Parent/Caregiver Perspectives on Children’s Play and Learning at a Children’s Museum: A Qualitative Descriptive Study

ABSTRACT

There is more to know about children’s play and learning in public spaces, including the long-term benefits of exposure to established play spaces such as children’s museums. Nested within an 18-month mixed-method longitudinal study, this qualitative descriptive study sought to understand how children aged three to five years develop and learn through interaction in the Early Start Discovery Space, a play-based learning environment, from the perspective of their parent/caregiver. All participants held family memberships to the Early Start Discovery Space. One-hundred and twenty-nine parents/caregivers completed an initial questionnaire, and ten participated in interviews. Content analysis techniques were used to analyze semi-structured interview data. Parents reported recognizing the importance of the Early Start Discovery Space for imaginary and pretend play, parent/child interaction, and physical activity. They also described how this public play space promoted engagement with the outdoors, and was a novel experience for their child. A portion of participants also noted changes in their home environment after their child visited the space, including talking excitedly about their play, and integrating imaginary/pretend play at home. Findings present considerations for educators and parents to enhance learning and development through play-based public spaces.

KEYWORDS:

• Early childhood
• learning
• literacy
• museum
• numeracy
• play

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to acknowledge the research team and participants involved in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Robinson, Out of Our Minds, 10.

2 UNICEF, “Convention on Rights of Child,” 1.

3 Fromberg and Bergen, Play from Birth to Twelve, xv–xvii.

4 Mayall, Towards a Sociology for Childhood, 1–12.

5 La Freniere, “Children’s Play and Emotion Regulation,” 201–2.

6 Koukourikos et al., “The Importance of Play,” 438.

7 Whitebread et al., “Play, Cognition and Self-Regulation,” 40–2.

8 Cheung, “Play-Based Creativity-Fostering Practices,” 511–13.

9 Lukie et al., “Child Interests and Numeracy and Literacy,” 251–3.

10 Jiang, “Play in Public Spaces,” 1–3.

11 Luke et al., “Caregivers Observe Children’s Museum Learning,” 1–3.

12 Tan et al., “Educational Effects of Children's Museums,” 1–4.

13 Association of Children’s Museums, “What is a Children’s Museum?” 1.

14 Freedman, “Nutrition Education and Children’s Health,” 353–5.

15 Tenenbaum, Rappolt-Schlichtmann, and Zanger, “Children’s Learning in a Museum and Classroom,” 40–3.

16 Kervin and Verenikina, “Quality Literacy Opportunities,” 1–10.

17 Baker, Afflerbach, and Reinking, Developing Readers in School and Home, 1–3.

18 Cronin et al., “Evaluating Effectiveness of Children’s Museum,” 15.

19 Miles and Huberman, Qualitative Data Analysis, 1–20.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Abbott Foundation .

Notes on contributors

Ellie K. Taylor

Ellie K. Taylor is a Project Officer at Early Start, University of Wollongong, Australia. Ellie manages early childhood research projects designed to engage with communities and encourage children and their caregivers to reach their full potential, locally, nationally, and internationally. Her current work has a particular focus on play-based learning, and food and movement behaviors among young children.

Lisa Kervin

Lisa Kervin is a researcher in Language and Literacy at the University of Wollongong, where she directs Early Start Research. Lisa has also served as Associate Dean, Research for the Faculty of the Arts, Social Sciences. Lisa’s current work has a particular focus on play-based learning, children’s literacy practices, how children use technology and understand Digital Literacies.