| The focus of this thesis was to examine the validity and reliability of a playground assessment tool for elementary school children. Validation of the instrument was to confirm whether the skills itemized on the checklist were culturally normative for elementary school children on playgrounds, and reliability of the tool was to determine whether accurate results could be consistently collected with different observers, subjects, and settings.;Observations, at five different elementary schools, were conducted on 60 grade one and 79 grade three children during the free play periods of lunch hour and recess. All subjects were randomly selected, and there was an attempt to balance the number of subjects in both grades and gender divisions. During the observations, interval-event recordings were performed on each of the subjects, using the playground tool as the checklist for activities noted during the viewing sessions. Using the data collected from the observations, frequency counts and rankings were calculated for each playground activity and environment. A total of 1,104 events were recorded, with grade one accounting for 494 incidents, and grade three for 610 events. Descriptive analysis was used to note any trends or tendencies within the play activities according to gender and grade divisions. |
