Innendørs risikofylt lek: Muligheter for spenning og variasjon i barnehagens lekemiljøer?

The study investigates various aspects of risky play in indoor kindergarten environments. The research questions are: 1) What kind of risky play takes place in indoor kindergarten environments and where does it occur? 2) How does an intervention (aimed at strengthening the kindergarten’s play environment) affect risky play in the indoor environment?

The results show that children took part in risky play indoors, especially play at heights and frolicking/play-fighting, and that the risky play mainly took place in the play area and in the cloakroom. Results related to the intervention show that the kindergartens that established an integrated play area had an increase in risky play indoors. In addition, the results show that both girls and boys across age groups used the play areas for risky play after the intervention. The authors believe the study demonstrates opportunities to create exciting and more varied indoor play opportunities in kindergarten.

The study stems from the EnCompetence project, where the goal is to develop new knowledge that can promote play and contribute to higher competence in the planning and development of kindergartens’ physical play environment. The study is based on video observations of 65 children aged 3–5 years old from seven kindergartens, during periods when the children were free to play as they pleased. The video observations were made in two phases and the final data material consisted of 770 two-minute video observations. Based on the observations in phase 1, an intervention was carried out to strengthen the existing physical play environments. The intervention was developed and implemented as a collaboration between the researchers and employees in the kindergartens. The effects of the intervention were observed in phase 2. The data material was analysed using descriptive statistics and regression analyses.

Kleppe, R., Sando, O. J. & Hansen, E. B. S. (2020). «Innendørs risikofylt lek: Muligheter for spenning og variasjon i barnehagens lekemiljøer?”. Journal for Research in Arts and Sports Education, 4(2):26–46.