Philip Waters considers how to allow it and accommodate fears about safety
Predatory animals such as large cats tend to live within a defined space or territory called a 'home range' in which they hunt for prey and roam freely. These cats tend to demarcate their chosen space by leaving traces of urine in specific locations to warn off other predatory cats. This is reminiscent of the way we build fences or plant hedgerows around our homes.
We have, like the predatory cat, the capability to go ranging within the spaces we choose to live; moreover, we even sometimes go beyond our defined territories, often at the peril of 'trespassing' into the territory of others.
When children are given the freedom to explore environments through play, their ranging capabilities can be as limited as the back garden or play project, or as far-reaching as other lands, which really does bring some truth to the adage that the whole world is a playground.
ADULT-SELECTED SPACES
Ranging, particularly in Western countries, is an explorative process which is fast becoming a rarity. This is either because children and parents are too fearful of traffic and the predatory stranger, or because children's play in the local high street, community, countryside or city is being squashed by an adult monopoly on use of space.
The adult response to this issue is to provide spaces that have been selected for children's play and general usage, often without consultation with the children and young people themselves.
The irony, however, is that play rarely calls for the installation of expensive equipment or specified locations for such equipment to be installed. As Moore (1985) has identified, a great number of children would 'rather play in streets, sidewalks, back alleys and empty lots than in formally designed playgrounds that are segregated from the adult world'.
Furthermore, Bartlett et al (1999) suggest that 'efforts by local authorities should focus on children's ready access to existing environs rather than elaborate provision'. Thus children would make the choices as to when and how they play within their own communities, and to what extent and where their ranging will take them.
When children are born they have a very limited range. It starts as being connected to the primary carer and very slowly increases as they become more independent. By the time the child becomes a young person their range can be most of their local neighbourhood and even beyond.
Outdoor play relies on this increase in the child's range as it does on the experiences gained from ranging, because it acts to extend both physical and psychological boundaries. That is, by exploring further away from the home, the child grows more confident as an individual.
Moore (1985) describes this as a dual process: 1 'Range growth', which is where the child assimilates new territories into their existing repertoire of visited/ranged environments - for example, a child moving from their own housing estate into one nearby which they have never visited before.
2 'Range development', which is the depth of experiences gained over time through visiting the same environment.
MAPPING AND LOCATION
Ranging has the capacity to equip children with mapping skills and object-space location skills. Mapping skills support children's plotting capabilities, particularly for using landmarks and icons as a way of plotting a route or learning the social and physical geography of different environs. Object-space location enables children to create mental imagery of varying spaces, thus learning the size, depth and trajectory of structures and objects around them and how they can engage with these.
Ranging is conditional on the individual's preferences, choices and accessibility to varying environs, as it is on indigenous and cultural values, beliefs and social systems. A child in one community may range in a totally different way than a child in another.
Geographical location may also influence children's ranging capabilities.
For example, children in highly urbanised environments may be limited by traffic conditions to a far greater degree than those living in rural ones.
There is currently some interesting research investigating the geography of children's play using Global Positioning Systems.
RANGING UNDER CARE
Ranging, as an issue to be addressed by playworkers, particularly those working in formal settings, may be something of a difficulty. The most obvious question could be, 'How do you let children range freely when they are supposedly under your care?'
Open-access provision is perhaps closer to providing ranging capabilities than closed provision, but this should not be seen as an excuse to ignore the issue. For example, Hughes (2002) suggests that facilitating ranging can be fairly straightforward and may involve thinking about the 'closed space' having interesting features that engage children's curiosity and explorative nature. As long as the space can be altered, or has plenty of capacity for change, then it can provide for some short-term ranging.
Of course, play projects with access to outdoor spaces will find catering for ranging much easier than those without outdoor provision. For example, taking children on trips to environments they have never visited before is a good start. It is even better if the children have the capacity to range relatively freely while there, for example, beaches, wooded areas and moorland.
Another potential ranging opportunity may involve working closely with parents and carers in negotiating their child's ability to walk home from the setting (where possible) without supervision - I know, many of you are already squirming at the thought, but it's worth asking nevertheless.
Ranging is an imperative aspect of our overall development as humans. It equips us with skills that will be used throughout our lives, but is just as important in the here and now, and especially in children's play.
There was a time, perhaps before the advent of technology and cars, when ranging was a typical daily experience for children and adults alike, and livelihoods and leisure time relied on it. Moreover, it involved physical exertion to the extent that exercise bikes and treadmills were not just a required means of keeping fit. Cartographers, explorers and artists could not have survived without being able to range freely in unexplored lands.
If we are honest, many of our towns and cities and even rural hamlets began their humble beginnings as a result of someone's ranging.
Ranging is central to our heritage, our current state of health, our social, cultural and geographical placement, our future - but above all to our children's play, as it is here where most ranging begins and develops.
Philip Waters is a freelance trainer and playwork consultant, based in Cornwall
Further information
* Moore, R (1985) Childhood's Domain: Play and Place in Childhood Development: London: Croom Helm.
* Bartlett, S, Hart, R, Satterthwaite, D, De La Barra, X and Missair, A (1999) Cities for Children. London: UNICEF and Earthscan Publications.
* Hughes, B (2002) The First Claim: Desirable Processes. Cardiff: Play Wales.
