introduces kids to 45-minute sessions
with cooked spaghetti, fake snow and
“
goop”, a cornstarch and water recipe
that changes form upon touch. She
launched the company with a desire
to fill a gap that kids in Hong Kong,
with its anti-germ, anti-mess focus, are
missing out on, and, she says, can hold
them back academically. She talks of
an art teacher she knows who works in
a prestigious international school and
complains that her Grade 1 students
can’t cope with the curriculum.
“
They haven’t built their fine motor
development enough,” says Adele.
At Playscope, a play centre run
by the Playright Children’s Play
Association in Tai Po, teachers
are introducing more messy play
sessions to cope with children’s
growing lack of what the association’s
executive director Kathy Wong calls
“
playability.” The centre is increasing
unstructured messy play since kids as
young as two began refusing messier
activities, saying they didn’t want to
get dirty.
Parental pre-occupation with
keeping clean stops exploration and
creativity through play. Recently at
an event run by Playright in Central,
called Cheers For Play, three streets
were made into designated play areas.
Kathy recalls how parents were happy
for children to form long queues before
climbing a slide for a 30-second burst
of fun. “Lots would stand aside with a
camera taking pictures,” she says.
It was a different story at one area
modelled on a construction site, which
featured real bricks, sand and water
for cement mixing. Kids bent down in
concentration to mix, they clambered
around holding bricks aloft in order
to stack them and make mini walls.
Parents were less enthused, standing
on the sidelines ushering them to keep
Messy play allows for
hand-eye coordination
to develop, muscles to
develop – the ability
to scoop and pour and
squeeze and squelch ...
Sensory solutions
Mum Katie Harel is starting to see clear benefits from the sensory activities she
introduced since her son, Jack, now four, was diagnosed with sensory processing
disorder (SPD). The SPD Foundation likens the disorder to a neurological traffic jam
that thwarts the body’s ability to correctly interpret sensory information. Last year,
teachers at school noticed Jack’s inability to concentrate. He wasn’t naughty, but
he couldn’t sit still, and would be up touching and hugging other pupils. “It was like
he wanted to squeeze them tight and say ‘I love you’,” says Katie. “He was getting
horribly stressed because I was constantly telling him off,” she says.
Following advice, Katie gave Jack soft balls to squeeze and swathes of
different fabrics to touch. She bought heavy-duty putty and studded it with
marbles for Jack to pull and explore. Saturdays are hike days, where Jack and
his brother roll in the mud and collect leaves, and rainy day Sundays inside are
reserved for cooking. Jack is responsible for chopping ingredients and handling
china bowls. “He loves to feel the flour and crush cold butter between his fingers,”
says Katie. As he concentrates on the tasks at hand, tense rigidity in his body is
replaced by calm ease and quiet. Katie isn’t the only one to have noticed the
change. “At our last parents’ meeting,” she says, “the teachers said he was like a
different child.”
March 2013
41