We found that playfulness increased significantly in a sample
of kindergarten and first-grade school children after we placed
loose-part materials on the school playground for 11 weeks.
This finding adds to previous evidence that children’s playfulness
may be amenable to intervention. Moreover, the costeffective
nature of the materials and the fact that no structural
changes to the playground were involved means that a similar
intervention could readily be replicated in any school.
Previous researchers working with children with cerebral
palsy (Okimoto et al., 2000; Reid, 2004) found that removing
barriers limiting the physical capabilities of children
resulted in improvements to ToP scores, presumably because
children were able to demonstrate playfulness that had been
hidden or suppressed. Similarly, Reed et al. (2000) surmised
that a very playful teacher promoted playfulness in typically
developing children they studied.
The simple materials used in this study