O
ut on the deck, five-
year-old Noah, his sister
India, three, and their
baby brother Tobias are
stripped to the waist and hard at work
mixing sand with water in buckets.
Noah, with a thoughtful frown, calls
out to his mum. He wants some flour
and sugar to add to the mix. He says
he is keen to see the “reaction” that
adding new ingredients will cause.
Mum Donna obliges, bringing a
package of each. Once acquired, the
kids set about grabbing handfuls of the
white powders to mix and stir. Donna
reminds them of a book they know,
where a dingo adds leaves to his pot of
“
wombat stew”. Brother and sister go
off in search of foliage. Tobias lingers.
Although he is just 16 months old, he’ll
remain riveted by the activity for an
hour, playing, stirring, feeling, even
tasting the contents of his bucket and
noting the changes.
Messy play like this belongs to the
sensory play sphere, where children
indulge multiple senses in addition to
sight. Activities don’t have to be wet.
Play dough, paint, glitter, rice and
cloud dough, where flour is mixed
with baby oil, all offer opportunity for
sensory exploration.
The Donna in this story is Donna
Denize-Crowhurst, and before she
moved to Hong Kong she helped
lead Playcentre, a parent-run early
childhood institution in New Zealand.
Five years ago she took part in a course
aimed at first-time parents, where she
discovered messy play. “One aspect
was to introduce us to the concept that
mucky play is a fun, developmentally
appropriate method of child play,” she
recalls. Initially, she was hesitant. “It
took a bit of convincing, as I don’t like
being dirty. But since being converted,
I find I enjoy the times of muckiness,”
she says.
Why bother?
The benefits of messy play are many:
utilising the senses allows learning
through multiple channels. Children
are able to exercise fine and small
motor skills. Activities are often
open-ended, and so foster curiosity,
creativity and experimentation.
Textural properties demonstrated
through the play are a great hands-on
introduction to early science.
But letting the child take the
lead can be daunting for parents.
Gloopy substances, whether shaving
foam or “wombat stew,” can be
unpredictable, and coupled with a
young child’s curious nature are prone
for experimentation. Try and let
them take control. This is all part of a
child’s learning, says Donna. When a
boy dips his head in a bowl to lick cake
batter, for instance, or brushes glitter
paint over his arms, he is seeking more
information. “Much like an adult
will read lots of books on a new topic,
young children need to learn through
their sensations. The skin provides
the biggest way of experiencing those
sensations. It’s all about texture and
the brain learning through the skin,”
says Donna.
In Hong Kong there is more of
an emphasis on keeping clean than
getting dirty. Results-based classes
in languages and sports take priority
over play, with its less tangible results.
But the race to get little kids into the
classroom can be detrimental.
“
Parents don’t realise that the
first development stages for all those
activities begins with play. Messy
play allows for hand-eye coordination
to develop, muscles to develop –
the ability to scoop and pour and
squeeze and squelch,” says Adele
Pieper. Adele is a long-term teacher
whose company, Messy Play HK,
Messy play fosters the big three childhood C’s in our kids: curiosity,
creativity and concentration. So why do so many of us find messy play
such a dirty business?
Elle Kwan
investigates.
March 2013
39