Children's Play: a tool for Public Health interventions

Abstract

All children need to spend some time playing outdoors. In Northern European countries, schools are equipped with outdoor facilities where children can play during breaks between lessons. The Italian school system, oriented to a mnemonic learning approach, has attached a poor importance to the role of playing for kindergarten age children, and Italian kindergartens are not so well equipped for children's active play. Furthermore, Italian teachers and parents worried that while playing outdoors, children might catch a cold or hurt themselves, and discourage active play outside. The equipment of kindergartens' open spaces with wooden games, where children can play in the morning or after school, resulted in children's increased time of playing outdoors. These playgrounds are also used during vacation day time by children to play and in the evenings, for theatrical and animation events. Finally, watching over their children when playing, "forced" parents to talk to each other creating a social network.