How Children Benefit From Playing Outdoors

Children Need to Be Outdoors

According to a report published by the Children and Nature Network, children’s exposure to nature has a direct impact on their health and development. Children who spend time outdoors, especially early in life, have lower risk of obesity, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and similar health challenges. 

For parents of small children, however, this presents a challenge. In one UK survey of 600 parents performed by Co-operative Childcare, researchers found that 36 percent of children get their primary entertainment from a screen of some sort. In the survey, 65 percent of the parents indicated their children played outside half as much as the parents did as children.

Why are children not spending time outdoors? Often it is a consideration of their safety. Parents feel that children cannot be left outdoors unattended unless the environment is carefully structured without risk of injury. Thus, parents need to be the ones to facilitate outdoor play. 

Parents and Children Play Better When Playing Outdoors

Sending your children outside to play will improve their overall health and development, but it will do even more if you go with them. Spending time playing outdoors will also improve the quality of the time you spend with your children.

Parenting assessments have shown that a parent’s quality of play changes when play is taken outdoors. For example, parents who were given the instruction to play with their kids as they normally do play on a deeper, more insightful level when that play occurs outdoors as compared to indoors. 

Perhaps the lack of distractions is a reason for this, but the truth is that nature has a positive effect on both adults and children, and that is reflected in the quality of play. The better the quality of play, the more beneficial it is to the development of the child.

Different Environments Provide Different Benefits

Children and parents need to spend time outdoors together, and they should spend time doing a variety of things. Natural play in nature, without structured play equipment, is healthy for the modern child. Parents who facilitate that play help reduce risks for anxiety, depression, attention problems and obesity. Natural play also encourages multiple developmental domains in the child, including physical, emotional, social and intellectual development.

When parents take their children into nature, they give them the chance to use their imaginations to play. Children who are given the opportunity to observe nature face less stress and have increased attention spans than those who are not, as Richard Louv indicated in his 2005 book Last Child in the Woods. Parents can help with this by encouraging children to observe the nature around them, pointing out natural wonders and enjoying the thrill of discovery alongside the children. 

Playing on structured play equipment is also beneficial. Children who are allowed to climb, swing and slide learn to take risks in a safe, structured environment. Parents help their children in these environments by encouraging them to try harder and by providing support when children are frightened of the risk or unsure of their abilities. 

Sometimes risk-taking equipment is not included in structured outdoor play areas because of safety concerns. Yet making the play area “too safe” is also risky. An outdoor play area should encourage children to stretch themselves. Ellen Sandseter, Department of Physical Education at Queen Maud College of Early Childhood Education in Norway, warns that playgrounds without features like tall slides and monkey bars keep children from encountering risks and learning to overcome their fears in a controlled environment.

When encouraging children to take risks while playing outdoors, parents and caregivers need to titrate the challenge, which means offer the right amount of challenge to meet the child’s developmental needs. Too often play areas offer too little challenge, and children are not pushed. The play becomes routine. Tom Jambor, Associate Professor of Early Childhood Development at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, warns that this is detrimental to children’s development. All children need to be given the chance to pursue and attain a challenge during their play. Yet too much of a challenge, especially if it’s not something they are able to attain at their current level of development, is frustrating to children. A challenge that is in the middle of the road is in what is called the “stretch zone.” This is the level of challenge that children need to be offered in their outdoor play area [Tom Jambor (1986). Risk-Taking Needs in Children: An Accommodating Play Environment. Children’s Environments Quarterly 3(4), 22-25].

Natural play areas and structured play areas both benefit children. Children need both types of outdoor environments to grow into healthy, well-rounded people. Sadly, study after study has found that today’s children are not getting time to play outdoors in any setting, to their detriment.

Setting Up/Sprucing Up an Outdoor Play Area?  

Whether in your own yard or in your community, here’s what to look for.

If the goal is to encourage children and parents to interact together, the play area should include comfortable seating for adults, which will encourage parents to spend time outdoors interacting with their children. Children need a place to play, so it should include age-appropriate, fun playthings for children that provide an adequate level of challenge. Sufficient cushioning material, like pea gravel or mulch, should be placed on the ground to lessen the chance of injury.

The outdoor play area should also include some natural features. A small wildlife garden or even a big tree near the playground can connect children to nature. Open green space gives kids the chance to run and play open-ended games without the constraints of the playground.

When setting up an outdoor play environment, focus on giving children a place where they can learn to take risks and overcome obstacles, while also providing a place for parents to spend time at their sides while they play. By doing so, you will build measurably stronger relationships between parents and children, improve the health of the children who use the space and provide children with the foundation for quality development in the future.

About the author:  David Reeves is Marketing Manager of Playland Inc. (http://www.playland-inc.com/) in Carrollton, GA. A total solutions manufacturer and supplier to markets such as day care centers and schools, Playland Inc. supplies outdoor play equipment, including slides, climbers and age specific play structures. It has developed into the only company in its field to offer direct to all of its customers, the ability to purchase outdoor commercial playgrounds, shade structures, indoor playgrounds and amenities.