Heft, H., 1988, Affordance of children’s environments: a functional approach to environmental descriptions, in: Childrens Environments Quarterly, , 2
- Author : Heft, H.
- Year : 1988
- Journal/Series : Childrens Environments Quarterly
- Volume Number (ANNUAL: Counting Volumes of the Year shown above) : 2
- Pages : 29-37
- Abstract in English : This paper presents a functional approach to describing the psychological resources of children’s outdoor environments. The approach is based on Gibson's theory of affordances. (The affordances of the environment are what it offers the animal, what it provides or furnish either good or ill. Affordances are therefore the possibility for action to an observer by an object in the environment. Objects have instantly detectable functions and are perceived in terms of what they afford, not what properties or qualities they have. Examples of affordances are listed. The principle finding of this study is that the neighbourhood, school and town centre can all support both social interaction and retreat behaviours.). A functional taxonomy of environmental features is offered. The purpose of this paper was to suggest a new way of thinking about children’s environments. Ideally the type of framework propose in this paper can help to stimulate future research in understanding children environment transactions, and perhaps to facilitate in some measure the design of environments for children.
- Comments/Notes : KEYWORDS: children, affordances, environmental psychology, play. UTILITY: lecturers/teachers, academic research, students of universities of professional education.