Children’s Involvement in Free Play and the Use of Play Materials in the Outdoor Early Childhood Education and Care Environment

The study investigates the relationship between kindergarten children’s involvement in free play outdoors and their use of available play materials. The purpose is to investigate how different play materials can contribute to beneficial outdoor learning environments. The research question is: What type of relationship exists between children’s involvement in free play and their use of play materials in the kindergarten’s outdoor areas?

The results show a positive correlation between children’s involvement in outdoor free play and the extent to which they use different types of materials in their play. Children’s free play increases when they have easy access to several different play materials.

The study is part of the project called Competence for the development of kindergartens’ indoor and outdoor environments (EnCompetence). The project ran from 2017 to 2020 and used a mixed-methods approach where data from eight Norwegian kindergartens were collected using video observation. A total of 86 children from each kindergarten were randomly selected and observed in free play at two different measurement times. In the observed free play, the children themselves decided what they wanted to play, where they wanted to play and who they wanted to play with.

Storli, R., Sandseter, E. B. H. & Sando, O. J. (2020). "Children’s Involvement in Free Play and the Use of Play Materials in the Outdoor Early Childhood Education and Care Environment”. Children, Youth and Environments, 30(1):66-82.