The Effects Of Outdoor Play On Children

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.

With a technology-centralized generation influencing children at increasingly younger ages, researchers have found that most young children have little or limited interaction with nature. Most of them stay indoors when they have free time, watching television or playing video games. At school, time spent outdoors is reduced as students graduate grade levels. Environmental education does little to remedy the problem as most of the material is just as easily taught indoors as it is outdoors. However, time spent outdoors has benefits for people’s health and a student’s capacity to learn. Although less prevalent of a result, students show greater group dynamics and forge skills that are essential for real world situations. Current environmental education systems lack opportunities for students to interact with the outdoors, which have great potential to increase cognitive retention, improve interpersonal skills within oneself and the community, and lead to physical benefits.

Physical activity is important to the short term and long term health and well being of children. In the short term physical activity helps children to build muscle, develops the skeletal frame, develops the heart and lung function and helps to prevent obesity. If children have enough physical activity a day which is said to be up to an hour it can help the children get to sleep easier and for longer periods of time, this can then lead onto long term benefits as if the activity is in the garden it will also help the child to build up a good immune system so they will be less likely to fall ill to the common cold or the flu. This outdoor environment helps the over all wellbeing of the children as the outdoors makes them

Being outdoors has a positive impact on children's sense of well-being and helps all aspects of children's development.

Children develop normally when they are exposed to different types of play that allow them to express themselves while using their imaginations and being physically active. According to the Center for Health Education, Training and Nutrition Awareness, “Play is child’s work”; this is true because it is a child’s job is to learn and develop in their first few years of life, in order for them to do this, they play (CHETNA). Not only is playing a child’s full time job, the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights listed play as a right of every child (Ginsburg). Through their full time job of play, the children develop emotionally, socially, physically, and creatively. Children need to participate in child-led play in order to

Unstructured outdoor play was standard for me as a hyperactive child growing up in the rural Midwest. I fondly recall digging forts, climbing trees and catching frogs without concern for kidnappers or West Nile virus. According to newspaper columnist and child advocate Richard Louv, such carefree days are gone for America’s youth. Boys and girls now live a "denatured childhood," Louv writes in Last Child in the Woods. He cites multiple causes for why children spend less time outdoors and why they have less access to nature: our growing addiction to electronic media, the relinquishment of green spaces to development, parents’ exaggerated fears of natural and human predators, and the threat of lawsuits and vandalism that has prompted community

According to Ginsburg (2006), he believes that play is a vital part of children’s development and is fundamental for every child. This is because playing in a safe outdoor environment will benefit children in acquiring life skills and improve children in all areas of their development. According to Clements (2004), he states that outdoor play allows children to explore their local neighborhood, learn the rules of everyday life and discover the different textures and elements in the world. When children spend most of their childhood time playing or working in natural settings, they will learn to handle challenges, solve problems and are able to have greater respect for themselves, for others, and for the environment. Looking at children’s perspectives, when the environment is clean and safe, learning can take place comfortably. Children should be given the priority to experience stimulating environment where all their needs are taken

Thesis statement: people who go play outside received more benefit that essential to people life such as losing weight, promoting social skills, and increasing flexibility.

The environment is a very important factor in supporting children’s play, learning and development. An enabling environment should allow for children to feel safe, comfortable and captivated within the setting. When children feel safe and secure in their environment they are more likely to investigate the area in which they are in and explore the resources they can see, hear and touch. It is the responsibility of the setting provider and the practitioners to ensure that the environment is stimulating and rich in language to help with the development of the children.

All of the things the children are learning carry over to outside play. Outside play is important as it gives children opportunities to engage in challenges, unrestricted all while pursuing a self-directed quest (Freeman, Decker & Decker, 2013). The overall outside space that was chosen is equipped with the appropriate equipment that contributes to their motor skills. This could include but not limited to learning how to go up and down the slide or pushing others on the swing.

Its time to get our kids active nationwide. Lets play is a campaign to get our kids to play and be more active. This campaign is important because kids need to be motivated to go out and play, it keeps them moving and healthy. Playing can lead to all kind of outcomes, from fun to learning. For many years this theory of play was not fully accepted in the education world, but now with the help of different campaign’s; play has become a more useful tool in child development. Who ever knew that playing with your child would be beneficial in the overall development of the child, but now play is not just playing anymore; it is the fundamental of learning how to deal with life and the different situations that may occur. As parent’s we are the first to teach our children so why not teach them how learn and play at the same time. They will have fun while exercising. This helps in the school environment as well as home because if you keep kids cooped up and not moving they will get bored and not want to learn. But if they are playing and moving while learning it helps it be more fun and they enjoy it much more. Play is important for all age groups. All age kids even infants should be active. Encouraging play is encouraging the kids to be healthy and to have fun. If you introduce it early the will understand it more and do it younger and wont be as difficult as they get older.

Play is the business of childhood, allowing your child free rein to experiment with the world around him and the emotional world inside him, says Linda Acredolo, professor of psychology at the University of California at Davis and co-author of Baby Signs: How to Talk With Your Baby Before Your Baby Can Talk and Baby Minds: Brain-Building Games Your Baby Will Love. While it may look like mere child's play to you, there's a lot of work — problem solving, skill building, overcoming physical and mental challenges — going on behind the scenes. Here are some of the things your child is experiencing and learning, along with ideas on how you can help boost the benefits of his play. Play builds the

Play is considered as an important tool for emotional development as children recognise themselves more clearly and they are encouraged to fully realize their potential (Oliver & Klugman, 2002). Piaget explains that during pre-operational stage children develop their ability to distinguish between the real and mental world by using an object as a symbol for something else rather than the object itself and Vygotsky also agreed to this concept (Dockett & Fleer, 2002). Play enables them to share their play with their peers and listen to others point of views which develop their empathy (Smidt, 2011). Play positively affects the emotional well- being of the child when they show their enjoyment through laughter, smiles. They get motivated to play when they are the active participants in the play and achieve mastery in known fields being acknowledged by the adults. It gives them internal excitement which nurtures their desire to learn.

In today’s society children are increasingly becoming less active. Lack of physical activity in childhood leads to obesity, can increase one’s risk for diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, asthma, arthritis, and poor health status. Physical inactivity also increases one’s risk for dying prematurely, dying of heart disease, and colon cancer. Technology and video games have become a major factor in this and have seemed to take over and control lives of many children. Less children are involved with sports and few play outside. The lack of physical activity as a child, can pay huge dividends in the child’s health, into his/her adulthood.

Children gain vast benefits from learning outdoors. Being outdoors allows them to move around without many of the restrictions of being inside (Early Years Foundation Stage, 2014). Gardening is an appropriate project to be carried out as an outdoor play. Children experienced the outdoor environment freely. Outside is a natural place for children to