Children's Play Behavior and Development Process of Environmental Perception

Abstract

The main purpose of this paper is to explain the development process of environmental perception of children in a new town area. The Nagamine area, Inagi City in Tama new town in the suburbs of Tokyo, was selected as the study area. Six hundred and thirty-six children of nursery school, elementary school, and junior high school age were analyzed. This study used two approaches: a questionnaire survey on children's play behavior, and a sketch map survey of children's environmental perception.
From the results of the survey, it became clear that there were various restrictions on both space and time in the children's play behavior. Children so frequently attend private tutoring schools that there is little time to spend playing with their friends in the neighboring environment. Children usually play mainly in the near by town district park and school playgrounds after school. Therefore children have few opportunities to explore distant unknown places with a number of friends. These restrictions become more stringent with higher school grade.
Children's environmental perception was analyzed from their sketch maps. They were asked to draw a map of their living environment on a plain sheet of B4 paper. A time limit of about 40 minutes was set, and extra sheets of paper were available upon request. The method of drawing architecture changed from the three-dimensional type to the position type. The number of elements on sketch maps increased from preschool age to elementary school grade 3 age. However, an increase in the number of elements on maps was not obvious from grade 4 until grade 7. In general, so-called physiognomic perception was more prominent among younger children. This tendency influenced environmental perception and the method of drawing a sketch map. The sketch maps also changed very gradually from route maps to survey maps as children became older.
The point of view from which children drew a sketch map shifted from the horizontal to the vertical by grade 7. Half of junior high school students drew route maps. This indicates that the change from a route map to a survey map was delayed because it is difficult for children to perceive the environment over a wide area. The restriction of play behavior thus influences the development of environmental perception.