I'm bored...

We are born curious, as anyone who has ever watched a baby will know. Even very young babies observe, 'push and pull' their own world in an often furious attempt to learn about it. And well into their first year mothers will declare, with a mixture of pride and exhaustion, 'Oh, he's into everything now.' So in this sense, a lazy child is a contradiction in terms. And yet it is a relatively common experience for playworkers to have to cope with a child who seems unmotivated and disinterested.

Eleven-year-old Penny was just such a child. A rather plump only child, she had been attending after school club for nearly a year. Her playworkers had become increasingly irritated by her. 'She just won't make an effort,' said one, 'she just seems bland about whatever we offer her.' Another volunteered, 'She never does more than the necessary. If you ask her to help clear up she will, but she never just kicks in and helps. It's the same with activities, if we didn't chivvy her along she'd just sit there like a huge steam pudding.'