Children need to regain their independent mobility and an appetite for the outdoors!
Children’s independent mobility is defined as a child’s freedom to travel and play around their neighborhood or city without parental supervision.
Due to several factors – whether it be parental fear, anxiety, or worrying, safety concerns (e.g., traffic), the inability to protect, perceived stranger danger, a rise in parenting literature/recommendations, or fear of judgment from others – there has been a dramatic decline in independent mobility. Children have less opportunities for independent, unstructured time and a decreased ability to roam – they are engaging in significantly less physical activity and outdoor play. We are facing a physical inactivity crisis!
“We are facing a physical inactivity crisis! We need to encourage outdoor, unstructured play.”
We need to encourage outdoor play – engagement in activity that is fun and/or rewarding, driven by intrinsic motivation and takes place outdoors. Even more, we need to encourage and support risky/adventure play – a form of play that is thrilling and exciting, which involves uncertainty, unpredictability, and varying degrees of risk-taking.
It is important to recognize that risky play is different from hazardous play. Allowing a child to engage in risky play is to let them recognize and learn to manage challenges and uncertainties within the environment by choosing to encounter them while determining their own limits. This is vastly different from placing them in a dangerous environment that could seriously injure or endanger the child and is beyond their capacity to recognize.
There are clear benefits of both active outdoor and risky/adventurous play (1-4).
Decreased stress and anxiety symptoms (e.g., increased coping with anxiety, decreased intolerance of uncertainty)
Increased resilience
Increased self-regulation
Improved body composition
Improved self-confidence, motivation, and self-discipline
Better social competence
Less fearful of heights
Enhanced social health
Lower sedentary behaviour
Increased physical activity
Less separation anxiety
Improved motor skills
Lower levels of aggression
Environmental stewardship
And, of course, these benefits are in addition to the established benefits of a healthy active lifestyle (e.g., improved physical, psychological/social, and cognitive health indicators).
In 2015, a diverse, cross-sectoral group of partners, stakeholders and researchers collaborated to develop an evidence-informed Position Statement on Active Outdoor Play1 which states that “access to active play in nature and outdoors—with its risks—is essential for healthy child development (3,4). This statement recommends increasing children’s opportunities for self-directed play outdoors in all settings—at home, at school, in child care, the community and nature.”
The following school-specific recommendations are made:
Educators and Caregivers: Regularly embrace the outdoors for learning, socialization and physical activity opportunities, in various weather conditions—including rain and snow. Risky active play is an important part of childhood and should not be eliminated from the school yard or childcare centre.
School and Child Care Administrators: Choose natural elements over pre-fabricated playgrounds and paved areas—and encourage children to play in, and help design, these environments.
Schools and Municipalities: Examine existing policies and by-laws and reconsider those that pose a barrier to active outdoor play.
Children need to be encouraged to engage in unstructured, self-initiated, and self-directed active play – and what a better way than in the GREAT OUTDOORS! Let’s promote play (in all of its forms) and a love of the outdoors – our children’s healthy growth and development depends on it!
But what about adults? There are several reasons why adults should also consider building some active outdoor time into their day (5):
It doesn’t cost a thing
It is associated with a number of health benefits (e.g., prevents or delays Type 2 diabetes, decreases blood pressure, decreases body fat, reduces symptoms of depression)
No adverse side effects
In fact, the findings of a recent study (6) suggest that going for a walk in nature can have salutogenic effects on stress-related brain regions (i.e., decrease in amygdala activation), and consequently, it may act as a preventive measure against mental strain and potentially disease.
References
Tremblay, M. S., Gray, C., Babcock, S., Barnes, J., Costas Bradstreet, C., Carr, D., … & Brussoni, M. (2015). Position statement on active outdoor play. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 12(6), 6475-6505.
Larouche, R., Garriguet, D., Gunnel, K. E., Goldfield, G. S., & Tremblay, M. S. (2016). Outdoor time, physical activity, sedentary time, and health indicators at ages 7 to 14: 2012/2013 Canadian Health Measures Survey. Health Reports, 27(9), 3-13.
Gray, C., Gibbons, R., Larouche, R., Sandseter, E. B. H., Bienenstock, A., Brussoni, M., … & Tremblay, M. S. (2015). What is the relationship between outdoor time and physical activity, sedentary behaviour, and physical fitness in children? A systematic review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 12(6), 6455-6474.
Brussoni, M., Gibbons, R., Gray, C., Ishikawa, T., Sandseter, E. B. H., Bienenstock, A., … & Tremblay, M. S. (2015). What is the relationship between risky outdoor play and health in children? A systematic review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 12(6), 6423-6454.
Viljoen, J. (2018). Thinking of taking a walk everyday? Six reasons why it’s good for you. The Conversation. Published: February 22, 2018
Sudimac, S., Sale, V. & Kühn, S. (2022). How nature nurtures: Amygdala activity decreases as the result of a one-hour walk in nature. Mol Psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-022-01720-6
