What play space do children need?

BanyolesEvery child inhabits an internal landscape made of images, memories, fears, and desires. It can't always be expressed in words; it is hinted at and manifested in play, in the way pieces are arranged, in the way a ball is kicked, or in the way a doll is cared for. Pediatrician and psychoanalyst Donald W. Winnicott, whom you may know for his concept of the "transitional object," described it as "the potential space."

It is the intermediate space that appears between the real world (what happens outside) and the child's fantasy (what they imagine inside). It is neither one nor the other, but a playground where they can freely mix both.

What it looks like in practice

• When he makes a little house out of a blanket and calls it a castle, he uses real objects, but fills them with fantasy and their own meaning.
• When one stuffed animal "cures" another: the real one (the stuffed animal) and the imaginary one (which acts as a doctor) coexist.
• When you draw something that has happened to you and transform it so that it "ends well."

When does it appear?

When children have the ability to imagine and transform objects and create images in their heads without physical support, they need a safe environment, with a non-intrusive adult, unhurried time, and loosely defined materials that allow them to play, create symbols, and elaborate on emotions.

Why is it important?

In this space, children explore who they are, put words and gestures to what they feel, practice solutions, and fill themselves with creativity. It's an intimate and valuable laboratory where reality and fantasy intermingle.

Without fantasy there is no reality

Einstein is often quoted: "If you want your child to be intelligent, read him stories; if you want him to be more intelligent, read him more stories." We add: there is more than one intelligence, and many of those that underpin everyday life, such as emotional, intrapersonal, and interpersonal, gain depth when childhood has been nurtured and lived with a good dose of fantasy.

The value of what is not seen

A child's failure to share everything they think isn't mistrust. According to Winnicott, "it is in play, and only in play, that the child feels free to be creative and discover themselves."Whatever your game, our task is to respect that intimate territory, to be available and to observe with curiosity, respect and without judgment.

Observation is careful and is the best way to say: "You can be who you are: this is a safe place, that's your base, the port where you can anchor yourself." We adults cannot forget that we made ourselves playing, in that space where we mixed what we carried inside and the world we shared with others.

*Winnicott (1896–1971), pediatrician and psychoanalyst, member of the British Psychoanalytical Society. Formulated the concepts of transitional object and transitional space/area, popularizing the idea of the pretty-good mother/father: a presence that supports without invading. In Playing and Reality He placed play as the axis of creativity and self-construction.