Professor: The game is disappearing - adults are controlling children's time

Play, and what excludes children from play, are central themes in a new research project at Luleå University of Technology.

- All children have the right to play, and there should be accessibility for, for example, playgrounds, says Maria Prellwitz, assistant professor of occupational therapy at Luleå University of Technology.

Research shows that play is crucial to the child's development on many different levels: social, physical and cognitive. We visit a recently prepared playground at Notviken in Luleå to evaluate it.

When you see this, what do you think?

- I think you start doing the right thing, you have these bird hobbies, for example, that actually favor social inclusion: that you can be several people playing in one place. Then there are still things missing, says Maria Prellwitz.

What is missing then?

- There is a way to get to the highest point, for example, says Maria Prellwitz, pointing to the lookout tower at the climbing post. All children want to climb upwards. Maybe you can get up in different ways.

- Maybe there would have been some kind of ramp so everyone could have reached the top. And better visual markings on the visually impaired.

Accessibility for people with disabilities is an important part of the three-year research project, which includes Ireland, Scotland, Switzerland and Sweden. The hope is to develop national guidelines for play parks. Interviews with children are important pieces of the puzzle.

She believes that the play park's most important function is to be a place for children to find other children to play with.

- If you are alone in a playground as a child, you are there for a short while. If there are other children to play with, it will be a completely different thing.

What characterizes a playground where it is easy for children to start playing with each other?

- That there are materials to work with. That you have to cooperate. Dig in a discount or create things.