Preschool children play an active role in their own development through their
interaction with the environment that takes place in the form of unstructured play.
Unstructured play is a creative expression of preschool children’s physical, cognitive,
social and emotional self and creates opportunities to learn important skills and
values necessary for the mastery of their world. The researcher became aware, from
practical experience as a social worker in private practice, of more and more
preschool children who are exposed to structured play with the aim to promote their
development. This aspect can contribute towards preschool children not developing
in a natural manner that will lead to the devaluation of unstructured play.
The overall objective of this study was to explore and describe parents’ perceptions
of the value of unstructured play for their preschool children in order to make
recommendations to professionals offering parental guidance to parents, with
regards to the value of unstructured play for preschool children. A qualitative
phenomenological research design was adopted to explore and describe parents’
perceptions and experiences of unstructured play. Two focus group discussions
were conducted and two main themes were identified by analysing the data. The
main themes are participants’ perception of the value of unstructured play and
participants’ choice in respect of unstructured versus structured play.
The conclusion drawn by the researcher is that parents are aware of the valuable
contribution of unstructured play towards their preschool children’s development.
However, participants argue that certain external factors contribute to their choice of
structured play over unstructured play to promote their preschool children’s
development. / Thesis (MSW)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nwu/oai:dspace.nwu.ac.za:10394/8703 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Huijsamer, Yolanda |
| Publisher | North-West University |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | other |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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