Analyzing the Impact of Outdoor Activities on Children in Early Childhood Studies

This essay analyzes the impact of outdoor activities on children in early childhood studies. It discusses the accessibility, nature aspect, and potential risk factors of the operational premises. The essay also highlights the advantages and disadvantages of the outdoor activities and suggests changes that can be implemented to enhance the overall performance of the setting.

Running head: EARLY CHILDHOOD STUDIES
Early Childhood Studies
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Analytical commentary environment of learning and living
In this essay, I will be performing an in-depth analysis of an early year setting visited by me for
my group presentation. In order to gain an ideal understanding of nature, accessibility and risk
taking, I will be performing both types of research as well as literature review. During our visit
to the early setting, I noticed that there was a wide range of options for outdoor activities for
children. In this paper, the impact of these activities on children has also been analyzed. In order
to maintain the confidentiality of the document, I will be using the term setting an as the name of
the nursery visited by me. On our arrival to the mentioned setting, we were greeted by the
receptionist. Our student identification cards were checked for security purpose and finally, we
were allowed to enter. Next, we were greeted by the head teacher who provided us with a tour of
the nursery. The head teacher also provided us with the permission to click photograph s or our
research purpose. However, from our end, we had informed the head teacher that we would not
be clicking photographs of the children to maintain the confidentiality of the nursery. While
paying a visit to the nursery the six aspects assessed by us include the basketball court, the farm,
the performance stage, outdoor flooring activities, the climbing frame section and the area used
for growing vegetables.
The first topic that I will be discussing is the accessibility provided by Nursery setting A
to the children. The mentioned nursery has two outdoor sections one built for the children for
key stage one and another for the children of key stage two. However, the outdoor play
environment allows all the children to play together. This can be considered as an advantage. If
both younger, as well as older students, are allowed to play together, the younger student will be
able to avail the scope of getting inspired by the older ones. Not only that, outdoor activities will
help the children to gain social awareness and ability to develop an effective relationship with

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individuals around them. Another advantage noticed by me is the accessibility layout of each
playground. Considering the fact that all the outdoor flooring activities like vegetable firm and
basketball court are at one section of the playground, it provides children will full freedom and
accessibility.
Children are also encouraged to perform role play in Setting A which in turn, helps them to
develop their self-esteem, language, confidence and capability of social instruction and
communication. However, I have encountered a disadvantage in this area. The performance stage
is not big enough to accommodate and allows all the children to play on it. Although four
children are allowed to access the stage at one go, often complaints are received from children
that they are not getting enough time to play. Moreover, the stage is dominated by a few numbers
of children and as result, other children suffer. Children with a disability also suffer a lot while
navigating through the stage. As a result, they often miss out the chance to develop their
communicative and social interactive skills. According to me, the performance stag should be
made more spacious to ensure easy navigation and accessibility of the children.
The second topic chosen by me is the ‘nature aspect of the mentioned nursery. This aspect
enables the children to explore the nature on their own. For instance, Setting A has a veritable
growing area. Children of each class are encouraged to access this area periodically. There, the
children are encouraged to perform activities like planting seeds. In order to avoid the chaos,
confusion and accidence all children from all the classes are not allowed to enter the above
mention area at the same time. However, Froebel argues that children need to have their own
personal bond with the nature in order to ensure the development of their conscience. However,
the mentioned setting is not able to fulfill the mentioned criteria.

