Visual research - Mare Close park

This is a new park on a newly built housing estate. It has only just started to be used. The colours on the park are very inviting to children. The ground looks very safe soft encase the child falls off the climbing frames. The park encourages the development of children such as physical skills, balance.

Visual Research- Jubliee Park

This is the most popular park in Whitchurch and the largest. It is always maintained well with the grass always cut and there is a large fence around the main part of the park where the playground and flower bends are to prevent vandalism.
The playground in the photo above is fairly new so parents think its safe for there children.
This used to by public toilets however youths have come into the park and vandalized them by writing graffiti, litter and needles, therefore the government boarded up the toilets and put the fence and around.

Children enjoying the play area. Why isn't there more?

Visual Research - small park by iceland

This park is a small park situated in a fairly new housing estate, this is a nice area near hospital and shops, so a lot of people walk though here, however i have never seen anyone on it. The park is run down and going rusty, parts of the park are now missing, therefore seen as unsafe.
The floor of the park is soft but the cracks are big enough for people (children) to trip on.

Visual Research - Park by hospital

This park has always freshly cut grass however wasn't very busy
only women child and dog. There as graffiti on entrance to the park
no signs or promotion boards.










This park has new playing equipment on it, the purple, blue, green and yellow climbing frame. I liked the colours of the new frame I thought it would attract children to it. I thought the park let itself down by leaving some of the old equipment on it because it looked rusty and boring. The one thing that I noticed about this park it was litter free and there where bins located around it, to encourage people to use them.

Visual Research - Wayland rd park

There used to be a park here however it got taken down, this is not very good for children that live down this street they have to walk for about 20mins to go to nearest park. The grass is overgrown, so children can't see what is in it. I found a bloodstained jumper in the space. This park is based in a poor part of the town.

Visual Research - Queensway park

For part of my visual research I took a walk around my local town of Whitchurch. I took photographs of the parks and playgrounds. I looked at the facilities, safety and maintance of the parks. I thought that the might be a reason why children are choosing to stay inside instead of outside.

QUEENSWAY PARK


This is a park i used to play at when i was younger the closest to me surrounded by lots of family homes. As you can see all the grass is over grown and it is deserted. It doesn't look safe for any children to use.



The gate to the small playground was locked so kids can't get in to play. The whole park was covered in litter and duck poo. NOT MAINTAINED.

Attracts the wrong sort of people youths that don't look after the park leaving graffiti and empty bee bottles and fag packets.



The park has a pond where there are a few ducks around the pond there is a small fence however it isn't the safest and won't stop children getting to close.


There is a sign that says no ball games this i didn't
understand because its a park. Not encouraging play!

Piaget's theory

Piaget's view of play.

Jean Piaget (1896-1980) was a biologist who originally studied molluscs (publishing twenty scientific papers on them by the time he was 21) but moved into the study of the development of children's understanding, through observing them and talking and listening to them while they worked on exercises he set.

His view of how children's minds work and develop has been enormously influential, particularly in educational theory. His particular insight was the role of maturation (simply growing up) in children's increasing capacity to understand their world: they cannot undertake certain tasks until they are psychologically mature enough to do so. His research has spawned a great deal more, much of which has undermined the detail of his own, but like many other original investigators, his importance comes from his overall vision.

He proposed that children's thinking does not develop entirely smoothly: instead, there are certain points at which it 'takes off" and moves into completely new areas and capabilities. He saw these transitions as taking place at about 18 months, 7 years and 11 or 12 years. This has been taken to mean that before these ages children are not capable no matter how bright) of understanding things in certain ways, and has been used as the basis for scheduling the school curriculum.

Stage	Characterised by
Sensori-motor (Birth-2 yrs)	Differentiates self from objects Recognises self as agent of action and begins to act intentionally: e.g. pulls a string to set mobile in motion or shakes a rattle to make a noise Achieves object permanence: realises that things continue to exist even when no longer present to the sense (pace Bishop Berkeley)
Pre-operational (2-7 years)	Learns to use language and to represent objects by images and words Thinking is still egocentric: has difficulty taking the viewpoint of others Classifies objects by a single feature: e.g. groups together all the red blocks regardless of shape or all the square blocks regardless of colour
Concrete operational (7-11 years)	Can think logically about objects and events Achieves conservation of number (age 6), mass (age 7), and weight (age 9) Classifies objects according to several features and can order them in series along a single dimension such as size.
Formal operational (11 years and up)	Can think logically about abstract propositions and test hypotheses systemtically Becomes concerned with the hypothetical, the future, and ideological problems

The state of being active

What is Active Play?
Active play is exercise by children when they are simply playing without rules or organization.
Like adults, children should be physically active most, if not all, days of the week. It's good for most children to spend at least 60 minutes a day doing some physical activity.

• Provide opportunity for children to learn about the importance of activity.
• Improve the range and diversity of opportunities for children, by working in partnership with teachers, assistants and parents.
• Play is recognized as an important part of a child's development.

Why is active play important to children?

• Child OBESITY
• Creates physical, social, cognitive and imaginative skills.
• Article 31 of the UN Convention on the rights of the child: "State parties recognise the right of the child to rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreational activities appropriate to the age of the child and to participate freely in cultural life and the arts."
  
• Keeps children healthy and active.
• Vital for development of their independence.
• Develop problem-solving and decision-making skills.
• Active children concentrate better in school, have increased self-esteem, are lee likely to suffer from depression or anxiety, and have a better overall outlook on life.
  

Active outdoor play

Outdoor play burns more calories than other forms of play.

The right outdoor toys makes child development fun!

1. Climbing frames - physical skills like balance, co-ordination, strength and agility.
2. Cognitive and intellectual development - solve problems, explore, discover e.g hide and seek.
   
3. Well manage outdoor equipment, with correct supervision, encourages children to asses and manage risk for themselves.
   

Asssignment

Create a product, service or communication piece designed to specifically promote the integration of play into daily life.

It should aim to make attractive and improve your user group's quality of life.


STAGE 1
You will undertake visual and ethnographic research. Use your PDP Personal development file to highlight your findings.

STAGE 2
Produce set of design development worksheet/sketchbooks of several creative concepts demonstrating the progression of your idea.