The Importance of Outdoor Play
In this new age of technology, sometimes it is easy to forget how fun and important it is to be outdoors. Not only is it fun to play outside, but outdoor play provides a lot of opportunities for your child to learn important skills. With the warmer weather coming up, here is why outdoor play should not be forgotten!
While your child is developing, play is essential for their physical, cognitive and language development. Outdoor play improves motor development, provides physical activity and social interaction, and helps children learn by watching their peers. Being physically active also helps prevent obesity. By playing outside, children can explore their environment, use their senses in new surroundings, build body awareness, and learn how to safely step out of their comfort zone. Outdoor play also allows for a lot of sensory input, and there have been numerous research studies that have concluded that children who spend more time outdoors have better social interactions with peers, demonstrate less aggression and are able to more effectively self-regulate.
Ways To Incorporate Outdoor Play
Luckily, it is easy and inexpensive to include outdoor play in your child’s daily life. Even relatively simple things can have a great impact on your child’s development. Take playing on the playground, for example. Your child can learn by watching what other children do. Social skill can also be improved through interaction with other children. The playground has a lot of great equipment that will help them work on their gross motor skills, such as the monkey bars, balance beams, stairs, and ladders. When you take your child to the playground, show them how to use some of the equipment and help them. Over time they will grow stronger and more eager to complete the activities on their own. Free play in the woods or at a creek can provide even more reward, as it allows children to develop their motor planning, creativity, and visual skills.
Other activities to do with your child outside:
Blow bubbles and have your child chase them
Jump rope
Draw with chalk
Play hopscotch
Have them collect as many cool things as possible that they can find (sticks, rocks, leaves, etc.) and use those to make letters, numbers, or shapes
Go to the playground
Play in the sandbox
Spend unstructured time exploring and playing in your yard or at a local park
Another great way to incorporate outdoor play is to sign your child up for summer camp that focuses on outdoor play.
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“Occupational Therapists: Why Kids Need More Time to Play Outside,” Focus Therapy, 30 Jul 2018, https://focusflorida.com/occupational-therapy/occupational-therapists-why-kids-need-more-time-to-play-outside/.