Is Play a Choice on the School Playground for Children With Disabilities?

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Children with disabilities often have challenges with participation in play that can manifest on the school playground. Frequently, schools place less importance on recess, focusing more on academic areas of the day. As a result, recess can lack priority as an area for children’s participation and learning. Supporting children’s play has traditionally focused on building the skills of the child rather than modifying the social and physical environment.

To better understand how to create a supportive playground environment, the decisions of supervising school staff require investigation. The purpose of this study was to understand the decision making of school staff around outdoor play for children with disabilities. The capabilities approach was applied to inform new thinking and deepen insights into existing knowledge. The capabilities approach is a development framework focusing on empowerment through choice and support for the most vulnerable members of society.

METHOD: A qualitative multiple-perspective case study design was used in a mainstream elementary school with segregated classes for children with developmental disabilities to create in-depth understanding of school staff decision making. Participants included all four teaching assistants, three special education teachers, a mainstream teacher, and a vice principal whose focus was on special education. Additionally, five focal children with developmental disabilities were observed on the playground.

Data collection consisted of observations of focal children and school staff participants on the playground for 14 days; document review; interviews with special education teachers, teaching assistants, and the vice principal; and video-assisted recall with teaching assistants and a mainstream teaching supervisor on the playground. Interviews were informed by document review and playground observations.

Qualitative analysis was iterative and thematic and included analyses and triangulation within and between participant groups. Analysis consisted of coding participant decision making, comparing decision making within and across participant groups, and then conceptualizing ideas into themes. Rigor was ensured through validating preliminary analysis with subsequent participants, peer debriefing, and procedural fidelity.

RESULTS: School staff had low expectations for the children’s play. Teaching assistants “mothered” the children, while mainstream teachers and peers perceived them as “others” and only minimally interacted with them. The playground lacked developmentally appropriate equipment, and staff provided minimal support for the children’s skills and engagement. Consequently, although participants stated the children had choices on the playground, in fact they had few, if any, choices, resulting in little participation in play.

CONCLUSION: Children with disabilities had fewer choices on the school playground because of lower expectations and suboptimal environment–child interaction. Occupational therapy practitioners can support school staff to better understand play, raise expectations for children, model how staff can provide support on the playground, and advocate for structural changes in schools to support play as an important school occupation. Additionally, full inclusion requires children to be active participants with autonomy rather than simply being present on the playground. School staff, including occupational therapy practitioners, should work to create cultures in which all children are valued and included.

References

Egilson, S. T., & Traustadottir, R. (2009). Participation of students with physical disabilities in the school environment. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 63, 264–272. https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.63.3.264

Nussbaum, M. (2011). Creating capabilities. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Sterman, J., Naughton, G., Froude, E., Villeneuve, M., Beetham, K., Wyver, S., & Bundy, A. (2016). Outdoor play decisions by caregivers of children with disabilities: A systematic review of qualitative studies. Journal of Developmental and Physical Disabilities, 28, 931–957. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10882-016-9517-x

Villeneuve, M., & Hutchinson, N. L. (2012). Enabling outcomes for students with developmental disabilities through collaborative consultation. Qualitative Report, 17(49), 1–29. Retrieved from http://www.nova.edu/ssss/QR/QR17/villeneuve.pdf