Abstract
Children's activities and experiences in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) institutions are essential for children's present and future lives. Playing is a vital activity in childhood, and playing is found to be positively related to a variety of outcomes among children. In this study, we investigated how risky play – a fundamentally voluntary form of play – related to children's well-being, involvement and physical activity. Results from structured video observations (N = 928) during periods of free play in eight Norwegian ECEC institutions indicated that engagement in risky play was positively associated with children's well-being, involvement and physical activity. The findings in this study suggest that one way to support children's everyday experiences and positive outcomes for children in ECEC is to provide children with opportunities for risky play. Restrictions on children's play behaviours following safety concerns must be balanced against the joy and possible future benefits of thrilling play experiences for children.
Highlights
There is little consensus regarding what should be the expected outcomes for children in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC)
Previous studies from this study have demonstrated that children’s play were associated with their well-being and involvement (Storli and Sandseter 2019) and that the characteristics of the physical environment were associates with children’s well-being, physical activity and involvement (Sando 2019a, b; Storli et al 2020; Sando and Sandseter 2020), This study differentiates from the previous articles in that here the relationship between children’s engagement in risky play and their well-being, involvement and physical activity is explored
The findings in this study demonstrated that children’s engagement in risky play was positively associated with well-being, involvement and physical activity during periods for free play among the children in this study
Summary
There is little consensus regarding what should be the expected outcomes for children in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC). Children’s outcomes in ECEC are suggested to be foundational aspects of experience and learning (Laevers 2000), like well-being, social competence or emotional and cognitive development. These aspects are considered valuable in themselves and, simultaneously, a necessary basis for later. Educators, parents and policymakers are concerned with children’s outcomes concerning their future (e.g. school readiness) (Schleicher 2019), children themselves would mainly consider the here-and- value of their ECEC experience (Sandseter and Seland 2016; Koch 2018). This duality challenges researchers, practitioners and policymakers when it comes to establishing consensus around definitions and child outcome measures in ECEC
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