Outdoor Play Development

The practitioner in an early years setting supporting children’s play learning and development is extremely important, as play helps stimulate the child’s brain, supports their needs on an educational level, as well as helping them with social difficulties such as building relationships, developing them and helping them gain confidence. Many people believe that a child learns best when they are motivated, such as Fredrich Froebel. He believed that children benefitted from all types of play. The McMillan sisters believed that outdoor play was extra important as they studied children who played and slept outside and discovered that they were the happier and healthier children in comparison to those who only played inside.

How play helps build thinking and language skills, large and small motor skills and social-emotional skills How play helps children prepare for academic learning and supports the development of literacy How children playing gradually builds the foundation for reading and writing through growth in oral language, learning to love books and gaining an understanding of print.

Children need to experiment outdoors as there is so much to learn. Children can learn in each of the areas and develop their skills. During play children are learning to socialise with each other, playing in small groups and taking turns which builds there confidence up. They also develop their motor skills through playing outdoors, running, jumping, walking and crawling. Children will learn to take risks

There are many advantages to child-initiated play. Children’s emotional development is particularly supported because children are able to make their own choices. They also gain independence skills as they can help themselves to resources. This type of play helps children to be creative as they have to develop their own ideas of how to play indoors and outdoors.

The relationship between play and learning seems obvious to many child professionals and parents, and yet there are still lack of understanding surrounding the importance of children's play. Some people believe that children need to "work" not play, and that playing serves no useful purpose in a learning and development environment. This is surprising considering that play, with its high levels of motivation and potential enjoyment empowers children (as well as people

Play and leisure are essential for physical development, emotional as well as for intellectual, educational development and achieving academically.

"Daily outdoor play is an important part of children’s learning and is required by the EYFS. It offers many new learning experiences, and boosts mental and physical wellbeing and confidence. Free-flow play adds

Santrock (2012) also outlines the benefit of play for the child's physical development, as it "permits the child to work off excess physical energy and to release pent-up tensions" (Santrock, 2012, p.438), resulting in improved physical and mental health. Garvey (1991, p.27) states that play involving physical activity occurs more frequently in healthy children, possibly confirming that it is a component of healthy development. In addition to this, encouraging physical activity through play could influence the children to maintain a healthy lifestyle later in life, and has an array of physical and mental health benefits which prevent disease associated with lack of activity (Chaloux and Media, 2013.)

A child has a ‘sense of wonder’ outlook on the world at a young age when they are learning many new things and experiencing opportunities they may not have been presented with otherwise and the McMillan sisters catered to this idea of how a child learnt. Due to this teachers would learn how to attract children through their likes and how to maintain their attention for more than short periods of time. McMillan also believed “Outdoor play and being taught in fresh air are important.” (Meggitt and Bruce, 2015: 247) This supports physical development as a child would be able to move around plenty outdoors as it would give a child many opportunities to move closer towards their early learning goals for physical development. Playing outdoors also

Play contributes to children’s “physical, emotional and social well-being” (Else, 2009, p.8) and through play, the child’s holistic development and well-being is being constantly accounted for as is it led by the individual. The child decides what s/he wants to do and does it; it is

In addition to play promoting pleasure as well as physical activity, play forms the holistic growth in children’s development, or to put it in another way using Brown (2003) acronym, acknowledged as ‘SPICE’; play represents the ‘social interaction’; ‘physical activity’; ‘intellectual stimulation’; creative achievement and emotional stability, (with the addition of “compound flexibility”) in a child’s development. Compound flexibility is the idea that a child’s psychological development occurs using the relationship between his/her environment with the adaptability of the child himself. Thus the flexibility of surroundings and his/her adaptableness can provide children the means to explore; experiment and investigate (Brown, 2003, pp. 53-4). On the contrary, the absence of social interaction and physical activity through the means of play can inhibit children’s overall development and without the consistency of play children suffer a “chronic lack of sensory interaction with the world, [which leads to] a form of sensory deprivation” (Hughes, 2001, p.217 in Lester and Maudsley 2006).

An article in Atlantic states that play free from structure and parents control allows children to develop social bonds, build emotional maturity, develop cognitive skills, and shore up their physical health. Jessica Lahey states, “Unscheduled, unsurprised, playtime is one of the most valuable education opportunities we can give to our children.” She says, children learn fundamental life lessons, by observing, exploring and playing freely with other children. The author believes, children should be playing during summary in outdoor activities, so they can learn new things, for fun and enjoyments. Free play during the summer has a correction to help children in their ability to solve divergent problems and the feelings of achievement. When children

Outdoor play in nature offers a number of benefits, including opportunities to learn physical skills and build stamina, social skills, how to manage risks, respect for nature (NQSPLP, 2013, p. 2). Play is an activity and also a platform for mutual interaction among children and between children and adults alike (Castro, 2012; DeBord et al., n.d). It has been observed by caregivers and practitioners that children are naturally drawn to play outdoors even when the area is not well-equipped and regardless of the prevailing weather conditions (Bilton, 2010). However, a sustainable outdoor space should have sufficient shade and protection from the adverse environmental conditions in order to support healthy living for children (NLI, 2012), hence

Outdoor play allows the children to use active play, which uses real life and imaginary situations and can be used through spontaneous play, teacher initiated play,

Play Education is the most important activity in the lives of children. Play is the foundation of learning for young children. For children play, is how they begin to understand and process their world? The best part for children is that play is fun and this keeps them always wanting more because they enjoy participating in it. Play education is for children up until age 12. And different ages are broken down into groups. Giving the child time and some few basic toys can provide them with a variety of valuable learning opportunities. It is important to let children explore and learn how to play, if the child can’t seem to figure it out then a person can guide them. Play Education is simple and very effective; this is an individual