Infancy is the foundational period for learning from adults, and the dynamics of the social environment have long been considered central to children’s development.
Infant and Adult Brains Are Coupled to the Dynamics of Natural Communication Read More »
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
‘Pop-up parks’ represent one possible means to help meet the demands of urbanites for more opportunities to connect with nature in their neighborhoods, serve important conservation functions by providing small-scale habitat refuges for a wide variety of threatened plants and animals in urban environments, and deliver a suite of ecosystem services to urban residents and wildlife alike.
Pop-up parks deliver big benefits in small spaces Read More »
New Zealand children’s physical activity, including independent mobility and active travel, has declined markedly over recent decades. The Neighbourhoods for Active Kids (NfAK) study examines how neighbourhood built environments are associated with the independent mobility, active travel, physical activity and neighbourhood experiences of children aged 9–12 years in primary and intermediate schools across Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city.
Findings from this study offer schools important insights into the barriers and facilitators of implementing a regular outdoor learning programme within the KS2 curriculum.
Urban residence is associated with a higher risk of some psychiatric disorders, but the underlying drivers remain unknown. Here, we investigate the prospective association between green space and mental health in the Danish population.
It is commonly believed that nature has positive impacts on children’s health, including physical, mental and social dimensions. This review focuses on how accessibility to, exposure to and engagement with nature affects the mental health of children and teenagers.
Lillard et al. (2013) concluded that pretend play is not causally related to child outcomes and charged that the field is subject to a play ethos, whereby research is tainted by a bias to find positive effects of play on child development. In this commentary, we embrace their call for a more solidly scientific approach to questions in this important area of study while offering 2 critiques of their analysis.
The current study investigated the influence of a play-based curriculum on the development of pretend play skills and oral language in children attending their first year of formal schooling.
The outdoor space at childcare centres can be many preschoolers’ primary experience of outdoor play. Trends prioritizing risk reduction have diminished access to nature and risky play. We examined the effects of an intervention to increase opportunities for nature and risky play in the outdoor play environments of two childcare centres using a repeated measures mixed methods design.