Both indoor and outdoor play experiences are important for children's development.
While recent research has shown a decline in the numbers of children engaging in
active outdoor play, outdoor play is critical to your child's healthy development.
Outdoor areas are ideal places for children to engage in messy play with sand, water,
paint and other art and craft activities. The outside playground offers a much wider
variety of natural materials to stimulate the senses. Toddlers and preschoolers
will enjoy playing with dirt, leaves, bricks, rocks, bark, water, plants and flowers.
Paddling pools are great for water play; your toddler will enjoy splashing and kicking,
include cups and containers of different shapes and sizes for stacking, scooping
and pouring. Bubble machines are also great for developing spatial awareness as
your child excitedly attempts to catch bubbles floating through the air.
As children move into the preschool years (2-5 years), they engage in more active
play, they are learning to use wheeled toys and enjoy climbing large playground
equipment. Your child will also enjoy playing with balls, bowling sets, skipping
ropes, and racket games. The outdoors presents more opportunities for children to
engage in active play, important for the development of key motor skills such as
running, balancing, chasing, throwing and catching. Active outdoor play has many
health benefits; it enhances your child's fitness, reduces the chances of obesity
and promotes general wellbeing.
Outdoor play also offers children opportunities to explore their environment in
relationship to themselves; create their own places for play; and engage in imaginative
play experiences with both realistic (e.g., cubby houses, tents, clothes lines,
trucks) and symbolic (e.g., cartons, logs, rocks) props. Outdoor play spaces are
great for those times when children need to play games that involve lots of noise
as well as non-violent rough-and-tumble play. Use these opportunities to talk to
your child about “inside” and “outside” voices and the different volumes that go
with these!
Outdoor active play can be intensely stimulating and creates opportunities for children
to learn about and develop self-control. Research has shown that popular children
are more likely to engage in high levels of physical play with peers. Unpopular
children, on the other hand, seem to experience difficulty with the intensity of
physical play and often become overstimulated and “out-of-control”. By playing actively
with your child you are not only promoting good health and physical development
but you are providing them with the opportunity to develop essential skills that
will help them in their social interactions with peers.
Written by Dr Cathrine Neilsen-Hewett and provided to us by KiDS Central and the
Early Learning Centre.
