Transcript affordances of plants and animals in gardens for children`s

AFFORDANCES OF PLANTS AND
ANIMALS IN GARDENS FOR CHILDREN’S
PERFORMANCES
Ismail Bin Said
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
2007
INTRODUCTION
• Children perceived outdoor spaces as a
playscape affording a variety of functional
properties.
• Play in outdoor environment enables children
to roam far distant places.
• Playing is motion. Motion permits a child to
locate himself freely in space, create his own
boundaries, have access to diverse territories,
manifest power, and explore his abilities.
What elements a child play in the
outdoor?
• Plants and animals are the most recognizable
natural elements when children play in the
outdoors.
• Plants and animals also afford multi-functional
affordances in constructive, functional, and
symbolic play (Fjortoft, 2004).
• Play is a child’s natural medium for selfexpression, experimentation and learning.
Home Gardens
• A home garden of rural house is composed of front yard, side
yard, back yard, and orchard. A home garden of urban house
is a fenced or walled space in front of building and its typical
spaces are car porch area, side yard and back yard. Like the
rural outdoor spaces, they provide space for children to play.
Neighborhood Gardens
• A neighborhood garden of urban setting is a
composite of playgrounds, parks, paved open spaces,
and abandoned open spaces affording more and
larger spaces for children to discover, to explore and
to socialize with peers in their play.
Purpose and Method of Study
• It investigates children sensorial and motoric actions
with plants and animals in home and neighborhood
gardens in two settings: an urban terraced house
community and a village.
• Perceptual responses of 120 children were elicited
using survey questionnaire and open-ended
interview. The children were interviewed in the
gardens or at their schools.
Measurements and Data Analysis
• The survey elicited children range, properties
categorization and affordances of the gardens for
cognitive, physical and social functioning.
• The interview elicited children ‘s definitions of home
and neighbourhood gardens, their interactions with
plant and animals in their play, and the places that
they regularly visited.
Results
• The results are divided into three categories:
1. actual places in the home and
neighborhood gardens,
2. categorization on plant and animals, and
3. categories of affordances including levels
of affordances, taxonomy of affordances
and types of affordances.
Results: Places of Experience
1. The result suggests that rural children were exposed to more variety of
spaces than urban ones.
2. Home and neighborhood gardens in both settings afforded an array of
functional properties for the children to play and enjoy.
3. The rural children seem satisfied experiencing in the bushes and
orchard areas whereas their urban counterparts preferred to play in
nearby forest and home garden.
Results: Places of Experience
It suggests that the rural children felt safe and comfortable playing
within accompanied by parents or adults and felt familiar spaces.
Inasmuch, they felt the orchard setting offered more familiar attention
because the vegetation are seem familiar for them as home garden
such as trees of rambutan, durian, and guava.
Results: Categorization of Plants and
Animals as Play Tools
40
37
Children responses (%)
35
30
28
25
19
20
15
11
10
5
5
0
branches,sticks fruits and seeds
and twigs
trees
leaves
flo wers and
buds
Categories of plant part
The children played with plants as play tools in the gardens and the
analysis categorized the tools into five categories: (1) branches, sticks
and twigs, (2) fruits and seeds, (3) trees, (4) leaves, and (4) flowers
and buds.
Results: Categorization of Plants
as Play Tools
Stick is symbolically
represented a sword in
pretend play
Betel nuts are play tools for village children that turned to top
The process of the top making involves at least six
affordances: search-nut-able-to, collect-nut-ableto, cut-husk-able-to, cut-bamboo-into-stick-able-to,
punch-stick-into-nut-able-to, and spin-top-able-to.
Results: Categorization of Plants
as Play Tools
The children perceived trees and shelter as properties affording them with
physical competency to play with peers.
Results: Categorization of Animals
as Play Tools
50
Affordances
40
42
35
30
15
20
8
10
0
birds
insects
spiders
small
animals
Children preferred to play withDomain
insects
(42%),
followed by birds (35%), small
categories
of animals
animals (15%) and spider (8%) suggesting that insects such as ants and birds
were plentiful in the garden and attracted their attention.
quantity of affordances
Results: Taxonomy of Affordances
20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Positive affordances urban
Positive affordances rural
18
Negative affordances urban
12
13
9
3
2
Flat relatively
smooth
4
1
0
Non-rigid
attached
objects
15
Negative affordances rural
8
9
6
5
1
0
Graspable
objects
10
9
3
1
0
Attached
objects
1
0
Climbable
features
2
0
0
shelter
Vegetation
4
2
1
Animals
9
5
2
1
3
1
0
0
M icroclimate Affordances Affordances
for sociality for nature-link
or crossmodal match
and children
cross-species
interaction.
categories of affordances
Affordances of the urban and rural home gardens
quantity of affordances
Results: Levels of Affordances
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
urban
rural
58
39
22
22
13
2
perceived
utilized
shaped
level of affordances
The result suggests that the properties of the rural home gardens offered the
children more functions than the urban home gardens.
The utilized affordances were performatory and exploratory activities involving
play performances. Thus, it means that children were actively performed
motoric actions through sensorial actions.
Conclusion
Middle childhood children in urban and rural settings preferred to
play with plants and animals as their play tools.
The home and neighborhood gardens afforded different plants
and animals for symbolic and constructive plays.
In summary, home garden and neighborhood gardens in urban
and rural communities were places for children to perform their
physical and social activities. These activities were triggered by
cognitive (sensorial) performances, and in turn, generated more
motoric and social actions.