KOMPAN

Free play out of doors

By Jeanette Fich Jespersen, M.A, International Manager of the KOMPAN Play Institute

 

Playing outside gives room for childhood behaviour, such as yelling and having big arm movements. The fresh air gives infections a hard time and absorbs a lot of the noise you often experience when a lot of children are gathered in one room. 

Free play 
At KOMPAN we always advocated the children’s right to play and play outdoors. In the KOMPAN kindergarten, The Four Seasons, the preschoolers play outside as a minimum 75% of the time they spend there. We believe it is good for the health and development of our children to play outside. And we believe that the children should be allowed to play freely when they wish to.

Our belief is sustained by research stating that playing freely out-of-doors scaffolds the physical, mental and social well being of our children. A comparison of the motor behaviours of kindergarten children playing freely in a well developed playground and kindergarten children participating in a physical education class showed that the children in free play made significantly more different motor activities than the ones in the class. 

For the school age children there is an ongoing discussion about the importance or unimportance of break time in school. Some researchers find break time overestimated.  But the proponents of break time argue, that breaks in school actually might be the only scene for free play a lot of the children have, as many have a full scheduled spare time after school, participating in football, dance or other classes. The effect of free play is among others pupils being better focused and more efficiently learning in class.

Noise and children
A new report made by researchers from among others Holland and Denmark deals with the effects of noise on children. This research could sustains the KOMPAN belief that outdoor play is crucial to the children for one more reason as well: Noise. 

The dangerous effects of noise on children are among others:

 

  · Hearing impairment
  · Stress-related physical effects
  · Cognitive effects
  · Higher blood pressure

Children in many day cares and schools spend time in a noisy environment and sometimes even far too noisy.  In England dB levels of 86 have been measured in a child care institution with infants. This equals a food processor or blender working – or a kettle whistling. Noise levels above 85 will harm our ability to hear over time.

Noise seems to escalate: If the surroundings are noisy, you need to raise you voice to be heard. You ask your surroundings to speak up. The indoors furthermore often nurtures infections, thus creating an even noisier environment: In the day cares of Denmark there are often problems with ear infections. Medical officers of health state that one extra square meter per child will reduce the number of ear infections by 11%. As children with ear infections can have a decrease of hearing by up to 50%, one need not be a wizard to figure out the effect this has on the noise environment. 

Noise effects the ability to concentrate and can lead to aggressive behaviour.Here again the out-of-doors play offers a solution: fresh air and plenty of room. Better acustics and the opportunity to escape the noise and find a quieter corner.

Provided the school or day care is situated away from high ways or airports, the outdoors is a wonderful place to chose play activities freely, play physically and wildly as a child should be allowed to – and withdraw from the play to a more peaceful corner when it needs it.

Litterature:
Health effects of noise on children and perception of the risk of noise, ed. Marie Louise Bistrup, National Institute of Public Health,  Copenhagen 2001. Authors: Marie Louise Bistrup, Staffan Hygge; Lis Keiding, Willy Passchier-Vermeer.

 

Myers, G. D., “Motor behavior of kindergartners during physical education and free play”, In When children play, J.L. Frost & S. Sunderlin (eds.), 1985, Wheaton, MD: Association for Childhood Education International


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