The objectives for the study by M. Predy, N. Holt and V. Carson were to determine the average outdoor play duration and frequency for toddlers (19-35 months) and preschoolers (36-60 months) in childcare centres in Alberta, to determine if duration and frequency differed across winter (December-March) and non-winter (April-November) months, and if to determine correlates of outdoor play and frequency.

The findings of the study suggest that correlates of outdoor play may differ across age groups and seasons, and the study recommends that interventions aimed at increasing outdoor play in childcare centres appear warranted, especially in winter months for northern locations.

The study reports that active outdoor play has been deemed essential for healthy development by various stakeholder groups, and that unfortunately, outdoor play has been declining in recent decades largely due to children’s increased use of technology.

The authors note that previous studies, focused on the home and neighbourhood setting, have identified parental  perceptions of safety, neighbourhood friends, and proximity to green spaces and cul-de-sacs as positive correlates of outdoor play in school-aged children. In younger children, different types of housing and the socio-economic status of the community have also been identified as correlates of outdoor play.  Many of these correlates do not translate to the childcare setting, creating a significant gap in understanding, as over half of Canadian children under the age of 5 years attend non-parental childcare, of which 70% are full-time.

The study looked separately at toddlers and preschoolers, due to developmental differences and separate rooms and schedules for toddlers and preschoolers in childcare.  Due to significate seasonal differences in Alberta, the study also looked at differences in availability of outdoor play in winter and non-winter months and studied the centre demographic, environmental, socio-cultural, and policy correlates of outdoor play.  The 822 participants in the study were directors of licensed childcare centres with full-time programming for toddlers and/or preschooler in Alberta.  Outdoor play in the study was defined as any time that children were outside, including free play and instructor-led play.

Findings:  “Regardless of age group, a higher percentage of centres met outdoor play duration and frequency best practices in the non-winter than in the winter months.  Correlates of outdoor play duration and frequency varied across age groups and seasons.  Across varying models, higher educator certification, more frequent educator professional development, more family education topics, and more play areas were most consistently associated with meeting outdoor play best practices.”

“A novel aspect of the present study was examining the seasonal differences of outdoor play duration.  Although outdoor play can be challenging in Canadian winters, childcare is a setting that can maximize outdoor play duration during this season because children typically attend childcare during the warmest and lightest parts of the day.  Nevertheless, large differences were observed in best practice attainment between winter and non-winter months in both age groups.  This finding is consistent with another study in a small sample of North Dakota preschools, where outdoor play time during childcare reduced by 60% from fall to winter months (Schuna et al. 2013).  Therefore, interventions to increase outdoor play time and frequency in childcare centres are needed, especially in the winter months.”

“To our knowledge, no previous research has examined the association of children’s outdoor play with educator certification or professional development; however, studies have examined these correlates’ association with children’s physical activity levels.  For example, one study found that children were more active on playgrounds when attending a preschool with a majority of college-educated teachers compared with children at preschools with fewer college-educated teachers (Dowda et al. 2004).  This increase in physical activity may be attributed to educators’ confidence in facilitating physical activities based on their training (Martyniuk and Tucker 2014).  Similarly, additional education may enable teachers to be more confident and knowledgeable in leading outdoor play activities.  Educator certification and professional development frequency may be particularly important in the winter months due to increased challenges associated with outdoor play in winter conditions.  Additionally, educators and parents alike may not value the importance of outdoor play in childcare centres.  Therefore, increasing education frequency or providing more education topics for stakeholder groups may cause a shift in these values and increase buy-in, thus increasing a centre’s likelihood to meet the best practices.”