When looking at the everyday life of a pre-school child, it seems to boil down to one significant word: PLAY. This is perhaps because, as a researcher of play, I have the kind of glasses on my head that allow me to see the playfulness, fun, and creative activities of…

My overall aim in this research project was to conceptualize play performance as an observable occupation in order to validate a tool for measuring this. The outcome, the Play Assessment for Group Settings (PAGS), is intended for observation-based evaluation of the play performance of children in social settings (e.g. day-care)…

American psychologist James Hillman states that stories about children and childhood never describe only children and childhood. Theories of childhood always take steps towards the social construction of reality, describes sociologist Chris Jenks (1996, 29), who wrote about Hillman’s idea in his book Childhood. Thus, the understanding we have of…

In the peer group at daycare, the child gains experience of functioning as an equal member of the community. With friends, the preschooler enters a world where they practice new skills together, encounter and resolve conflicts, share and create experiences inspired by their imagination, and learn to function as part…