‘Nature play’ has positive impact on kids’ health, cognitive development
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Unstructured “nature play” has a positive impact on children’s health and development, including their cognitive development, according to a systematic review of 16 studies.
“Nature play is growing in popularity as children’s play spaces are transforming from traditional playgrounds into more nature-based play spaces with considerable financial and resource investment from government bodies,” Kylie A. Dankiw, a research student at the University of South Australia, and colleagues wrote. “This has resulted in the redevelopment of children’s play spaces to incorporate more natural elements such as trees, plants and rocks. Despite this, it is unclear whether there is empirical evidence to support claims that play in nature is beneficial for child health and development.”
After searching for studies that involved nature play, Dankiw and colleagues narrowed the results from 4,225 studies down to 16 by removing duplicates (n = 2,927) and screening records. Focusing on children aged 2 to 12 years, the systematic review was the first to “rigorously, transparently and systematically review” health and developmental impacts of nature play on children, according to Dankiw.
“Our results found positive outcomes for children’s physical activity and cognitive development, similar to the findings of a review by Mygind [and colleagues], which found positive effects on cognitive performance, problem solving, mood and physical activity after an ‘immersive nature experience,’” Dankiw told Healio. “While similar to the findings of our study, this review was very different. Our review focused on unstructured, free play within nature, while Mygind [and colleagues] focused also on structured activities, like sea voyages, orienteering, adventure-based counseling.”
Findings from the review suggested that nature play has a positive impact on a child’s physical activity, health-related fitness, motor skills, cognitive learning, and social and emotional development. “Consistent positive improvements” also were reported for cognitive outcomes involving play, learning and creativity.
“The findings from our research highlight that nature play has a positive impact across a range of health and developmental domains for children,” Dankiw said. “Importantly, our review found consistent positive outcomes for children’s cognitive development outcomes. Where possible, educators and parents could incorporate more nature materials and elements for children when they play, go outside with them and explore the natural environment and let children choose what they would like to do in those natural settings.”
Dankiw said the nature play environments described in the 16 studies included in their review “were diverse, but there were some consistent elements such as sand, trees, rocks, water, vegetation and open spaces.”
“We recommend that future implementation of nature play spaces should incorporate these elements,” Dankiw said. “In addition, future research efforts should establish a universal definition of nature play — focusing on determining the environmental contexts and elements critical to positive impacts of nature play. This would enable the best-practice implementation and evaluation of nature play spaces across different contexts, supporting the best outcomes for children.”
Dankiw said it was interesting to find that the review determined nature play improved cognitive development, as well its effect on physical activity, which was the original purpose of the review. – by Ken Downey Jr.
Disclosures: The authors report no relevant financial disclosures.
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