The Playgroup Movement

Brenda Crowe

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781135031336
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Éducation
• Subtopic: Éducation générale

Originally published in 1973, this reprints the fourth, updated edition of 1983. This book defines playgroups, examines their needs and problems and traces the growth of the association to meet the demands of a lively and demanding movement.

1	Playgroups for different local needs

The comment heard most frequently from those working in departments of health, social services and education is ‘I'm all in favour of what playgroups are doing, but the tragedy of it is that they're in the areas that don't really need them. It is the deprived areas that concern us.’

Whilst understanding this viewpoint, it is noticeable that it is tending to make many mothers feel guilty about having playgroups in ‘nice’ areas. This is a pity, for all children and all parents can benefit from a good playgroup.

New insight into the definition of deprivation began to dawn on me after several visits to areas of back-to-back housing, tower flats, and depressing acres of old-type identical council houses. On each occasion the mothers happily involved in playgroups of varying standard all said that they felt guilty at having their playgroup ‘because it isn't us middle-class mothers that need it, it's the deprived areas’.

What is middle-class? What is a deprived area?

Not everyone living in a deprived area is a deprived personality; often those designated do not feel themselves to be so—and those regarded as privileged can be aware of deep personal deprivation.

A good playgroup adapts to the needs of its environment, and the major variations between good playgroups seem to provide a clue to the particular local type of deprivation. After a year of checking up on this, it still seems valid. There are obvious weaknesses in trying to classify people into groups—we all know that it cannot be done; nature, nurture, environment, all play their part, and it is the individuality of each person that matters. But in spite of these misgivings, it still seems worthwhile to offer the results of my observations.

Areas of multiple deprivation

These are the families of lone mothers who live without hope. The men are often in prison or out of work; the women usually give up the battle to fight for standards when so many things militate against them—no housing worthy of the name home; over-crowding or, in rural areas isolation; no money, or money without the knowledge of how to handle it; an unhappy marriage or liaison; poor health, mentally, physically or both; often too many pregnancies too quickly, because of religious conviction or because their husbands will not let them use contraceptives, or because they are frightened to take the pill, or because they have a supply but forget to take them. Almost all of them truly love their children, but few can cope with them adequately. These mothers have reached the stage of aiming no higher than to get through another day; and some are unable to bring themselves to get out of bed even to try to face another day.

The children in these families are usually fed and clothed inadequately and the habit of grizzling owes much to this background of physical discomfort; almost without exception they love their parents, especially their mothers, and they accept the shouts, slaps and hugs as they come, knowing that they are loved even though they are unable to recognize any pattern in the unpredictable behaviour to which they are subjected. There is little or no conversation, and children may arrive at school unable to talk. Nor is there any stimulation of mind or body.

There seem to be two main ways of helping to establish playgroups in these areas.

1. For the local authorities to start a playgroup for their children. Health visitors and social workers can identify the families, and visits to the homes pave the way for transport to call to collect the children and take them to the playgroup that has been set up to receive them. In local authority playgroups the equipment is provided, the rent is paid, and a salary is paid to the permanent playgroup leader and her assistant.

Even given transport, however, some mothers cannot make the effort to get up and take the child out to the waiting car or van. The drivers expect this, open the door and call—and sometimes even dress the child. If the mothers have reached this level of despair, it can take one or even two years before they dare to believe that something nice is happening at last; they begin, cautiously, to look forward to seeing the van drive up, and are waiting to have a word or two when it returns. Some of these mothers eventually go into the playgroup, meet other mothers and begin to pick up. But many remain unable to respond.

Playgroups of this type are being run in both urban and rural areas by the Save the Children Fund, local authorities, the Preschool Playgroups Association, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, the National Elfrida Rathbone Association and other local groups of people.

2. To start mothers’ clubs. The mothers find it much easier to respond in this situation, where they feel that someone is caring about them, with no strings attached. Since they cannot leave their pre-school children at home, plans have to include a playgroup.

So, in effect, two playgroups are born simultaneously: one for mothers, another for children.

Nothing less than sound common sense, allied to genuine caring, will draw the mothers together and hold them. Social workers are invaluable here, and a few other men and women who have the ability to accept these mothers as they are and who are prepared to create a happy environment with no hint of sentimentality or do-gooding, or making-them-more-adequate.

