Middle childhood children interaction with home and neighborhood gardens in urban and rural setting
This study investigated the properties and attributes of home and neighborhood gardens as a place for middle childhood children to play. The home garden is defined as legal proximity territory demarcated by plants and landform in village and in urban terraced- house neighborhood. The neighborhood...
Saved in:
Main Authors: | , |
---|---|
Format: | Conference or Workshop Item |
Language: | English |
Published: |
2008
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://eprints.usm.my/34937/1/HBP50.pdf http://eprints.usm.my/34937/ |
Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
Summary: | This study investigated the properties and attributes of home and neighborhood
gardens as a place for middle childhood children to play. The home garden is defined as legal
proximity territory demarcated by plants and landform in village and in urban terraced- house
neighborhood. The neighborhood garden is an expansion territory range of home garden
accessible for public to interact with natural elements. The play involves physical and social
performances which are triggered by cognitive performances. Perceptual responses of 120
children, aged 6-12, were elicited using survey questionnaire in a village and a terrace house
neighborhood. Data analysis involved the differences of children performances between village
and urban, and between home and neighborhood garden. Outdoor participation of children in rural
is greater than urban that influenced by variety of feature material, outdoor range, and spaces. It
means rural children preferred the outdoor more than their urban counterparts. During play, 48%
of rural children used both plants and animals as play tool. On the other hand, only 24% of urban
children utilized plant as play tool. The result suggests the rural children were exposed a variety of
environmental affordances than their urban counterparts. The affordances are categorized into:
performatory (60%), 25% exploratory and 15% productive. It means much of the children
performances were physical and social as well as manipulating outdoor elements. This study
suggests that rural garden affords more functional affordances than urban garden for children’s
performances: physical, social, and cognitive. Finally, this study implies that rural outdoor offers
more opportunities and independent mobility for children to be physically active and socially
interactive. |
---|