2014 Volume 11 Pages 1-9
During early childhood, children need to move their bodies spontaneously, mainly through various forms of play. To facilitate spontaneous physical play, it is necessary to be creative with environmental structures, and this is where physical play equipment performs an important role. This study focused on “bilibo,” a toy that does not come with instructions for use. The study was conducted amongst 5-year-old children who were given bilibo play equipment with minimal guidance on how to use the toy, and their physical play activities were captured and analyzed. The forms of play that emerged fell into 5 main categories and 14 subcategories depending on how the play equipment was used, and it became clear that the children had devised various forms of play on their own in response to the diverse characteristics of the bilibo play equipment. The study showed that the spinning games were the most popular with respondents; specifically, the children were frequently observed to sit in the bilibo play equipment and pivot, wobble it or spin it, and play imitative games using the bilibo.
