Comparing indicators of wellbeing in activities children define as play or not play

Wellbeing is understood as the quality of people’s lives. In recent years there has been concern regarding children’s wellbeing and a variety of policies and programmes aimed at enhancing it (Statham and Chase, 2010). The value of play for children’s wellbeing is generally accepted and the evidence summary for the Play Strategy (2008) states that “play is believed to provide the opportunity to develop a sense of wellbeing” (Department for Children Schools and Families, 2008, p. 1). However, the evidence base linking play and wellbeing is limited. One possible reason for this lack of evidence is that the concepts of both play and wellbeing difficult to define, making isolation and subsequent measurement problematic. Within the Experiential Education programme, wellbeing is linked with the concept of involvement (Laevers, 2008). Involvement is a quality of human activity and is based on the work of Csikszentmihalyi (1990) on flow states. It is characterised by internal qualities of pleasure, vitality and deep concentration and can only occur when there is emotional wellbeing. This presentation will outline research which utilises children’s perceptions of play to create playful and formal practice conditions* and indicates that children in playful practice conditions have higher levels of involvement and behaviours which suggest wellbeing than children in formal practice conditions. * Playful practice conditions are ones where children have choice, it occurs on the floor and an adult is proximal to the situation. Formal practice conditions are ones where children do not have choice, occurs at a table and an adult is present.