Outdoor play matters
Think about your favourite place to be as a child. Take yourself there for a few moments … notice everything you can about that place — its size, its shape, what the light was like, any special smells, any sounds that remind you of it, any special features of it that you treasure… What was it about this place that you loved? Were you outdoors?
The outdoors, for many of us, was one of our deepest, most passionate joys of childhood and an invaluable place for learning. It provided opportunities for us as children to explore, to discover and to develop an understanding of the nature around us. Along with an instinctive drive to play, young children have particularly deep connections with nature and the outdoors. By encouraging these connections, our children will maintain them as they get older.
McKenna, age 4, enjoys outdoor play every day at Hands On Early Learning Centre, the Lethbridge College’s child-care provider. Playing in an outdoor environment daily has huge benefits for McKenna’s learning and development. She enjoys the freedom to shout, laugh and make noise, the space to make large physical movements, which sparks her imagination, and more places to hide in and explore. McKenna builds confidence, solves problems, learns to get along with others, manage her feelings and discover her own limits. She gets to be messy outdoors enjoying the snow, water and mud which encourages her to be more creative and to try things out and experiment. While playing outside, McKenna is active, absorbed and involved, builds confidence, autonomy, resilience and sees a real purpose in what she is doing.
In an era of increasing technology, children today are spending less time outdoors in unstructured play than in any other time in history. Overall physical activity of Canadian children and youth was graded as D- for the fourth year in a row in the ParticipACTION 2016 report card when we were compared against 37 other countries.
Author Richard Louv, in his book “Last Child in the Woods,” states, “Yet, at the very moment that the bond is breaking between the young and the natural world, a growing body of research links our mental, physical, and spiritual health directly to our association with nature — in positive ways. Several of these studies suggest that thoughtful exposure of youngsters to nature can even be a powerful form of therapy for attention-deficit disorders and other maladies. As one scientist puts it, we can now assume that just as children need good nutrition and adequate sleep, they may very well need contact with nature.”
Build a snowman, go tobogganing, visit Helen Schuler Centre, enjoy exploring the coulees and connect with nature. Let’s all get outside and play. Because outdoor play matters!
Lethbridge Early Years is offering a free presentation on Outdoor Play, Wednesday, Feb. 28. Community members, parents, caregivers, professional and educators are all invited to attend and learn from presenter Joanne Keilty. For more details and free registration visit www.lethbridgeearlyyears.ca or contact lethbridgeearlyyears @gmail.com .