Browsing by Subject "omaehtoinen leikki"

The subject of this bachelor’s thesis was the meaning of play. The purpose was to find out what kind of things children find significant in playing. In order to find out the meanings, the study based on the children’s experiences of playing. My research focuses on following re-search questions: •What happens when children play? •What kind of things makes playing fun? •What kind of plays do children like? •What kind of plays children don’t like? •What would be an ideal surrounding for playing from a child’s perspective? What could one find and do there? What would happen? The research was conducted in one preschool in Helsinki on December 2017 with 21 children participating in the research. The material of this study consisted of interviews with the children and observations of the children’s free play. The data was analysed by content analysis. The principles of child perspective study were strongly applied in this research. On the grounds of this study, four meaningful aspects important to a child’s play were found. These aspects included the gender and the toys used, but also the role of current events of surroundings and the joy and amusement of playing. According to this study, children treated current, significant events and experienced with different roles while playing. The significance of toys proved to be crucial as all the plays were based on toys apart from one exception. The influence of media was shown in the way children talked of toys linked to tv-series and games. The difference between the sexes was remarkable in themes, roles and choices of toys. Joy and amusement were highlighted in children’s stories of playing. Speed and sportiveness, fear and excitement and opportunities to make dreams come true were aspects that made playing extremely fun.