““Rough and Tumble”Rough and Tumble” Play: Lessons in Life Play: Lessons in Life

byby: Pam Jarvis, Carnegie Faculty of Sports and Education, Carnegie Hall, : Pam Jarvis, Carnegie Faculty of Sports and Education, Carnegie Hall, Leeds Metropolitan University, HeadingleyLeeds Metropolitan University, Headingley

Campus, Beckett ParkCampus, Beckett ParkP.Jarvis@leedsmet.ac.ukP.Jarvis@leedsmet.ac.uk

““Rough and Tumble”Rough and Tumble” Play: Lessons in Life Play: Lessons in Life

byby: Pam Jarvis, Carnegie Faculty of Sports and Education, Carnegie Hall, : Pam Jarvis, Carnegie Faculty of Sports and Education, Carnegie Hall, Leeds Metropolitan University, HeadingleyLeeds Metropolitan University, Headingley

Campus, Beckett ParkCampus, Beckett ParkP.Jarvis@leedsmet.ac.ukP.Jarvis@leedsmet.ac.uk

Presented By: Kemi Ayanfalu, Presented By: Kemi Ayanfalu, Mike Naphtal, and Alex Mike Naphtal, and Alex

KraszewskiKraszewski

Jarvis R&T play Hypothesis

Hypothesis:evidence from bio-evolutionary theory and developmental research indicates that there is a pressing societal requirement to provide opportunities for children to bring forth shared free play activities within safe environments, and that, as evolved primates, such opportunities are as crucial to their healthy progress and eventual adult capability as instruction in literacy and numercy.

Single gender Rough and Tumble play

Theory• Single gender play human and non-

human animal observational findings, indicated a greater occurrence of R&T among all-boy play groups in terms of amount, pace and intensity, then in girls.

• Jarvis established that in all three chimpanzees studied their R & T play had a higher frequency than the girls.

Mixed Gender R&T Theory

• The evidence gathered from observing mixed gender groups supported the idea that children create and practice complex social skills, concurrently challenging and planning within a highly gender role, directed activity.

• For example the girls usually initiated the chasing games and competed to be “most chased,” while protecting one another from the boys’ attention when it became too energetic, marshalling adult assistance when necessary.

Life Lessons• Jarvis feels that the playground is a

classroom of its own.• She states that mixed gender children

create impulsive, independent, competitive and co-operative interaction, developing many of the complex social skills that fundamentally adult life.

Continued• She argues that adult defined,

structured tasks are just as important to free play, due to adult-led goal structures.

• Children created shared narratives where they can control gender roles that relates to group work and competition.

Critique• The study only includes eighteen subjects,

nine girls and nine boys. Furthermore, children’s ages are within a small range.

• Study also mentions that schools are providing children with less and less “recess” time, and even the allotted recess time is highly structured and adult supervised. And yet Jarvis chooses to study “free play” in this school structured environment.

Critique cont• Parents are less inclined to allow children to

play unsupervised, unrestricted outdoor activities because of potential dangers ie cars, and child predators

• The other issue is one of observer effect and Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle which states that the act of observing anything, changes it.

• The article mentions Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH) but fails to give an accurate definition.

Critique cont• Jarvis uses perceived imagination

and language with in children’s “free play” to assert that abstract concepts separate humans from other primate species, however there is no proof that primates lack these skills

Questions1.) According to Jarvis R & T play are crucial to their

healthy progress and eventual adult capability as instruction in literacy and numericy.

True or false.2.) There is a greater frequency in all girl play groups than

boys. True or False3.) Jarvis feels that the playground is a _________of its own. a.) sandbox b.) chuckie cheese c.) recess d.) Classroom

References• Jarvis, Pam Evolutionary Psychology“Rough and Tumble” Play: Lessons in Life

human-nature.com/ep – 2006. 4: 330-346.

• Bishop, J. and Curtis, M. (2001). Play Today in the Primary School Playground. Buckingham:OU Press.

• See article for more references.

Video• http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/235565

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