Gathering Play Memories for Research and Advocacy: Early Reports From the Global Play Memory Project

• In Event: Inclusion and Play in a Global Context

Abstract

This presentation presents initial findings from the Global Play Memories Project designed to document adults’ memories of their childhood play and children’s (preschool-adolescence) narratives about the role of play in their lives in diverse contexts around the world. Data collection includes interviews, online surveys, YouTube videos and audio files in the US (Chicago, Oakland) and England, South America, New Zealand and Asia. Results highlight the complex factors, sociocultural, generational, socioeconomic, community, family, and individual that impact children’s play; favorite types of play, feelings associated with recollecting play memories, lifespan continuities between childhood play and adulthood, and barriers that have prevented play historically and currently. Study results inform suggestions for culturally sensitive informed advocacy for play in communities around the world.

Authors

• Julie M. Nicholson, Mills College

• Priya Mariana Shimpi, Mills College