28.2: Benefits of Outdoor Play and Exploration

Why Outside?

Early childhood education research has established the importance of learning through direct experiences (Torquati, J., & Barber, J., 2005). Theorists such as Montessori and Waldorf offer direct educational practices at their centers ( Hutchison, D. 1998). The philosophy of the schools of Reggio Italy and Howard Gardner also understood and expounded upon the complementary nature of science and the aesthetic experience of young children (Edwards, C., L. Gandini, & G. Forman. 1998., Gardner, H. 1999).

Outdoor play and exploration benefit children in many ways. Researchers have identified some general positive outcomes ⁽Moore Marcus; 2008 White, 2004), including:

• Increased creativity and imagination
• Development of a sense of wonder, which is an essential motivator for lifelong learning
• Increased social interactions between children
• Enhanced opportunities to make decisions, solve problems and collaborate with peers, which also promote language and communication skills
• Improved awareness, reasoning, and observation skills
• Positive effects on children's ability to focus and pay attention [1]

Health Benefits of Spending Time Outdoors

There is strong evidence that young children experience significant health benefits from spending time outdoors. For example:

• Young children are more likely to engage in the kinds of vigorous, physical play that strengthens their hearts, lungs, and muscles because they tend to play harder and for more extended periods outside (Thigpen, 2007).
• Regularly spending time outdoors increases opportunities for infants and toddlers to crawl, toddle, walk, climb, and run freely. In addition to improving large motor skills, vigorous physical activity improves children's overall fitness level.
• Spending time outdoors strengthens young children's immune systems. They experience fewer illness-related absences from childcare when they have daily opportunities to play outside (Sennerstam,2007)
• Spending time outdoors provides access to vitamin D (Einstein College of Medicine, 2009). There is increasing concern that infants, toddlers, and older children are deficient in vitamin D. This vitamin is necessary for calcium absorption and strengthening teeth and bones.
• Spending time outdoors positively affects young children's sleeping patterns. Natural sunlight helps regulate and balance sleep-wake cycles ( Dewar, 2008).
• Children who play outdoors are less likely to be nearsighted. Direct exposure to the bright, natural light of the outdoors may stimulate developing eyes in important ways, such as "maintaining the correct distance between the lens and the retina—which keeps vision in focus" (Aamodt and Chang, 2011).
• Time spent outdoors provides children with protection against life stressors and helps them develop a general sense of peace and well-being (White,2004).
• There is some evidence that playing in the dirt exposes children to a specific type of bacteria that may reduce anxiety and improve the ability to learn new tasks (American Society of Microbiology, 2009). The Outdoor Curriculum

Spending time outdoors every day is a rich and vital part of the curriculum for infants and toddlers. From the very beginning, young children satisfy their curiosity by exploring with their senses. Being outside "presents a new world of sights, sounds, smells, and tactile experiences"(Thigpen,2007).[1]

Social and Emotional Benefits of the Outdoor Environment

Infants and toddlers learn to play together when they take turns using pails and shovels, share a ride in a wagon, and chase each other. Through direct, hands-on experiences, young children learn to be gentle with living things and each other. "Deep bonds can form between children or child and adult when they share experiences with nature. When children have daily opportunities to care for plants, trees, animals, and insects, they practice nurturing behaviors that help them interact in kind and gentle ways with people as well." ²⁽Rosenow,2011;4.)

Gross Motor and Fine Motor Benefits of the Outdoor Environment

Because outdoor play spaces are often more varied and less structured than indoor spaces (Burdett and Whitaker, 2005), infants and toddlers have more freedom of movement to develop their gross motor skills in novel ways. These may include crawling or rolling on grassy hills, standing and balancing on bumpy or unlevel surfaces, and jumping over puddles and sidewalk cracks. Small-motor muscles develop as children use a pincer grasp to pick up and fill containers with natural objects and materials or hold paintbrushes as they paint walls with water (Trister et al., 2015; Post et al., 2011). Children develop perceptual skills as they move their bodies through space in different ways and at different speeds and as they observe the world from different perspectives (e.g., lying on their backs on a blanket, standing on top of a hill, or swinging back and forth in a swing) (Post et al., Tender Care and Early Learning, 253).[1]

Cognitive Benefits of the Outdoor Environment

Contact with the outdoors helps infants and toddlers learn concepts such as cause and effect and problem-solving. As they practice dressing and undressing, infants and toddlers learn which clothes to wear for different types of weather. (Trister Dodge et al., The Creative Curriculum, 180.) They understand that the sun dries puddles and melts snow and that wind makes things move. Infants and toddlers learn important science concepts as they explore and discover the properties of natural objects and materials. STEM topics such as science, technology, and math are reinforced as children notice how things are the same and different, experiment with using tools (e.g., shovels and sticks), and predict whether and where they will see worms after it rains.

Language and Literacy Benefits of the Outdoor Environment

As adults talk or sign with infants and toddlers about the outdoor environment, infants and toddlers learn new words; as they begin to talk, they use those words to identify interesting things they see and ask questions. Noticing and discriminating sounds is a foundational skill for later literacy development. In the outdoor environment, infants notice different sounds and learn to identify and tell them apart. Books take on an extended role when adults help children connect ideas in books with real-life experiences, such as comparing fictional animals with live animals outdoors. (Trister Dodge et al., The Creative Curriculum, 180). Adding books and other resources to the indoor environment helps create curiosity and connect indoor and outdoor environments (Torquati, J., & Barber, J. 2005).

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[1] U.S Department of Health and Human Services. Supporting outdoor play and exploration for infants and toddlers. ECLKC. is in the public domain