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7 - ‘Sometimes birds sound like fish’: Perspectives on children's place experiences

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 October 2009

By
Tori Derr
Edited by
Christopher Spencer  and
Mark Blades
Christopher Spencer
Affiliation:
University of Sheffield
Mark Blades
Affiliation:
University of Sheffield
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Summary

Over the past few years, studies of children's environments have increasingly recognized the variation in children's experiences in shaping their learning, social development, and play (Holloway and Valentine, 2000; Matthews et al., 2000a; Matthews et al., 2000b; Punch, 2000). These studies remind us that children who grow up within a particular physical environment will not all share the same experiences or emotional responses to a place. Punch (2000) emphasizes that children themselves play a significant role in shaping their own experiences even within similar physical and social environments.

With the recognition that children shape their own place experiences has come a growing number of studies with children in urban environments (Berg and Medrich, 1980; Katz, 1993; Kong, 2000; Lynch, 1997; Moore, 1986; Ward, 1978), rural environments (Derr, 2001; Hart, 1979; Jones, 2000; Matthews et al., 2000a; Nabhan and St Antoine, 1993; Punch, 2000; Sobel, 1993; Ward, 1990), and within a variety of cultural contexts (Beazley, 2000; Derr, 2001; Katz, 1993; Kong, 2000; Matthews, 1995; Punch, 2000; Robson, 1996). As this body of literature continues to grow, some trends emerge as to the importance of these places in children's development. In this chapter I develop these trends through a framework that emerged from my own research with children, aged nine to eleven, living in rural and urban towns of northern New Mexico in the United States.

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Chapter
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Children and their Environments
Learning, Using and Designing Spaces
 , pp. 108 - 123
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2006

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