Adult Roles in Support of Early Childhood Play, Encouraging Sensitivity to the Individual and Reflexive Approaches

This paper builds upon an ethnographical doctoral study that explored how adultsexercise power over children. Anchored in the worlds of children’s livedexperiences, it explores whether play can be deeper, richer and more meaningfulwhen children are beyond the watchful eye of adults. It focuses on children’s playwithin the spaces they occupied prior to, and after, their transition from nursery toprimary school. Participants included children aged between 3.7 – 4.7 years of age,as well as Early Year Practitioners (EYPs) and visitors to the setting. Theinteractions and behaviours of the participants were observed, ensuring thatchildren were not ‘objectified’ in the process. Vignettes of play episodes highlightcomplexities surrounding adult understanding of children’s play. In particular theneed for adults to be more reflexive in using knowledge from practice to supportplay and resist assigning false purpose to play episodes.