ABSTRACT
When absorbed and able to determine the place and time to think, especially when closely connected to the beach, the sand, the sea, the grass, the rocks and the mountains, my clarity of thought and senses seem to be elevated. It becomes clearer that a child could be in the same state of higher-level thinking, feeling and imagination when in their element. What do we understand by the phrase ‘she is in
her element’? She is at one, at ease, in control and emotionally satisfied. A working hypothesis of elemental play might be children exploring the ‘I am’, ‘I can’ and ‘should I’ through ideas and notions and inquiries which is the elemental process of finding out about self in relation to people, places and things through their discovery of the natural environment; in other words, playing. Csíkszentmihályi (1979, cited in Laevers, 2006: 24) speaks of ‘the state of flow’, ‘an openness to (relevant) stimuli and the perceptual and cognitive functioning has an intensity which is lacking in other kinds of activity’. The intensity of feeling or oneness and belonging lead to high levels of involvement with one’s ideas and activities, and also to a deep sense of well-being. Elemental playfulness could be an instinctive, human and cultural disposition and using this possible lens gives us a phenom - enological tool to interpreting behaviour. This behaviour suggests that a child is drawn to and demonstrates a deep sense of well-being when playing in a natural context, when engaging in elemental play. It suggests that very young children’s interests are quite deeply spiritual and innate and observable; in other words, maturing human qualities.
