Beyond words: around physical play, its value and adult’s role

With a focus on adult’s role in physical play, in particular rough and tumble play, we will present our initial data from our teacher’s and educator’s focus groups and we will discuss a selection of relevant play scenarios. This paper regards an initial pilot study about the adult’s role in physical play in an ECEC service to detect and record adult’s (teachers, educators and atelierista) ideas about rough-and-tumble-play in order to define a hypothesis. This pilot study involves teachers (2-6) in the infant-toddler center and Preschool Bambini Bicocca, supported by Bambini Bicocca S.r.l (https://bambinibicocca.it) a spin-off of the University of Milano-Bicocca. They are part of an experimental 0-6 process within the framework of a holistic, inclusive educational approach [1], [2]. The initial data are relevant to analyze and promote quality processes and it is a way to reflect teachers’ skills in observing children and constitutes a source of criteria in planning professional development [3], [4], [5]. Paradigm, methodology and methods: the pilot study adopts a qualitative and phenomenological paradigm and combines observations and focus group discussions with atelierista, teachers and educators. We will present some examples from Focus group analysis using NVivo software. Implications, practice or policy: to promote dialogue between teachers and educators, the co-construction of representations of development in line with the potential of children; to recognize guidelines for professional development. The study refers to theories of play in early childhood and development and to more recent perspectives introduced in the field by [6], [7], [8], [9], [10], [11]. Play is a broad concept that can be viewed from a range of theoretical and conceptual viewpoints and can therefore be observed and interpreted in many different ways. The intrinsic value of play as significant socio-cultural activity for children is characterized by: freedom, choice, participation and inclusion. “Learning occurs during play in multiple ways” [12]. Drawing on the sociology of childhood, [13] considers how play constructed by children creates "interpretive reproduction" and new cultural understandings. R&T play is always of a social nature and contains components of mock aggression [14], [15]. The significance of adults protecting free play spaces is advocated [10].