Playground as a social place for middle childhood children in residential community

Abstract

This objective of the research is to investigate the significant role of playground as a social place for middle childhood children in residential community and to examine the behavior of middle childhood children in playground. Playground is one of the important social context in which children meet, interact and form relationship (Eriksen, 1973). Thus, the research is to examine the actual role of playground as social place for children. The problem statement of the research is most of the current playground fails to act as a social place, it looses its major function for children to develop their social, physical and cognitive skills. The context of the research is a playground at Taman Mutiara Rini, Skudai Johor. The target group is middle childhood children, aged 6 to 12 years old. Several limitations occur while going through the research’s process. Data collections process stopped for a week due to the change of climate on site. It affected the result of the observation and questionnaire. The data collection period, due to the climate change, change into four days of weekday and three days of weekend. The study site also added from one playground into two similar playgrounds that located in same residential area. The hypothesis of research is achieved as study shows that middle childhood children interact with peers in playground and through these interactions they learn and develop new skills. The findings of the research are parallel to the literatures and theories studied in early stage. The research successfully showed the role of playground as a social place and the behavior of middle childhood children in playground. Finally, the opinion on the role of playground as a social place for middle childhood children in residential community is obtained.