Despite an increased drive over the past two decades in Western societies to promote children’s physically active play to improve their health, there are concerns that childhood has become less physically active.
Nature Play WA undertook a comprehensive literature review for the Education Department of WA that considers three critical elements to improving student experience and learning in school settings: outdoor learning, outdoor play and the school environment.
Nature play is growing in popularity, with many early childhood settings transforming their outdoor play environments to incorporate more natural elements.
Connecting children with natural spaces has been shown to benefit their physical and mental health; however, the utility of nature-specific outdoor environments as a setting for curricular and non-curricular learning has yet to be clearly established. Our aim was to undertake a narrative synthesis of international evidence of nature-specific outdoor learning and its benefits for personal and social development, wellbeing and academic progress.
In this study, data from two samples is used to examine associations between the time that children aged 5–11 years spent playing adventurously and their mental health. For comparison, time spent playing unadventurously and time spent playing outdoors are also examined.
Physical environmental opportunities for active play have a positive effect on physical activity in preschoolers and should be encouraged in different social segments.
The British Children’s Play Survey was conducted in April 2020 with a nationally representative sample of 1919 parents/caregivers with a child aged 5–11 years. Respondents completed a range of measures focused on children’s play, independent mobility and adult tolerance of and attitudes towards risk in play.
The integration of loose parts, or open-ended, unstructured materials, into play environments, has been associated with positive social behaviours, creativity, and improved problem-solving, confidence, and resilience.
Mothers and daughters find spending time outdoors together strengthens communication and family connectedness Twenty-six mothers and daughters participated in semi-structured interviews focusing on their experiences with family-based nature activities (FBNA), defined as two or more family members engaging in outdoor recreation. The mother and daughter interviews were conducted simultaneously but in separate rooms. This arrangement …
Loose parts play (LPP) interventions introduce moveable materials and equipment to children’s play spaces to facilitate unstructured, child-led play.
