Why Kids Desperately Need Outdoor Play

I have a love-hate relationship with outdoor play for my kids. I love it because they get to run around, climb, and get fresh air. It’s challenging, though, because sometimes it seems like it takes forever to apply sunscreen and get their shoes on, not to mention that here on the Texas Gulf Coast we have a lot of bugs (mosquitoes, fire ants, etc.) and extreme heat that can make outdoor play dangerous.

Despite these challenges, I try to get my kids outdoors every day. Sometimes it’s to play on our swing set or the playground at a park and other times it’s just to take a walk or blow bubbles and draw with chalk. Regardless of what we do or how much time we spend doing it, I believe that the benefits of outdoor play outweigh its challenges.

What are these benefits? According to researchers, playing outside provides kids with the following.

Benefits of outdoor play for kids

• Outdoor play helps children take risks. We all want our kids to be safe, but the reality is that they need to face risky situations in order to learn how to determine their own limits, problem solve, and be persistent. The risks faced during supervised outdoor play (climbing trees and playground equipment, learning to ride bikes, encountering bugs when digging in dirt, etc.) teach our kids how to handle unpredictable environments and help them develop the confidence to overcome challenges in an autonomous way (source).
• Outdoor play promotes health. Our kids face a number of health risks, but outdoor play can actually promote health. Kids who play outdoors (source):
  • Are fitter and leaner
  • Develop stronger immune systems
  • Have lower stress levels
  • Have greater respect for themselves and others
  • Get adequate amounts of Vitamin D
  • Have reduced risk of developing myopia (near sightedness)
• Outdoor play promotes social development. Outdoor play tends to be more open (both in terms of structure and physical space) than indoor play. This allows children to connect and interact in a gradual manner—they can connect with others or play individually, depending on what they prefer at the moment. The unstructured nature of the outdoors also allows children to come up with spontaneous games where they work together to achieve common goals. This develops cooperation and empathy (source).
• Outdoor play fosters the use of imagination and the development of executive function skills. The same open, unstructured nature of outdoor play that I noted above helps children engage in imaginative play. They are able to come up with imaginary scenarios for which they develop rules, try out complex ideas, apply rules, and regulate each other’s behaviors. This sort of imaginative play helps kids develop executive function skills (the skills needed to plan, focus, remember instructions, and juggle multiple tasks). A little imaginative play today helps kids develop essential life skills that will benefit them for life (source)!
• Outdoor play promotes academic achievement. Over the past few decades, teachers have witnessed a decrease in academic achievement and an increase in behavior issues among American school children. In an attempt to address this, many schools have eliminated or significantly reduced the time allotted for recess. There are a number of problems with this, including the fact that it hasn’t worked! In fact, there is a growing body of research that indicates that physical activity, such as that occurring during recess, has a positive impact on cognitive skills, student attitudes, and classroom behavior (source and source). All of these are important components of improved academic performance.

There is an additional benefit of outdoor play that I think is difficult to quantify in research. This is what I call “letting kids be kids.” If you have kids, then you know that they are not designed to sit still. Unfortunately, the indoor environment isn’t always conducive to this, so I often find myself telling my kids “no” (no jumping on the couch, no climbing the banister, no roughhousing near the fireplace hearth, etc.). However, when we go outside, this “no” becomes a “yes.” They can run, jump, climb, and swing all they want. This allows them to expend energy and move about in natural ways. They seem to have an easier time being obedient when we are indoors when they have regular opportunities to play outdoors.

Do your kids play outdoors a lot? How do you think outdoor play benefits them?

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Modest Monday and Over the Moon.