A study conducted by Persil on 1,000 British and Irish parents of children aged up to seven has found children spend twice as long looking at screens than they do playing outside. But, interestingly, 62 percent of parents wish their children would spend more time playing outside instead of in front of a screen. It was...
In case you were not yet convinced of the benefits of getting children outdoors...
From November 1-15, EVERYONE can download a copy of the Special Issue of Children, Youth and Environments at www.jstor.org/stable/10.7721/chilyoutenvi.28.issue-2 Please share this important journal with everyone....
Children’s mental health, involving their emotional, psychological, and social well-being, is an important factor influencing children’s development of a sense of identity, positive self-esteem, healthy peer and family relationships, and stress coping mechanisms. Mental health issues therefore have the potential to prevent children from reaching developmental and social milestones, and persist into adulthood. Mental health issues are...
From September 27th-29th, 2018, the University of British Columbia Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies hosted the Levelling the Playing Fields: Strategies to Promote Outdoor Play 2018 Roundtable. The goal of the roundtable was to develop a (research) strategy for systematically creating opportunities for outdoor play in schools and communities in Canada. Learn more about this...
"The Classroom in Open Air" Project, by Naomi W. Reichstein The Classroom in Open Air Project, by Naomi W. Reichstein for the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation, aimed to examine which Vancouver-area schools use parks, which parks are most popular for school use, which subjects are taught outdoors, and what other school-based activities occur in...
The StreetPLAY Pilot Program, led by Earth Day Canada in collaboration with the City of Toronto, closed 7 street sections in an inner-urban neighbourhood in Toronto to promote children's play. Researchers from the TRANSFORM lab (led by OPC's Leadership Group Member, Dr. Raktim Mitra) at Ryerson University evaluated the pilot project to assess the impact...
In 2017, the International Play Association hosted their Triennial World Play Conference: Unleashing the Power of Play, in Calgary, Alberta. This triennial conference is for play researchers, advocates, designers, educators, practitioners, providers, and policymakers and aims to celebrate play, understand its many benefits, and provide all children with the chance to engage in rich, meaningful,...
From May 30-31, 2016, KidActive led a 2-day Risky Play and Outdoor and Unstructured Play Workshop at the Thunder Bay and District Health Unit as part of the Healthy Kids Community Challenge; a program funded by the Ministry of Health and Long-term care aimed at improving children's health by promoting healthy behaviours. The Risky Play...
