Among the many play experiences that the child has during the growth path, outdoor play deserves particular consideration. THE BENEFITS OF OUTDOOR GAMES FOR CHILDREN

All theories agree on the importance of the environment in the development of childhood personality.

In fact, it is in the exchange with the stimuli that the context offers that the child finds the opportunity to experiment, discover, learn by having play experiences and favoring the maturation of his infantile personality. Offering the child the opportunity to have outdoor play experiences, in a context of extended relationships and new stimuli with respect to the home environment, contributes to the formation of a social personality by increasing the child’s sense of security and belonging to the community.

Among the many benefits that we can identify in favoring outdoor play, the possibility of intense physical activity by the child deserves to be emphasized. Walking, jumping, running allow and promote motor coordination and physical endurance, fighting diseases, such as obesity, often linked to overly sedentary lifestyles.

The possibility of having experiences in open spaces offers the child the opportunity to actively experiment, allows to stimulate self-confidence and to create relationships.

Outdoor play allows the child to experience a freedom of decision: the choice of play materials, mostly natural, such as stones, earth, sticks, leaves, which allow him to range from manipulative play to imaginative play, increasing the imagination , discovery, intuition. The child is the builder of his play, not having a pre-established game but finding fertile ground in the environment to invent and create.

Very often outdoor play allows you to interact with other children by experimenting with relationships, playing in groups, fostering new friendships and the development of sociability.

In addition, the outdoor game offers the opportunity to play with natural elements such as water, sand, earth that blend well with the naturalness of the child! This is not allowed by case games, already pre-made and pre-packaged.

Outdoor play is by definition free play: freedom of movement, freedom of thought, freedom of relationship, and it is active play, where the child experiments with respect for their motor possibilities, choosing and directing their action according to their needs. and his curiosity.

The child’s intelligence is a practical and concrete intelligence, which needs to experiment by involving and absorbing the whole body. This is how he learns both on a motor and cognitive and above all emotional level.

Another beneficial aspect of playing outdoors is the contact with nature . This allows the child to relieve the stresses of busy city times and school rhythms and to get in touch with their emotional world more. The suggestions of nature, trees, flowers, sounds and colors, scents, are elements that favor relaxation, the dilation of time, a dimension of freedom and acceptance of the child’s need for discovery.

Finally, outdoor play, favoring contact with the natural world, allows its knowledge by developing in the child an ecological mind oriented towards respect for the environment and nature, so precious for life and development.

We are moving towards summer and adults can find time to play together with their children at the sea, in the mountains, in the countryside, in the courtyard, in the gardens in big cities: it would be a precious moment of reciprocity and growth, of knowledge and of relationship, sharing and attention, listening and therefore … great love.

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