Pigs, planes and Play-Doh: children's perspectives on play as revealed through their drawings

Play, an elusive concept despite the extensive literature on the subject, remains especially problematic for research focused on the perspective of children. The author discusses her study on children’s perspectives about play, exploring drawing as a method for learning how young children conceptualize play within a social-semiotic framework. Her study emphasizes children’s own definitions and representations of play, and her findings suggest that children look at play not as a set activity but as a kind of experience related to many different activities.