CHILD-INITIATED AND DIRECTED
Children’s “free play” is child-initiated and directed. When the stage is set and there is a rich play environment, free play offers an opportunity for children to collaborate with one another and to design their own activities with a flow of play that works for them. A few years ago a member of our research group studied the play of emotionally disturbed and intellectually disabled children (Schwartzman, 1988) He found that the teachers of these children, even when they were really trying, invariably interrupted the children’s play just when they were about to complete an episode. It is very hard to be a playworker and intervene in children’s play without interrupting the flow of that play. The reason I respect the playwork profession so much is the way it tries to often set the scene for child-directed play, responding to children rather than directing them.