Active Outdoor Play and Your Child
Active children are healthy children
Newspapers are filled daily with reports of the dangers of childhood obesity and its detrimental effect on children’s health. The propensity of children to engage in sedentary activities such as watching television or playing computer games is a trend parents should try to balance by encouraging them towards active play as well, especially outdoors. Outdoor play burns more calories than other forms of play (1). Parents should get involved too. An average adult playing actively with a child will burn nearly 4 times more calories in an hour than they would watching television!
The right outdoor toys makes child development fun!
The arguments in favour of outdoor physical play do not stop there. Children will just call it fun, but child psychologists will applaud their successful negotiation of a well designed climbing frame because, in that achievement, children are developing important physical skills like balance, co-ordination, strength and agility. Their cognitive and intellectual development is being encouraged by the need to solve problems, concentrate, explore, imagine and discover just how they reach their secret den and hide from the ‘grown ups’. When they enjoy all these experiences with others, social skills of communicating, taking turns and sharing come to the fore.
Managing risk…building confidence based on experience
Safety is obviously a top priority, but well managed outdoor play, using the right outdoor toys, under correct supervision, does encourage children to assess and manage risk for themselves (2), a very important skill for the rest of their lives. When children independently conquer a difficult ascent onto a climbing frame, summon up the nerve to slide down that ‘scary’ high slide, or enjoy the height and speed of a swing, they will rejoice in their own personal achievement. Their success will lead them to challenge themselves again and again, achieving more and more, growing in confidence and self esteem. At the same time they will learn about the consequences of undertaking more challenging tasks on their outdoor toys, in the safety of their own back garden.
How parents can help…
‘If you provide quality outdoor play, children will become confident, independent and learn a great deal’ (3)
A parent’s role in outdoor play is an important one. When selecting outdoor toys that’s right for your children, the key is to seek variety in the activities the outdoor toys structure offers. In so doing you will encourage a number of different developmental skills. Aim to combine variety in the outdoor toys with an evolving level in it’s complexity. Children progress by achieving objectives in a stepwise fashion, so being able to extend the challenge their outdoor toys offer, as children’s abilities increase, is important.
Having chosen the right outdoor toys, your fun can begin too. Enjoy your children’s achievements as you watch them having fun. But don’t forget to play too!
Parents directly affect the behaviour of their young children when they engage children in play. When playing with parents, infants and toddler’s behaviour is more complex, more conventional, of longer duration and more symbolic than when playing with peers, siblings or alone….(4)
Especially for younger children, playing with parents is an invaluable experience. Your input early on can ensure they get the best from their outdoor play for the rest of their childhood
References
1. Anthony D. Pellegrini, M. Horvat & P. Huberty 1998 The Costs of Physical Play in Children :Animal Behaviour 55
2. Alison Stephenson, 2003, Physical Risk Taking: Dangerous and Endangered Early Years, Vol 23
3. Helen Bilton, 2004, Playing Outside, London, Fulton
4. Thomas G. Power, 2000, Play and the Exploration of Children and Animals