Critical Dimensions for Social and Emotional Development in Early Childhood Outdoor Play Areas

• In Event: 25.083 - MTCC Roundtable Session Eight
  In Roundtable Session: 25.083-5 - The Role of Play in Young Children's Learning

Abstract

While early educators understand the importance of outdoor play for children (Copple & Bredekamp, 2009), current issues have reduced time children spend outside (Kuh, Ponte, & Chau, 2013). Outdoor play holds potential for multi-dimensional, (Nedovic & Morrissey, 2013) rich play episodes (Luchs & Fikus, 2013). In this mixed methods study, the type of play preschool children exhibit on traditional and multi-dimensional outdoor environments was investigated, specifically considering social and emotional affect. In the multi-dimensional spaces, children engaged in high levels of constructive, purposeful, positive social and emotional play episodes, whereas in the traditional spaces the majority of play was functional, exhibiting some positive social and emotional affect, in addition to less positive affect and periods of time with no affect.

Author

• Brandy Alexandria Smith, University of Northern Iowa