“We Don't Allow Children to Climb Trees”: How a Focus on Safety Affects Norwegian Children's Play in Early-Childhood Education and Care Settings

The purpose of this study is to examine how ECEC practitioners in Norway deal with increasing focus on children's safety, and how this affects children's play and activities in ECEC settings.

With reference to previous research indicating that Norwegian ECEC practitioners have more relaxed and positive attitudes regarding risky play than practitioners in other countries, such as Australia, the authors conclude that Norwegian society's relaxed attitude regarding children's risky play in an ECEC setting has changed into a less risk-taking attitude. The results also show that ECEC centre leaders express resistance towards this change and frustration at the pressure imposed by parents and municipal authorities to increase safety.

The authors identify six categories of limitations in the children's possibilities for physically active play: (1) restrictions related to play and activities, (2) restrictions related to outdoor space, (3) restrictions related to the use of water, (4) restrictions related to field trips, (5) restrictions related to weather and seasonal conditions, and (6) other restrictions in physically active play.

The study shows that restrictions related to play and activities are described by a total of 188 ECEC centre leaders and include a number of different activities, such as climbing, sledding, bicycling, ice skating and rough-and-tumble play. Most often, the ECEC centre leaders describe restrictions related to play involving climbing, and some ECEC centres prohibit climbing outright. Several ECEC centre leaders describe that parents in particular, but also other outsiders such as municipal authorities, playground inspectors and the media, put pressure on ECEC centres to introduce restrictions in connection with children's play and activities in the institution.

The results indicate that many Norwegian ECEC settings change their outdoor space to prevent risky play. A total of 83 leaders describe restrictions related to outdoor space, which in most cases relate to playground equipment, but also to playground inspection and playground regulations. The ECEC centre leaders find the playground regulations useful to some extent, but they also consider orders from playground inspectors to be too focussed on danger and the orders are neglectful of children's need for physical challenges and risky play.

The study material comprises a web questionnaire distributed to 6469 ECEC centre leaders in Norway. The questionnaire had a response rate of 32%. The questionnaire contained closed-ended questions with fixed response categories, but also included an open-ended question, in which the respondents were asked to describe limitations in children's possibilities for physically active play, including normal outdoor activities in the ECEC setting and field trips away from the institution. The study only used data from the qualitative part of the questionnaire (the questionnaire's open-ended question) which was answered by a total of 879 respondents. The analysis only includes the responses describing limitations in children's possibilities for physically active play (a total of 335 responses).

Sandseter, E. B. H., & Sando, O. J. (2016). “We Don't Allow Children to Climb Trees”: How a Focus on Safety Affects Norwegian Children's Play in Early-Childhood Education and Care Settings. American Journal of Play 8(2), 178-200.