Where these groups are in existence the improvement in morale is quite dramatic. Tea and chat are enough for some weeks, and then things begin to happen. Surprisingly, some of these mothers begin to say, ‘Now I'm here, I might as well go and see the dentist (or doctor).’ Talks are requested; one group asked the butcher back again because he was so helpful over which bits of the animal came from where, and how to cook them; another popular visitor was a woman who taught them all to knit, which they found both soothing and satisfying. (She also showed them how to cut the sleeves off a jumper, sew up the neck, turn the garment upside down, run elastic round the top, and hey-presto!—new trousers!)

And what about the children? Sometimes local volunteers, with no knowledge of playgroups, have offered to look after the children while the social workers and others are with the mothers. A few books, some dolls and plasticine are on offer, and all goes well for a while; the children are usually apathetic at first, and some are more than content just to be cuddled; but then the boys begin to get the situation taped, and feel secure enough to start rushing around making gun and tractor noises—and nobody feels secure any more. The noise is exhausting and the helpers hang on with one eye on the clock, taking comfort from the fact ‘they must need it badly, or they wouldn't keep it up like this, would they?’

This sort of playgroup is inadequate. The mothers, having had a lovely afternoon, collect their children to go home—and their new-found peace of mind is shattered by hysterically wound-up children who do not respond until the old, familiar ‘Shut up!’ or ‘Come here!’ are shouted at them as before. Back to square one. And it's a case of hanging on as before until the next week's high spot. The mother's enjoyment has been abruptly terminated. Some of the children may have found a certain amount of satisfaction to the detriment of others, but no real play has been provided for their needs at all.

This situation may be avoided where a well equipped and adequately staffed playgroup is prepared for the children. Numbers must be watched, for twenty mothers can bring over fifty under-fives; with fewer than twenty mothers it may feel flat instead of feeling like a party. But this number of children, among whom will be several babies, will need more than one room. Youth centres and community halls can sometimes offer splendid accommodation, with rooms for the babies and toddlers, a room or hall for the playgroup, a canteen for the mothers, and small rooms for those mothers who want to talk to the social workers privately. Then everyone can go home happy and satisfied.

In one such pocket of deprivation the Pre-school Playgroups Association area organizer worked with the social worker and senior nursing officer to prepare a proper playgroup as an integral part of the project. Equipment was begged, borrowed and improvised, and in one youth centre this was stored under the stage even though dolls’ clothes and dressing-up clothes had to be kept in plastic bags to protect them from the damp. Expendable items such as paint, paper and dough were provided each time by the playgroup helpers who volunteered to staff the playgroup with PPA's voluntary organizer.

These experienced playgroup people learned a great deal from this new experience. One child painted timidly, and the playgroup leader said, ‘How lovely! Shall we go and show it to Mummy?’ They went to find the mother who glanced at the offering, screwed it up, dropped it on the floor, and continued her chat to her neighbour without, apparently, noticing the child at all. The following week, having learned from this incident, the playgroup leader left the child painting and went to find the mother to tell her that her son was busily painting a picture especially for her. The mother responded to this friendly approach, and they chatted for a few minutes until the playgroup leader said that she would go and see if the work of art was finished; when she reappeared with the child and his wet and colourful offering the mother looked up and smiled, the child ran to put the painting on her lap (where she let it rest) and after this brief but warm encounter he returned to the other room to paint again.

Mothers need to be helped to play their part in a playgroup and eventually, when the occasional mother pops into the other room to see what is going on, she finds the children happy and busy playing with sand, water, clay, dough, paint, bricks, table toys, climbing frames, etc. For the first time she sees what real play is, and what a difference it makes to children: when they go home together their mutual satisfaction and happiness is shared for a moment. Gradually, some of the mothers gravitate to the playgroup for no other reason than that they suddenly find they enjoy being with the children, and the more they come to understand, the greater chance there is that this harmony will be carried back into the home.

The playgroup people also learned that although children may be aged four and a half years, their stage of play may correspond to the average child of eighteen months; they are neither naughty nor silly if they suck bricks, bang them together or throw them. In the early days jigsaw puzzles and books may well be ignored, and the helpers’ normal vocabulary and speed of speaking may be met with blank incomprehension.

The continuous backing of the social worker is essential; the support needs to go on and so, too, will individual casework. These groups are an aid to casework, even a preventive, but they cannot be a complete substitute for individual home visits.

