ABSTRACT
This chapter explores complex and controversial debates relating to the place of play in children’s lives in the early twenty-first century. It suggests that a lack of opportunities to play should be a central consideration within the debate, a point that is being increasingly raised within academic research in English-speaking nations, but is receiving very little attention from those with the power to create policy. The chapter addresses the question: why is collaborative free play so important, not only for children’s social development, but also for the full range of learning that they must undertake during childhood and adolescence? A statistical index used to represent the strength of a relationship between two factors, how much and in what way those factors vary, and how well one factor can predict the other; such conclusions are frequently drawn from opinion surveys.
