This study utilizes sandplay experiments as a means to analyze the development of 4 and 5 year old kindergarten children's creative spatial organization of toys. The children were asked to arrange several toys in a box filled with sand, and they were told to play in the sand box and with the toys freely.
Fifty-one children, 25 boys and 26 girls between 4 and 5 years old, participated in the sandplay experiments. By analyzing the displacement of the toys in the box, the researchers were able to identify and classify the children's developmental steps in the creation and recognition of their spatial organization of the toys ranging from simple toy arrangements to more complex ones. “Enumeration” was the simplest example of toy arrangement, where the children enjoyed placing the toys in the box one after the other, and they did not establish any meaningful relationship between the toys. Some children placed the toys in a disorderly fashion, while others placed the toys in rows. When the toys were arranged in rows, they showed an emphasis in a certain direction. As an example, some children had all the toys facing right, other children made rows of toys parallel to the box sides. The “chaotic” classification is another example of a simple toy arrangement, where the children randomly and sometimes unstoppably stuffed toys in the box. Consequently, this resulted in a box that was completely packed with toys.
The toy arrangement classified as “structured arrangement” refers to examples where the children gave meaning and a clear spatial relationship to the toys and how the toys were displayed in the box. Two archetypical spatial images were identified in those structured arrangements. Boys had a tendency to show what is described hereafter as “spatial plurality,” while girls, in contrast, presented a different tendency toward “female spatial singularity.”
Spatial plurality appeared when the toys were arranged in a way that incorporated motion (cars, trains, boats) or intrusion and expanding spaces outside of the box. On the other hand, female spatial singularity was seen when the toys were arranged in an enclosed area; and, the relationship between the toys was one of inclusion, and the toys were restrained to the box. The girls placed the toys in a manner that created these internal spaces. For example, they used furniture toys and simulated the inside of a house, or they used toy figures of people and animals to suggest that they were living happily together.
These archetypical spatial images have already been identified in former sandplay experiments with older subjects. In this study with kindergarten age children the differences between boys and girls spatial images were identified in all of the structured arrangements. However, in the experiments herein, structured arrangements were fewer than the enumeration or chaotic arrangements. Some children showed the characteristics of spatial plurality or female spatial singularity, when they started placing the toys; but, at the end, they finished by filling all of the empty spaces with toys. Other children would place the toys in rows; but, in a corner of the box, they would place a table and a chair or a hospital and an ambulance, showing a start on giving meaning and spatial relationships to the toys.
These examples of arrangements between simple and structured showed the first steps towards spatial recognition. The children's intellectual capacity for recognizing and interacting with spatial organization appears in the form of this structural arrangement schema － spatial plurality or female spatial singularity.
