Associations between Children’s Risky Play and ECEC Outdoor Play Spaces and Materials
1
Department of Physical Education and Health, Queen Maud University College of Early Childhood Education, 7044 Trondheim, Norway
2
Department of Early Childhood Education, Faculty of Education and International Studies, Oslo Metropolitan University, 0167 Oslo, Norway
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editor: Arja Sääkslahti
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18(7), 3354; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18073354
Received: 5 February 2021
/
Revised: 12 March 2021
/
Accepted: 19 March 2021
/
Published: 24 March 2021
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Physical Education in Early Childhood)
Children spend a large amount of time each day in early childhood education and care (ECEC) institutions, and the ECEC play environments are important for children’s play opportunities. This includes children’s opportunities to engage in risky play. This study examined the relationship between the outdoor play environment and the occurrence of children’s risky play in ECEC institutions. Children (n = 80) were observed in two-minute sequences during periods of the day when they were free to choose what to do. The data consists of 935 randomly recorded two-minute videos, which were coded second by second for several categories of risky play as well as where and with what materials the play occurred. Results revealed that risky play (all categories in total) was positively associated with fixed equipment for functional play, nature and other fixed structures, while analysis of play materials showed that risky play was positively associated with wheeled toys. The results can support practitioners in developing their outdoor areas to provide varied and exciting play opportunities.
View Full-Text
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
MDPI and ACS Style
Sandseter, E.B.H.; Sando, O.J.; Kleppe, R. Associations between Children’s Risky Play and ECEC Outdoor Play Spaces and Materials. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18, 3354. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18073354
AMA Style
Sandseter EBH, Sando OJ, Kleppe R. Associations between Children’s Risky Play and ECEC Outdoor Play Spaces and Materials. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2021; 18(7):3354. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18073354
Chicago/Turabian StyleSandseter, Ellen B.H., Ole J. Sando, and Rasmus Kleppe. 2021. "Associations between Children’s Risky Play and ECEC Outdoor Play Spaces and Materials" International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 18, no. 7: 3354. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18073354
Find Other Styles
Note that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.
