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Research On Outdoor Play For Early Years – Emma Homan is an educational copywriter for Pentagon Play, specializing in creating outdoor learning environments for schools and children with special educational needs. In this blog, Emma shares some of the top reasons why access to outdoor play is important for children with SEN and how it can be particularly beneficial for them.
Outdoor play plays a fundamental role in a child’s early development. And it has proven benefits in the inclusion of children with special educational needs. Freedom of movement in a therapeutic, stimulating outdoor environment makes for healthier and happier children.
Research On Outdoor Play For Early Years
It teaches essential life skills, builds confidence and improves behavior. Early childhood providers who connect children with nature and encourage outdoor play through creative outdoor play environments truly support development and promote well-being for all children in their care, especially children with PIP.
Advantages Of Outdoor Classrooms For Schools
No two children are the same in any area of life and children with special educational needs face a whole range of different and specific challenges. Unfortunately, it is a common theme that many children with special educational needs do not have the opportunity to play outside nearly as much as they should.
This can be for many reasons, social, cultural or family. Children attending specialist schools for children with special educational needs often rely on specialist transport, which presents logistical challenges in terms of time and access to outdoor play outside of school hours. Some do not play outside alone because they need constant supervision or support, physically or emotionally.
It is therefore essential that providers offer children with special educational needs access to good outdoor play, as they should for all children in an environment where they can expand their experiences, develop and learn in an informal way. Being outdoors to learn and play offers some great physical, mental and social benefits.
An outdoor play area encourages and encourages children with sensory sensitivities to explore all their senses. Good playgrounds develop both gross and fine motor skills. They help children improve mobility and coordination, vestibular apparatus (balance) and proprioception (body awareness and spatial skills).
The Endless Benefits Of Outdoor Play For Early Years!
Vestibular and proprioceptive training can be stressful for children who struggle with balance, spatial awareness or body awareness. By offering them a safe environment to climb, balance, move across different levels and surfaces in a fun and playful way with friends, we enhance their development without making it feel like a chore.
Play spaces that allow them to explore where their body is in space and how body parts move are great. Playing in self-built dens is a great example and they give children a sense of comfort.
The emphasis on outdoor play as opposed to indoor play is especially important for children with sensory sensitivities and some children with autism.
Outdoor play can have a positive effect simply because it is away from artificial, electric lighting and busy, noisy classrooms where sound reverberates and bounces off the walls. Electric lights can make a noise that some of us may not notice, but it causes disturbing disturbances for some children with special educational needs. A natural outdoor environment with natural light is always desirable.
Tumbleweed Infant And Preschool House: A Reflection On Outdoor Play
Regular outdoor play is an essential part of staying fit, healthy and fighting obesity. All children need to get outside and move their bodies. Otherwise, it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. Once a child reaches a certain weight, it becomes an even greater barrier to access and limits the activities they can enjoy, especially if they need physical support to move.
Physical activity outdoors is known to help relieve stress, anxiety and depression. Children love to be outside. It’s a naturally inclusive environment.
Nurseries and schools that offer outdoor play areas accessible to all ensure that children with SEN do not have to feel excluded, which can help combat issues such as bullying. Being able to play together in the same environment as their friends boosts their confidence.
It’s about understanding and accepting the needs of others and that everyone is different. All children should be encouraged to develop as a whole person and to respect each other, regardless of whether they have special needs or not.
Lewis Street’s Early Years Outdoor Play Equipment
Managing challenging behavior is something that administrators and teachers deal with on a daily basis. It can be difficult inside the early years classroom, where there is little space to relax, refocus and calm down.
Some children with PIP feel particularly stressed and uncomfortable outside their home environment. Regular access to outdoor games – a fun way to burn off energy – can help reduce their tension and anxiety. When challenging behaviors occur, moving outside for a simple change of environment can often make a big difference.
Early years experts report how outdoor play leads to improved behavior and makes it easier for children to form friendships. It provides opportunities to test and develop appropriate social interactions. Children learn to communicate, share, resolve conflicts while having fun in a low-stress environment.
Exploring the outdoor world can help children with special educational needs overcome challenges and learn new skills, building their resilience and boosting their confidence. This has a very positive impact on their mental health. Having the opportunity to shine, to experience personal satisfaction, enjoyment and achievement is good for everyone. Increases motivation and overall happiness in life. All children deserve to experience this.
Why Is Balance Important In The Early Years?
Emma Homan is an educational copywriter for Pentagon Play, specializing in creating outdoor learning environments for schools and children with special educational needs. We all know that classroom time is important to a student’s development, but at Red Monkey Play we believe that there are a multitude of ways for students to learn. This is especially true at younger ages, where students need different contexts to process information. That’s why we develop equipment for school playgrounds that are not only designed for fun, but also for learning.
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) sets the standards for children’s learning and development in the early years up to the age of five. Some of the key areas our EYFS play products focus on include physical development, communication and language and personal, social and emotional development (PSED). The overall learning areas are:
The EYFS wants schools to teach children primarily through play. This can be done in the classroom in a number of ways, but to truly enable children to develop holistically, they need to be taken outside. Using school playgrounds helps them better understand the world and develop physically.
These are the obvious areas that a student will develop using playground equipment, but Red Monkey Play ensures that we design equipment that goes beyond this. We make sure that our equipment promotes social development. Navigating this free space together will help students develop their communication and language skills.
Outdoor Play Equipment For Westminster Nursery School On Vimeo
Let’s see which playground equipment helps with physical development. With more and more students leaving school fat, this area of development seems more important than ever. As children engage in physical play, it not only improves their strength, but also builds confidence as they overcome new challenges. These physical challenges include but are not limited to climbing, balance and coordination.
One great way to encourage this is with trim tracks. Using wood and rope, Red Money’s trim tracks have been innovatively designed to mimic a natural, challenging and enjoyable gaming environment. Role play encourages children to develop balance, coordination and imagination.
Red Monkey Play’s range of Physical Development climbing frames lets kids do what they do best – run, jump, climb, crawl and play! Physical challenges develop coordination and balance while providing the perfect environment for interactive board play. Designed to be enjoyed by children of all ages, our play equipment really makes fitness fun.
Role play is a great way to develop personal, social and emotional skills in addition to communication and language. It allows children to empathize with a character and act out roles from real life or a fictional show. It can be solely child-led and encourages children to take risks and be creative in the role they play. Role-play is often a group activity, so having children communicate their roles to each other is a great skill to develop alongside the empathy needed to pretend to be another person or thing.
St John’s Early Years Playground Development
Our role play playground equipment gives them the perfect spaces to play out exciting situations on their own or with other students. Allowing children to role-play real-life situations, such as grocery shopping, camping, or driving, gives them the opportunity to learn about real-world environments and situations at their own pace. When they engage in this type of role play, they can develop their verbal communication skills and physical mannerisms by practicing what they have already learned in real life situations. We take this idea and give it a fantastic twist with our Hobbit Explorer Tiny Homes.
Are you interested in how you can change the outdoor spaces of your school? Contact us today! Check out our case studies to see how we implement outdoor gym equipment for schools and other playground equipment. We specialize in a wide variety of learning development equipment, including outdoor sensors
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