Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Feb 13;15(2):e0229006.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0229006. eCollection 2020.

The impacts of unstructured nature play on health in early childhood development: A systematic review

Kylie A Dankiw  1 , Margarita D Tsiros  1   2 , Katherine L Baldock  1   3 , Saravana Kumar  1
Affiliations

The impacts of unstructured nature play on health in early childhood development: A systematic review

Kylie A Dankiw et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Background: Nature play is growing in popularity as children's play spaces are transforming from traditional playgrounds into more nature-based play spaces with considerable financial and resource investment from government bodies. This has resulted in the re-development of children's play spaces to incorporate more natural elements such as trees, plants and rocks. Despite this, it is unclear whether there is empirical evidence to support claims that play in nature is beneficial for child health and development.

Aim: To conduct a systematic review examining the impacts of nature play on the health and developmental outcomes of children aged 2-12 years.

Methods: Seven electronic databases were searched (MEDLINE, ERIC, Embase, PsycINFO, The Cochrane Library, The Joanna Briggs Institute and Emcare) from inception to July/August 2018 (search updated July/August 2019). The Inclusion criteria were children aged 2-12 years with no health/developmental conditions. The exposure/intervention of interest was unstructured, free play in nature. Critical appraisal of included studies was conducted using the McMaster Critical Appraisal Tool. Descriptive synthesis was then undertaken using the NHMRC FORM Framework.

Results: Out of 2927 articles identified, 16 studies met the inclusion criteria. The nature play exposure/intervention was heterogeneously described, and a plethora of outcome measures were used. Nature play had consistent positive impacts on physical activity outcomes and cognitive play behaviours (imaginative and dramatic play). However, there remain some concerns regarding the quality of the evidence base, heterogeneity in intervention description and parameters in the outcome measures used.

Conclusions: While the positive impacts of nature play were encouraging in terms of physical activity and cognitive development, nature play stakeholders should focus on producing a universal definition for nature play, the development of standardised outcome measures and the conduct of robust research designs. Implications of these findings suggest the need for the development of standardised guidelines to inform practice and policy in the design of children's play spaces in different contexts.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The author(s) have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. PRISMA flowchart.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Overview of outcomes and results across studies.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. World Health Organisation. Mental Health: Child and Adolescent Mental Health 2018 [Available from: http://www.who.int/mental_health/maternal-child/child_adolescent/en/.
    1. World Health Organisation. Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health: Childhood Overweight and Obesity 2018 [Available from: http://www.who.int/dietphysicalactivity/childhood/en/.
    1. McCurdy LE, Winterbottom KE, Mehta SS, Roberts JR. Using nature and outdoor activity to improve children's health. Current Problems in Pediatric and Adolescent Health Care. 2010;40(5):102–17. 10.1016/j.cppeds.2010.02.003 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Cleland V, Crawford D, Baur LA, Hume C, Timperio A, Salmon J. A prospective examination of children's time spent outdoors, objectively measured physical activity and overweight. International journal of obesity (2005). 2008;32(11):1685. - PubMed
    1. Torkar G, Rejc A. Children's Play and Physical Activity in Traditional and Forest (Natural) Playgrounds. International Journal of Educational Methodology. 2017;3(1):25–30.

Publication types