With the beautiful Fall weather we have had the past two weekends I’ve been thinking a lot of the benefits of outdoor play for children. The more I learn about learning the more I’m convinced that learning in the first 8 years of life happens during activities we don’t think of as “brain work”. The outdoors is the perfect place to encourage the free and unstructured play that child brain development requires. Nature provides a variety of sounds, colors, textures, and places for children to discover. There are opportunities for children to learn problem solving skills, motor-function, social-skills, self-awareness, and emotional intelligence.
Outdoor play provides the space for children to let go with their movements. It allows children to explore lots of gross motor movements like walking, running, skipping, hopping, jumping and more. These activities are great on flat surfaces but doing them outdoors especially on the ground which is often uneven has added benefit. Walking on uneven surfaces or those which have an incline (like hills) strengthens the back and neck muscles. When children practice these movements on uneven surfaces like grass they have to engage the brain’s balance center more as they compensate for the uneven terrain. Also activities like swinging and rolling down hills wakes up the brain by stimulating the vestibular system which is responsible for keeping the brain alert and the body in balance. Don’t forget the motor planning that comes into play when they climb ladders, climbing walls, trees and over rocks or ride wheeled toys such as bikes and trikes.
Outdoor play however involves more than the large motor movements of the body it also allows for a unique type of play. Outdoor toys are by nature more open ended than the indoor variety leaving lots of opportunity for creative and imaginative play. Nature seems to draw children into pretend and imaginative play. Albert Einstein once said “Imagination is more important than knowledge, for while knowledge points to all there is, imagination points to all there will be.” And let’s not forget about the social emotional benefits of outdoor play. The benefit of the sunshine is enough all by itself but because outdoor play is often very physical the physical activity causes the body to release natural substances such as dopamine which not only reduce stress but also “play a role in stimulating the growth of existing nerve cells, and increasing the number of new nerve cells and neural connections in the brain.” (Smart Moves by Carla Hannaford p113)
Kindermusik with Miss Beth 
You must be logged in to post a comment.