Nonplay in Norwegian Early Childhood Education and Care Institutions

The study explores what children do when they are not playing during free play periods in kindergarten. The researchers seek to map the factors that can prevent children’s participation in play, and to investigate how kindergarten teachers can recognise children who are outside the play community. The study also investigates which environmental barriers may prevent play.

The study identified five main categories of non-play in Norwegian kindergartens. The first category, conversations, accounted for 37% of observations and included both conversations between children and between children and adults. The second category, practical tasks, accounted for 7% of the time and included activities such as picking up toys, eating or putting on clothes. Passive observation was the largest category, accounting for 23%, where the children sat still and appeared to be disinterested or distant from their surroundings. Wandering around, which amounted to 20%, described children walking around without a clear purpose or goal. The final category, conflicts and crying, accounted for 3% of the observations and involved children who were in conflict with others or who were crying. The study highlights that these activities are often linked to challenges in the physical environment or social interaction, pointing to the importance of kindergartens facilitating an environment that promotes play and reduces obstacles that can lead to non-play.

The data collection was carried out using systematic and randomly selected video observations of children aged 3 to 4 years, in eight Norwegian kindergartens. Each institution was filmed over the course of five days, and the children’s activities were encoded second by second in two-minute sequences. The data were analysed qualitatively with the goal of identifying patterns and categories associated with non-play.

Storli, R., Tobiassen, M. L., & Sandseter, E. B. H. (2022). Nonplay in Norwegian Early Childhood Education and Care Institutions. American Journal of Play, 14(3), 254–276.