In time some of the mothers may want to assume more responsibility in the playgroup—but it must be when they are ready. They must come to this out of their own discovery that the children like them and respond to them, and that they enjoy being with children under these circumstances. It must never be assumed that these mothers are not capable of personal growth; but neither should anything be demanded.

Areas at a disadvantage

It is not possible to make sweeping generalizations, but some housing estates fall within this category. The mothers may not be down and out, but many of them are certainly down; they are often terribly lonely, unable to cope with the children (and unwilling to stop trying to cope), short of money, or unable to budget. They may feel trapped because no stage in their lives has brought the happiness and fulfilment that they confidently expected would come eventually. So there they are, with a home, a husband, children and nothing else to look forward to, as far as they can see. And there seems an awful lot of life still to be got through.

These are some of the ways in which I have seen this problem tackled.

1. Someone on the spot starts a playgroup, working with a small nucleus of interested mothers. Often it is the wife of the vicar or minister or an experienced playgroup leader, in consultation, with the health visitor. The playgroups often start with small numbers, and gradually enlarge as news spreads by word of mouth. By the time the numbers are rising, the original group of mothers has had time to learn from its mistakes, and has often visited nursery schools and other playgroups in order to check what they are doing. They attend informal meetings, and progress to join local playgroup courses, with enthusiasm.

2. Occasionally money can be provided for a regular playgroup leader. It could come from a local charity, or the local authority, or the local branch of PPA. However it is done, the point to bear in mind is the importance of appointing a playgroup leader who understands how necessary it is to involve the mothers. Only by being in a well run playgroup can mothers begin to see what real play can be, and what it can do to a child; only by being there can they see how the playgroup leader copes with shyness, aggression, jealousy, timidity, curiosity, excitement, bossiness, children who take things, children who tell lies. Although many mothers demand that their children say ‘Please’, ‘Pardon’ and ‘Thank you’, it sometimes has not occurred to them to be equally courteous to the children; sometimes they have never seen how helpful and dependable three-year-olds can be; sometimes they do not know how much or how little to expect from the children.

This is why the choice of a playgroup leader is so important. Not only does she need to be able to respond to the needs of children, she needs to be able to do it in such a way that the mothers unthinkingly begin to copy her. She needs to be sensitive to the needs of the mothers; to be a friend and a leaning-post; to know how to guide the running of the playgroup in such a way that the mothers feel that it is their playgroup; to know when, and to whom, to delegate responsibility in order that each shall grow in stature and discover that she is capable of far more than she thought.

Again and again, before the playgroup came into being, the health visitors, social workers, Pre-school Playgroups Association area organizers and others tell me that the constant cry of the mothers was ‘But I can't do anything like that!’ and they did; and they can.

3. Sometimes a group of mothers will come together, after much morale boosting by the health visitors, vicar, minister, priest, social worker, or other playgroup enthusiast, and decide to have a bash at it themselves. They know that they can only budget for a few pence per morning and, realizing that this will not pay even a token payment to a playgroup leader, they decide to work in pairs to run the group, with other mothers to make up the extras to meet the staffing ratio.

Such playgroups caused me grave concern: where was the security? The weaknesses are obvious: the children never know who is going to be in charge; different adults have different standards; emotions may well run high between the adults as they argue about the merits of a good smack against banishment to the kitchen as a punishment; conflict is likely to arise over the care of precious equipment; free play is likely to be interpreted as playing about; lack of both money and knowledge may well lead to tatty and inadequate equipment; no child's progress, or distress, can be followed up; the group could grow increasingly wild as each pair of mothers thinks, Thank goodness it's only two or three times a term!’

My overall concern remains. But some areas are turning a potentially disastrous situation into a venture that is proving valuable for both the children and the mothers. In this sort of situation, wise background help is needed from the beginning and the visitor needs to understand clearly that the personal growth in understanding and responsibility of the mothers is of the utmost importance. Everything else will stem from this. This means that one of the attributes most needed by visitors (whether professionally employed or voluntary) is their rapport with such mothers— a knowledge of play and under-fives alone is not enough.

In other areas local authorities have appointed social development officers. One of the earliest is now the proud father of many well-established playgroups. This man's particular gift lies in his ability to lead from the rear: it takes imagination to foresee the next likely crisis and to prepare for it behind the scenes.

A playgroup started by a group of mothers without preparation could well be a free-for-all. But in one area a plan slowly unfolded that started with coffee evenings to plan fund-raising events; the events were fun, as well as hard work; the s...