ABSTRACT
Poetry for some may be like child’s play, but perhaps it is time to stop the poetry of maximizations and/or optimizations of child’s play through poetic-methodological approaches if children’s development and behavior are to be of legitimate and generalizable concern. Both Friedberg and Dattner are deservedly prominent figures in the design of children’s play facilities and have displayed great innovativeness in generating environmental configurations for children’s activities. Attached to the concern for facilitating play behavior is a parallel concern for increasing the complexity of possible activities in which children will participate. Within the conceptual framework, play is seen to have the capability of facilitating increases in the behavioral complexity of children. Perhaps the function of design for children’s environments, which could be derived from Bruner’s studies, is to demonstrate that the longer route, or some other way to the same goal that is arrived at through competence-increasing behavior, has the greater potential for facilitating the development of individual potentialities.
