Makena Wood, BSc Neuroscience student

Can adolescent brain development be improved by outdoor play? If you read our previous blog about outdoor play, then you know that being outside offers an enhanced environment for developing executive functions and social skills in children. Our previous information about the relationship between brain development and outdoor play was supported by research that mostly focused on children, and inspired this blog post that will discuss outdoor play for adolescents and its potential benefits for this unique stage of life. There is less literature available discussing adolescent outdoor play specifically, but I will support information in this post with anecdotal experience from a recent adolescent play research project that BBT completed with a local grade 8 class.

So, what about adolescents?

To briefly summarize the knowledge we’ve established about outdoor play for children, outdoor play benefits children by providing an environment that suits risk-taking, mindfulness, increased movement and sensory experiences, and improved physical health. We don’t need extensive research to know that these benefits may all apply to adolescents as well, but they may look slightly different when considering their developmental stage. For example, adolescent risk-taking in the outdoors may be far more dangerous in reality than a child’s risk-taking, and so extra care should be taken to inform them on outdoor safety and potentially the effects of peer-pressure. Additionally, mindfulness for adolescents will need to look different because their current stressors and experiences are much different from those in their childhood. Nevertheless, practices of risk-taking and mindfulness target inhibitory control and emotional regulation at any stage of life.

Physical activity

A study by Williams et al. (2020) demonstrated that higher physical fitness in adolescents leads to quicker response times in information processing, inhibitory control, and working memory tasks compared to the response times of adolescents with lower physical fitness. To encourage teens to improve their fitness, we know we can take advantage of the outdoors given that they provide an excellent opportunity for increased movement, and open spaces for games that involve team play, like the activities used by Williams et al. in their study. By the time they reach this stage in life, most adolescents have either developed a preference for or against physical activity. Either way, the diversity of the outdoors may present a) new challenges and added opportunities for already active teens, or b) new things to try and lower-intensity, mindful activities that can build fitness over time for physically reserved teens.

Local adolescents

Building Brains Together recently organized a 6-week play study with a local grade 8 class where we visited for one hour every week to teach our curriculum games and provide resources for the class to continue playing between visits to ultimately observe effects on their executive function skills. The program began in early May, and as the weather got warmer into June, we decided to incorporate some outdoor play. For this group of adolescents, moving the play outside was an exciting opportunity for most to run around, be louder, and increase their engagement in the game as a result. For those adolescents not as interested in group play, the outdoors provided them with their own space to sit quietly, either in the sun or in the shade. Even adolescents need a break from some of the rules imposed on their play behaviour when play is restricted to the indoors (as mentioned in our original Outdoor Play blog post, where Koepp et al. (2022) explain that indoor activity drains executive function faster than outdoor activity). With this outlet for some of their pent-up energy, we also observed more creative and humorous responses to our games; the other side of this is that they needed more frequent reminders to stay on track in the game, but these continue to provide them with practice for their inhibitory control.

Outdoor wellness

Taken aside from cognitive development, outdoor play is experiencing a decline largely due to our modern use of screens and technology. A decrease in outdoor play is not only failing to serve children and adolescents within the scope of cognitive development, but, as Singh Charan et al. (2024) describe, it is leading to physical and mental health issues. Further, less time outside hurts what they refer to as holistic health, which is a child’s entire development and its interactive parts (the physical, cognitive, social, and emotional aspects of development). Regardless of whether you are successful in engaging adolescents in formal outdoor play, consider the importance of the outdoors to their overall development and well-being, and explore strategies to increase time outside and limit screen time.

References

Koepp, A.E., Gershoff, E.T., Castelli, D.M., & Bryan A.E. (2022). Preschoolers’ executive functions following indoor and outdoor free play. Trends in Neuroscience and Education, 28, 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tine.2022.100182

Singh Charan, G., Kalia, R., Singh Khurana, M., & Singh Narang, G. (2024). From screens to sunshine: Rescuing children’s outdoor playtime in the digital era. Journal of Indian Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 20(1), 11-17. https://doi.org/10.1177/09731342241229845

Williams, R.A., Cooper, S.B., Dring, K.J., Hatch, L., Morris, J.G., Sunderland, C., & Nevill, M.E. (2020). Effect of football activity and physical fitness on information processing, inhibitory control, and working memory in adolescents. BMC Public Health, 20, 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-09848-w

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Building Brains Together