An investigation about child playing within the Winnicott’s perspective, on the time-space in the kindergarten

contributions of the Psychoanalysis for the Education

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate how much the school understands about child playing, on the time-space in the kindergarten, within the Winnicott’s perspective. We analyzed a three-years-old child during play in the presence of the professor, assistant and other children. Interviews with her mother performed to obtain family history data, gestation and child development. The adapted Esther Bick Observational Method has been used to collect data during the play. Thirty-seven observations (37 hours, from March to June/2002) were performed. The observer took notes of the child’s behavior, relationships with adults, other children and objects. All the observations have been supervised. Based on the observation reports, 119 playing episodes were selected and classified into the following categories: “separation anxiety”, “holding” and “relationship with children and adults”. Our results showed that the child had difficulties to separate from her mother to attend the kindergarten. The teacher’s behavior and the kindergarten structure indicated the need of an enhanced knowledge about the child playing. A child play involves the expression of her internal world, such as anxieties, emotions, desires, resources. Better quality of care will be offer to infants when professionals understand more about the play.