activity (PA) is important for health across the lifespan. Time pre-schoolers spend outdoors, which has been associated with more PA, is likely influenced by parents’ perception of neighbourhood informal social control relevant to pre-schoolers' PA, defined as the willingness of neighbours to intervene to ensure social order and a safe community environment for young children's active play. To advance measurement of this construct, we assessed factorial and construct validities of the PA-related neighbourhood informal social control scale for parents of pre-schoolers (PANISC-PP). In 2013–2014, Hong Kong primary caregivers (n=394) of 3–5 year-old children completed a socio-demographic questionnaire, the preliminary version of the PANISC-PP, and self-report measures of theoretical neighbourhood correlates of PA-related neighbourhood informal social control (perceived signs of physical and social disorder, community cohesion, perceived stranger danger, risk of unintentional injury and traffic safety). The fit of the data to an a priori measurement model of the PANISC-PP was examined using confirmatory factor analyses. As the a priori model showed inadequate fit to the data, the factor structure was re-specified based on theoretical considerations. The final measurement models of the PANISC-PP showed acceptable fit to the data and consisted of three correlated latent factors: “General informal supervision”, “Civic engagement for the creation of a better neighbourhood environment” and “Educating and assisting neighbourhood children”. The internal reliability of the subscales was good (Cronbach's α values 0.82–0.89). Generalised additive mixed models indicated that all subscales were positively associated with community cohesion and scores on the subscale “Educating and assisting neighbourhood children” were related in the expected direction to all indicators of traffic and personal safety, supporting construct validity of the PANISC-PP. This study suggests that the PANISC-PP is a reliable and valid instrument for assessing parents’ perceived neighbourhood informal social control related to pre-schoolers' PA.

Are inequalities produced through the differential access to play opportunities at school? A call to level the playing field.

Children's play is characterized as pleasurable, but it is also viewed as critical for child health and well-being. Yet over the past decade, play researchers and advocates from various disciplines have suggested that there are decreasing opportunities for children to play, particularly at school. One concern is that the changing play environment in schools is reducing children's active play options and is thereby contributing to increases in childhood obesity. Building on findings from the QUébec Adipose and Lifestyle InvesTigation in Youth (QUALITY), this commentary suggests that while opportunities to engage in physical activity may indeed be differentially shaped by school play environments, physical health may not be the only factor at stake in unequal play environments in schools. While this is not an altogether new concern, we argue that it is nevertheless important to highlight within physical activity research settings that children's overall well-being, including their experience of pleasure, creativity, imagination and sociability, is also shaped by a school's play environment. Addressing possible inequalities in children's experience of play in schools, we propose several questions and future research directions for addressing children's health and well-being in the school environment.