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Description:
Issue 19 examines the use of outside space across the EU and considers the benefits that unstructured play and the natural environment offer to young children and the implications for pedagogical approaches and support. Includes articles on how to develop outdoor spaces and encourage more extensive use of the natural environment in risk averse societies and examines the positive influences on children's health and wellbeing.
Excerpts from the press release:
Children are missing out on essential learning experiences and the chance to explore because of a lack of space, according to research published in the new issue of 'Children in Europe' magazine.
Despite access to outdoor spaces being increasingly recognised as vital for nurturing and developing young children's natural inquisitiveness and long-term wellbeing, as well as their creative and cognitive development, the research reveals that outdoor space standards in services for young children vary widely across Europe, with some countries, including the Republic of Ireland, France and Germany, having no national requirements specified.
Although Scotland does have a requirement for local authority nursery schools and classes for 3- 4-year-olds to provide an area of 9.3m2 per child -- less than the size of the average bedroom -- other services need only provide 'adequate and appropriate space' for the activities being undertaken. And, when compared to the 40m2 for pre-school children in Croatia and 33m2 per child allocated in Norway for under threes, there is clearly still work to be done here.
While parents have become increasingly concerned about their children's safety, and young people spend more time indoors, the risk of losing the benefits offered to young people's mental and physical wellbeing through outdoor activity is equally significant.