Outdoor Play
By Makena Wood, BSc Neuroscience student
We know that play is important for building executive function in children, and maintaining it throughout the lifespan, but are some settings of play better than others? I will be discussing the benefits of outdoor play, as well as some ideas for outdoor play and local opportunities.
Is outdoor play better?
Outdoor play provides a way to develop resilience, healthy relationships, and self-esteem (Watkins, 2022). Not only this, but the outdoors are an ideal environment for learning, to think critically and assess risks (Watkins, 2022). Outdoor play proves to be essential for children in these ways; as such, being outside can help children connect and feel belonging, while play offers wonderful foundations for brain development to be integrated into these social learnings (Watkins, 2022). What’s more, outdoor play has been shown to improve executive function skills (such as attention and inhibitory control) in the classroom to a greater extent as compared to indoor play (Koepp et al., 2022). Indoor play typically has more restrictions on behaviours, and so drains capacity for executive function over time, even during play (Koepp et al. 2022).
Outdoor play offers unique opportunities
[Jeremiah Lawrence – unsplash.com]
Risk-taking: Kleppe et al. (2017) use early childhood education literature to define risk-taking as “actions with a probability for undesirable results or negative consequences” (p. 370) and assert that the field identifies it as necessary for development of skills like understanding consequences and personal ability in a given situation. Taken together, and when also provided with opportunities for guided risky-play, children can also learn how to avoid excessive risk later (Kleppe et al., 2017).
[Nurpalah Dee – unsplash.com]
Mindfulness: Watkins (2022) defines mindfulness as being “fully present and engaged in [a] moment” (p.25) and provides ways that the outdoors can be harnessed to increase mindfulness in children in her book ‘Outdoor Play for Healthy Little Minds’. The activities involve noticing details in nature quietly and patiently and tuning in to how each makes you feel.
[Robert Collins – unsplash.com]
Increased movement: Getting out into open space and air encourages children to move in new and different ways, providing them opportunities to move and learn about their own physical abilities at their own pace and conquer diverse obstacles. Being in nature offers these kinds of freedom of movement and can also help children regulate their emotions and build resilience. (Watkins, 2022)
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Diverse sensory experiences: Being outside, with different temperatures, textures, scents, colours, and sounds, is needed for sensory development in children. Without sensory enrichment provided by a natural environment, children may develop sensory dysfunction, where they lack proprioception (being aware of the movement of your body parts) and vestibular sense (knowing where you are in your environment) (Watkins, 2022).
[Artem Kniaz – unsplash.com]
Health benefits: In addition to the other opportunities listed above, which all contribute to children’s long-term health, green spaces can protect against and alleviate symptoms of chronic diseases (Watkins, 2022).
What kinds of play can be engaged in outside?
Ideas for outdoor play
- Free play on a playground, or in a greenspace or backyard
- Going for a sight-seeing walk or hike, where you talk about and identify things you see
- Gardening
- Pretend play, where outdoor things like sticks and rocks become magical items
- Going for a picnic
- A scavenger hunt
- Backyard camping
- Water play with a sprinkler or hose in the summer
- Raking leaves and jumping in leaf piles in the fall
- Building with snow in the winter
- Puddle jumping or worm-finding in the spring
- Playing a BBT curriculum game outside (find curriculum games here: https://www.buildingbrains.ca/children)
Local adventures:
- Healthy Lethbridge’s guide to outdoor programming and spaces in Lethbridge: healthylethbridge.ca
- Helen Schuler Nature Center’s Nature Play guides: Get Outside 101
- Geocaching: Learn more about Geocaching through Helen Schuler Nature Center: Geocaching Lethbridge and Geocaching.com
Stencil games:
Building Brains partnered with Be Fit For Life to paint stencil games around Lethbridge. Check out the stencil games section under More Resources on our website to find out more about how you can get outside and play games around Lethbridge! https://www.buildingbrains.ca/stencil-games
References
Kleppe, R., Melhuish, E., & Sandseter, E.B.H. (2017). Identifying and characterizing risky-play in the age one-to-three years. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 25(3), 370-385. https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1350293X.2017.1308.163
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
Watkins, S. (2022). Outdoor play for healthy little minds: Practical ideas to promote children’s wellbeing in the early years. Taylor & Francis. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003137023