Toys, play and attitudes to the future
Children’s selection of toys in relation to family members’
- Common attitude to the future
- rejection, + selection
- Day-to-day familylife pattern
+ main group People
+ adult dolls (Barbie)
- guardian dolls
+ implements
- tools
+ transport
- aggressive toys generally rejected by the boys
- LEGO products (preference for Playmobil)
- Nature generally
- natural materials
- Socially engaged familylife pattern
+ main group People
+ guardian dolls
- transport
+ aggressive toys (generally in the case of the boys)
- Enterprising familylife pattern
- main group People
+ LEGO products
+ main group Nature
+ natural materials and excursions
In the section “Attitudes to the Future”, it was stated that the different families’ attitudes to life are differentiated by the different ways in which they see their opportunities for the future. Bearing this in mind, it was possible to classify the families according to three different attitudes which were expressed as three different ways of life and lifestyles, i.e.:
- Day-to-day familylife pattern
- Socially engaged familylife pattern
- Enterprising familylife pattern.
The families’ attitudes to the future in general and their wishes for their children’s futures are also demonstrated by the types of toys and play they can normally accept/permit in the family.
Specific and “ordinary” toys and play can be accepted by more or less all families, regardless of their attitude to the future. Other types of toys and play are consciously or unconsciously rejected or ignored - and sometimes even banned from the house!
Despite the fact that ordinary and traditional types of toys and play will be found in more or less all families, the families still make certain significant selections or rejections. This is because, while people’s attitudes to the future are incredibly complex, they also tend to make some kind of logical sense.
Where the main groups of toys are concerned, study of deviations revealed that:
- Children from day-to-day life pattern families owned most toys in the main groups IMPLEMENTS and PEOPLE.
- Children from the socially engaged life pattern families mostly owned toys in the PEOPLE, ANIMALS and NATUREgroups, and
- children from the enterprising life patternfamilies owned most toys in the IMPLEMENTS and ANIMAL groups while toys from the main group PEOPLE were relatively poorly represented.
Table 8.4.1. (Steenhold (1993,d) gives a more detailed picture. The table shows 399 4-10 year old children’s favourite toys relative to their family’s attitude to the future. The children from day-to-day life pattern families are more likely to use toys such as props, dolls and cars than children from the other two types of family.
We cannot state that any given type of toy has any one specific communicative form for the concept of play with it. An interpretation of this kind would be too one-sided and limited. However, toys which can be attributed both a social-oriented and a concept-oriented communication (e.g. drawing/cutting out/sticking, listen/learn, play with guardian dolls and toy weapons) are owned more often by children from the socially-engaged families than from the other two types of family.
Where the main groups of play types are concerned, study of the deviations reveals that:
- Children from the day-to day familylife pattern families are the most frequent users of play in the group SYSTEMS (especially athletics, sport and similar activities).
- Children from the socially engaged familylife pattern families are most likely to play games from the INTERACTION group and
- Children from the enterprising familylife pattern families are most likely to play IMPLEMENT types of play.
Table 8.4.2. (Steenhold (1993,d)) presents the information in more detail. The table shows 399 4-10 year olds’ play relative to their parents’ attitude to the future. Athletics and sports activities are dominant play activities for the day-to day family life pattern families but activities which encourage interaction, intimacy and physical/mental contact are also frequent. Meanwhile, the socially engaged family life pattern families tend to encourage productive play, construction play, games and performance more than the other families.
It is remarkable to find such significant deviations especially between the different family types’ attitude to the future and their children’s favourite toys and the ways they play.