BLOG POST 22 February 2020

CURIOS KINDIES
SK CLASS | NEWS | RESEARCH

ROUGH PLAY
This was a very interesting topic for
me to read and research more
about.

This year has been my first class

where “roughhousing” has been a
very key feature of the children’s
play. My previous school was a very
safety conscious place and the
children were (in my opinion)
overly supervised and controlled.
Risk taking wasn’t really supported,
and there were many rules on how
to play on equipment.

My current school allows for more risk taking, particularly on the jungle gym, which I appreciate. Risk
taking is important for children’s overall growth and I think that it should be encouraged.

My class this year however is very preoccupied with superheroes, police officers and criminals. Their
play often appears rough with children pretend punching, kicking and wrestling. After recess I usually
have reports from the teachers on duty (if it is not me) that the children have been acting
inappropriately. As I am not always there, it is difficult to judge whether the play was imaginative and
playful or harmful. It has been easier to just label that type of play as inappropriate for school and
advise the class to find different games to engage in.

The children are so interested in these games however that they continue to roughhouse.
Unfortunately, one student tripped and fell during a game this week, and a few other students seeing
this as an opportunity to “catch the bad guy”, jumped on his back whilst he was on the ground. The
student’s face was pushed and scraped onto the frozen ice resulting in bruising, a noise bleed and
bleeding scrapes on his face.

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BLOG POST 22 February 2020

Parents were called and emailed and the parent who’s child
was hurt was understanding but upset. I told the parents that
this was just a case of a game getting out of hand and wasn’t
due to any malicious actions. I advised the children again,
against rough play.

After reading the articles I am asking myself: should I label all

rough play as inappropriate and advise against it? Doing this
hasn’t stopped the play. Should I introduce rules for this play
Facts About Rough and if so what rules? Will parents support this, or fear that
Play their children will get hurt? Will the school support this or
fear liability?
• Rough play: “…when children
involve their bodies in this
vigorous, interactive, very
Conclusions and Questions:
physical kind of play, they build Rough play is an important part of learning personal limits,
a range of skills representing learning social and emotional skills and may be vital to a
every developmental domain. child’s development. The article Rough Play: One of the Most
Children learn physical skills—
Challenging Behaviors states that rules should be enforced to
how their bodies move and
encourage safe rough play. Rules like “only wrestle on your
how to control their
movements. They also develop knees”, I am not sure rules like this one would be supported
language skills through signals at my school. I wonder what other rules to suggest?
and nonverbal communication,
including the ability to References:
perceive, infer, and decode. Carlson, F. M. (2011). Rough Play: One of the Most
Children develop social skills Challenging Behaviors. YC: Young Children, 66(4), 18–25.
through turn taking, playing
dominant and subordinate
roles, negotiating, and
developing and maintaining
friendships.” (Smith, Smees, &
Pelligrini 2004; Tannock 2008).

• With boys especially, rough

play provides a venue for
showing care and concern for
each other as they often hug
and pat each other on the back
during and after the play (Reed
2005).

• Rough play also allows young

children to have their physical
touch needs met in age- and
individually appropriate ways
(Reed 2005; Carlson 2006),
and provides an opportunity
for children to take healthy
risks.