Case study: crash course

William is a three-year-old at Woodlands Park Nursery Centre. At home, his favourite play is rough and tumble. He likes playing with his trains and cars, making them crash and fall off bridges. He likes playing with Playmobil people, and often creates sequences of fighting between them. It is the sort of play that people can find difficult in early years settings, or even try to suppress. However, William's play is full of fantasy and rich detail. Often William will load the crashed cars on to a transporter lorry and take them off to be mended. William is fascinated when he sees his father fixing things at home with the screwdrivers, and relishes the chance to use them on his cars and trucks. The screwdrivers soon turn into tools for 'chopping through ropes' and then into swords for a knight. His dressing gown cord becomes a 'special magic belt' for catching people. Judy, William's key person, wants to support and develop his play in the nursery. She creates a huge scene of a car crash using crates and other materials outside, and the children dress up as firefighters rushing to the scene of the accident. William's fascination with crashes is extended during an activity where he drops stones down drainpipes into a water tray, relishing the splashes this makes.