Forest School in England is the practice of young children playing outside, rooted in the outdoor kindergartens of Scandinavia and more especially Denmark. Using observation and semi-structured interviews with children and adults in two settings, this case study approach allowed an in-depth look at where, how and what children played in a Forest…

Despite the proliferation of play-based and arts-informed research, an under-explored area is using both with young immigrant children to hear from them about their distinctive experiences and complexities. This paper draws on an arts-informed and play-based case study with two young immigrant children in Canada to highlight specific data…

Scientists have long employed puppets in research with young children; this essay explores the validity of this practice. After considering what puppets are, their main types and history, I note the different ways puppets have been employed in research. One of these uses raises the issue of whether and when children apply their theory of mind to…

Child-centered play therapy (CCPT) is an empirically endorsed approach for children facing specific clinical concerns and life circumstances alike. The majority of research to date has accrued data about clients from secondary sources, such as adult report and observation. The purpose of this study was to explore children's perceptions of…

Following a report from the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child Monitoring Group in 2017 noting that in Aotearoa New Zealand children's views were not being sought in matters regarding their school, play and feelings of safety, the Children's Commissioner conducted research with school-aged children seeking their related…

This article focuses on how children, independent of abilities, create healthy identities and spaces in kindergarten, and is based on a qualitative CGT-study carried out in Norwegian Kindergartens. Data sources include Life-form interviews with 24 children, with and without disabilities. Children placed health in the context of their daily-life…

We examined 6- to 9-year-olds' (N = 60, 35 girls, 34% White, 23% Hispanic, 2% Black/African American, 2% Asian/Asian American, 22% Mixed Ethnicity/Race, 17% Unavailable, collected April-September 2019 in Providence, RI, USA) first-person perspectives on their exploration of museum exhibits. We coded goal setting, goal completion, and behaviors…

How children experience the major transition from pre-school to compulsory schooling influences their immediate and future success and wellbeing. This complex process of change and adaptation is impacted by school readiness policy drivers, which prioritise children's performance and achievement. Pedagogic and curriculum progression shifts from…

This study investigated how children describe their play activities and associate learning with play. Accordingly, 23 early childhood children from different cities and age groups were included in this phenomenological research study. Incorporating images of children's drawings of their favourite playtime and semi-structured interviews, three main…

Drawing on a mixed-methods cross-cultural study undertaken in five locations in Argentina, Denmark, Hong Kong, England and the United States in 2018, this paper explores how children (aged five and seven) conceive of playfulness. Following a card-sorting task, 387 children selected familiar activities that they felt were most representative of…

The importance of children's perspectives is now well-established and there has been much attention afforded to appropriate methods for listening to children within the research. Whilst language-based research methods, such as interview, remain commonplace, children's representations are increasingly included as data in educational research.…

Contemporary discussions around gender roles, stereotypes, and play highlight the need for updated research on the influences of children's early play experiences and learning (Weisgram, 2018). Different types of play relate to different skills and vary by gender, such as spatial play and spatial skill (Jirout & Newcombe, 2015; Voyer, Voyer,…

Children's authentic participation is increasingly recognized in early childhood education as a basis for improving children's engagement and learning outcomes. This study explored the implementation of the Photo Projective Method in a kindergarten in Japan. Participants were two teachers and 35 children, aged 5 years, enrolled in one kindergarten…

The purpose of the current study is to determine the opinions of children attending forest kindergarten about the concept of environment. The participants of the study are thirty six 50-70 month-old children attending a forest kindergarten. In line with the purpose of the study, the triangulation design, one of the qualitative research models, was…

Using a content analysis method, this study develops a culturally based inventory of play categories from parents and children reports and explores how such types of play varies in environment and time. A total of 171 parent-child dyads from 13 Hong Kong kindergartens participated in the study. Results reveal that play practices reported from Hong…