Outdoor Play and Learning for Health, Wellbeing, and Development in Early Childhood

Dear Colleagues,

We are guest editors for the Special Issue “Outdoor Play and Learning for Health, Wellbeing, and Development in Early Childhood” in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

In recent years, there has been a cultural shift that has reduced access to and the use of outdoors for many young children. Contributing factors include urban planning, increased fear amongst adults in relation to children’s safety when playing outside, and technological advances, leading to an overwhelming prominence of more sedentary indoor activities such as playing on mobile devices and watching TV. This may have detrimental effects on the health, development, and wellbeing of the youngest in our societies. With many young children receiving formal or informal childcare, there is great potential to promote healthy child development through engagement in outdoor play and learning.

This Special Issue seeks papers describing outdoor play and learning interventions and initiatives designed to promote the physical, emotional, cognitive, social, and behavioral development of children aged 0–7 years. We are interested in research addressing individual, family, community, workforce, and/or policy factors associated with outdoor play and learning for healthy child development.  Priority will be given to research on access and exposure to nature and built outdoor environments, and may include research related to playground design and play (loose parts play and active play). Of particular interest are studies on the transition from early care and education into primary/elementary education settings. We welcome implementation, natural experimental, and observational research, as well as high-quality systematic reviews.

We hope that this Special Issue provides an important forum to share the best ideas and research practices related to outdoor play and learning in early childhood.

Given your expertise in this field, we would like to cordially invite you to contribute to the Special Issue. More information about the journal and manuscript preparation guidelines can be found at https://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph.

With best wishes,

Dr. Anne Martin
Dr. Rachel A. Jones
Dr. Paul McCrorie
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.