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Considering the fact that mere observation of nature is of little benefit, children should be
allowed to play with and feel the nature. Not only does it provide the children with a developed
conscience, but performing the above-mentioned activities children are able to develop their
senses. For instance, by touching the leaves and the soil, children are able to get familiar with the
texture of the above mentioned natural resources. Tovey (2010) states that outdoor activity helps
the children to develop their curiosity and hence gardening can be considered as a curial part of
the learning of a child. Gardening helps the children to observe the nature closely. While
planting seeds and watching the seed to slowly get converted into a plant helps them in learning
and develops a feeling of care in them. Froebe (1888) stated that attachment with nature develops
a feeling of care within a child which prevents him to take wrong decisions in the future. Apart
from the above-mentioned advantages, gardening also helps the children to develop their motor
and gross skills while picking up a trowel or a spade. The hand-eye coordination of the children
also gets enhanced while planting a seed.
The mentioned nursery had a ‘farm’ area where chicken and horses are kept. Children, in turns,
are allowed to feed the animals by the teachers. Rodger (2012) stated that turn-taking is a crucial
activity that helps the children to develop their communication skills with other individuals.
Activities like feeding animals help in improving social skills as well as emotional
understanding. Social skills are improved by understanding the body language of the animals
while emotions help in developing the sense of responsibility amongst the children (Watts,
2011). This skill will help a child to become an ideal human being who has the urge to care for
individuals who are highly vulnerable that include children, adults and disabled individuals.
According to Warren (2002), children who care for animals have stronger self-esteem, sense of
independence and self-confidence.

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Finally, in this section, the potential risk factors of the operational premises are examined. To
analyze the risk factors, a proper understanding of the Hazards and risks and their distinguishes
are highly needed. The term ‘Hazard’ implies the practical situation that can cause harm in many
ways. However, the term ‘Risk’ refers various actualizations of potential Hazards. However,
both Hazard and Risk can be avoided by taking different effective precautions (Tovey, 2007).
These precautions have to be well organized and tangible. In case of a nursery, staffs have the
most crucial duties to protect the children from any injury or inconvenience. In order to protect
the children, caregivers should not allow the children to get engaged in any harmful activities
like climbing trees, jumping from heights and others. According to the statement of Senda
(1992), currently, the society is showing over protectiveness for children especially against the
regular activities that may be harmful to the children. Most of the parents want higher security
and less possibility of any harm to their children. With regards to this fact, it can be stated that
currently the choice of the parents are influenced by the overly protective environment and
arrangement of the nursery that can prevent any cause of harm from their children. Sometimes,
this overly protective environment bounds the necessary movements of the children for their
growth. It also bounds the children from their motor neuron development and physical
understanding of body balance, which is often referred as ‘enclosed in a cage called safety’.
Moreover, the choice of the caregivers and practitioners should be responsible concerning the
physical growth and safety measures (Boufous et al. 2004).
To ensure the safety and security of the outdoor area, setting A has been covered with high
wooden fences. It has been made to protect the premises from any unwanted trespassing in the
nursery and to avoid any unauthorized surveillance on the activities of the children. The fence is
also helpful for preventing children from getting outside. In spite of this safety measure,
strangers are often found to be communicating with children through the holes in the face. Along
with disputes some parts of the face are broken, which leads to a further level of risky
environment for children. As opined by Solly (2015), most of the parents are highly concerned

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about the resultant risks that can come from any unnecessary communication between their
children and any stranger. Therefore, keeping this physiological state of the parents in mind, the
indoor, as well as outdoor premises of the nursery, should have more protective arrangements.
From the above discussion, it can be said that the outdoor activities are equally important for
proper development of a child as the safety measures. Children should be kept under sincere
observation while having an essential amount of space for their physical activities and learning
practical concepts regarding size, distance and height of different elements of their
surroundings. Adequate space for physical activities also improves the mental growth of any
children. Therefore, keeping the children in an open environment is equally essential as keep
them in a safety and harmless observance. I have found certain things that need to be changed in
order to enhance the overall performance of Setting A. Firstly, the wooden fence should be
replaced by a more secure fencing in order to ensure the safety of the children. Along with that,
records of broken parts should be maintained regularly to avoid future occurrence of this
phenomenon. In case of future occurrence, immediate renewal of the parts should be done.
Another change that should be implemented by the nursery is to provide each student with
individual gardening pots so that they can avail the ability to develop their skills and learn to
bear responsibility.