Affordances of Nearby Forest and Orchard for Children’s Performances Ismail Said Universiti Teknologi Malaysia AicE-Bs 2010 Kuching, 7-9 December 2010

Respondents and Setting Children and adolescents, aged 5-16 They are from an orphanage in a small town, Cemor, Perak. Settings: Orchard is comprised of young and matured fruit trees. Nearby forest is a secondary forest which generated after its matured tree stands were harvested.

Experiential Contacts with Nature Children's contact with natural environment is crucial to their physical, social and cognitive development. To children, natural environment provides place to play, place to transact with peers, place to set boundaries to play within own sense of control and understand the outer world.

Experiential Contacts with Nature Forest affords young children to play a variety of sensorial and motoric activities including climbing rocks and trees, running and tumbling and sliding slopes. Children are attracted not to the forms and shapes of the outdoor features but to their functions.

Aim, Objectives and Scope of Study This research investigated on the affordances of nearby forest and orchard on young children and adolescents experiences with the natural elements. It measured the functional properties of the forest topography, water bodies, vegetation and animals as experienced by the children, both in sensual and motoric modes. The unit of analysis was children and adolescents, aged 5-17, who are interacting with the forest elements in at least three types of activities: performatory, exploratory and productive.

Method A two-day participatory hiking and camping program in a nearby forest and orchard setting at a village, Kampong Cheh in Cemor district, Perak. The children’s actions were documented in digital camera as well as in a field journal. Three tape recorders were given to two children, aged 5, 11 and an adolescent, aged 16, to elicit their words on the hiking experience with the forest topography, water bodies, vegetation and animals.

Data Analysis Photos illustrating actions of respondents and respondents’ words were bracketed into (1) level of affordances, (2) taxonomy of affordances, and (3) types of affordances

Results and Discussions: Level of Affordances Performances of children: perceived, utilized and shaped. 98 affordances: 62 utilized activities, 30 perceived activities and only 6 shaped activities. Utilized: Plucking young leaves of Garcinia artoviridis and eating the leaves. “This is very sour, but it is nice” said Dani, aged 6. Utilized and perceived: Picking fallen young fruits and holding 3-4 fruits by grapping their stalks. Understand the property of the stalks in relation to their hands- utilization. “This fruit is beautiful,” said 10-year old Mamat. Evaluation aesthetic “But it cannot be eaten.” Replied 12 year old Hidayat. Perceived : Seeing bulbuls and magpie robins while in the stream

Results and Discussions: Level of Affordances Shaped: Fishing using self-made (crude) line and rod. “Hold the end of the stick” “Friends! Stack the branches like this” Experiential landscape: The children traversed across various hill slopes and valleys in a partial dense landscape of fruits trees in the orchard and dense landscape of trees and undergrowth in the nearby forest.

Results and Discussions: Taxonomy of affordances a. 4 properties that afforded the highest numbers of affordances were: water--25 vegetation--22 graspable/detached objects --12 environmental opportunities for sociality—9 Water: Scooping sand with both hands from stream bed Vegetation: Cutting bamboo poles Graspable objects: Scooping sand with both hands from stream bed Sociality: Carry a young peer on a back to climb a slippery slope b. Each affordance involved sensorial and motor actions, simultaneously.

Results and Discussions: Types of affordances 94 positive affordances “Look at that Tualang tree” “This water in not deep” 4 negative affordances “Look at the leech’ “I’m afraid’ “OK. Let me pull it from your foot.” “Look at my blood,” said Dani, screaming in fear of blood flowing from his foot.

Conclusions The direct experience in nature permitted children to value the functional properties of naturalness of the forest and orchard; scanning, hearing, climbing, cutting, sitting, manipulating, standing, sliding, observing and ducking. Familiar environment, comfortable environment, closeness, and variety of natural elements in forest settings afford multi-affordances for children to experience and play. It means that children have recognized the forest and orchard as play spaces offering fascinating sensorial and motoric activities. In sum, nearby forest and orchard are ecological systems comprising of a diversity of vegetation and animals as well as topographical and stream variations. They allow children to explore and discover the elements of nature through physical and social participations.