Providing Challenges And Diverse Outdoor Environment To Toddlers And Pre-Schoolers

Importance of Outdoor Learning for Toddlers

The purpose of this essay is to enlighten the reader about the aspect of providing challenges and diverse outdoor environment to the toddlers and pre-schoolers in order to groom them physically as well as mentally. A child’s mind is developed only when he or she is opposed to various diverse challenges in the environment. The challenges and events help them to increase their thinking capabilities and find out the solution to various issues. Further, the below-mentioned essay evaluates the approaches, beliefs and ideas that help in providing a challenging and authentic outdoor environment for children. It also explains the research on risks that affect the interest of the toddlers to attain physical development outcomes. Lastly, it evaluates the justification of the value of risk while promoting physical skills, health and wellbeing for children (Kepper, et. al., 2016). Further, it should be noted that no parent could develop the brain and physical abilities of their children by keeping them involved in the internal activities only. For the overall development of a child, it is important for them to provide them with challenging outdoor activities as well. Further, more details about the essay are discussed below:

It is important to provide the opportunities of outdoor learning to all the toddlers so as to develop their mind and body appropriately. Indoor activities can enhance the learning skills and catching skills of a child but it cannot develop the physical abilities of a person. Outdoor activities help in learning from the environment as it helps the toddlers in communicating with people, resolving attitude related issues and exploring nature as well. With this type of activities, the toddlers get to learn about nature and environment as well and gain knowledge about the field in which they are best (True, et. al., 2017). Not all children have interest in indoor activities, some like to play outdoor activities like baseball, cricket etc. This type of learning helps them in recognizing areas of their interest. Further, this activity helps in the overall development of a child. Outdoor activities develop the mind as well as the body of a toddler. Further, it also boosts up the creativity of kids and opens them in the natural surrounding which stimulates the imagination. Team building and personality development are the two other aspects that help in grooming toddlers and increasing positivity in their behaviour (O’Sullivan, & Corcoran, 2016). 

Furthermore, talking about different approaches that can help educators to provide challenging and authentic outdoor environments, it should be noted that there are various ways to initiate such a process. As discussed in the above-mentioned stanzas that it is very important to help toddlers play in the outdoor environment so there are many approaches and ideas that can ensure that the same type of environment attributes are followed. Initially, the parents and school management should develop the play areas at different height, levels and angles as well. This process will ensure that the interest of children is maintained while playing in the outdoor event (Harms, Clifford, & Cryer, 2014). Also, it should be noted that children love spaces that are innovative, creative and interesting due to which different angles and tools will certainly gain the interest of children while playing. Many kids play under the table or love climbing on the bookshelves or stairs etc. as it certainly makes them involved in the creative activities. Toddlers usually stack things on the top of the each other to create a height, there are many building games are also made to develop the balancing capacity of the kids. There is as such no reason for this type of activity, but the kids like assembling things and them destroying them and then re-doing it again (Monti, et. al., 2017). This activity increases the balancing ability of the mind and provides the opportunity to identify various angles as well. Playing at heights will enhance the complete development of the body of toddlers and reaching on height will require them to stretch their body due to which their body parts will gain strength (Livingstone, 2010). 

Approaches to Providing Challenging and Authentic Outdoor Environments

Further, this type of approach will reduce the vulnerability of toddlers toward diverse environmental changes as well. Outdoor games will make the pre-schoolers to develop their immune system according to the environmental conditions that will help them to grow without attracting diseases. The toddlers need daily start their day at school with physical activities so as to wake up their body along with their mind. Outdoor events will also help them to attain an adequate amount of vitamin D through sunlight (Gray, et. al., 2015). The educators should also record the ideas of the toddlers and then further help them to play such kind of activities and teach them in similar ways. In this way, the toddlers will not get bored while learning at schools as well. The children should be indulged in activities with kids of different age groups so that they can effectively learn while playing (Bilton, Bento, & Dias, 2016). Providing a diverse, challenging and authentic environment to children will help the parents to analyse the areas of the interest of their kids, any physical disabilities, and it will help the incomplete development of mind and body as well. Another practical approach explains that children in authentic outdoor should make use of daily basis products while playing. Toddlers’ love making use of regular and simple products and creating something different out of it. So, this can help in producing challenging and a well innovative environment to pre-schoolers. Further, the educators should also create props out of waste products and ask children to use it can create something like that only (Wyver, & Little, 2018). 

Toddlers in the environment require safe risk taking opportunities and challenges in the environment so that they can take calculative risks in their future lives as well. Risk is a very important part of the lives of people as provides them with the opportunity to approach various situations that they might not face in their daily basis as well (Gustafsson, Szczepanski, Nelson, & Gustafsson, 2012). Risk develops the nature of a person to be more adventurous. However, prevention from the injury and safety of children should act as a major objective of the educators in the environment. There should be a balance between the children’s needs to be challenged and risk-taking in the learning journey (Cerin, Suen, Barnett, Huang, & Mellecker, 2017). 

Most of the educators believe that risk-taking is an essential and positive element of the children’s play. While playing, children face risks because with this they develop self-esteem and confidence as well. Scary is the words that are given by most of the children while playing an outdoor game that is tough or difficult (Ergler, Smith, Kotsanas, & Hutchinson, 2015). These risks lead to the mastering of new tasks and difficult activities by the kids that groom them. Further, the activity of risk-taking is symbolized as intelligent behaviour that every parent would personally want their child to adopt. The key in this activity is the balance of risk along with its potential benefits and understanding towards the acceptability of the risks. An acceptable risk is a risk that does not harm or negatively affect a toddler while playing an outdoor event (Petrie, & Clarkin-Phillips, 2017). Whereas, an unacceptable risk is a risk whose acceptable might lead to harm of a pre-schooler or toddler. Thus, it should be understood that it is very crucial to balance the requirement for safety along with the need to provide the physical challenging environment. Challenges to a child should be given to the extent to which they can positively adopt it and learn from it. Once the level of difficulty increases for a child, then it results in increased risks as well. An above-mentioned approach that explains that a pre-schooler should be confronted with various angles and tools while playing in an outdoor environment. So, the height to tools and its sharpness should not create a risk of injury to the child because after that instance the child will gain the fear of playing in the external environment (Bingham, 2015). Further, the fact should also be noted that there are some sorts of risk that the practitioners and educators should make the toddlers confront with in order to completely develop them. For instance, the schools should plan an outing for the pre-schoolers at forest areas or hills so as to develop the appropriate skills in them and train them to take a calculative risk as well (Plowman, Stevenson, McPake, Stephen, & Adey, 2011).

Value of Risk in Promoting Physical Skills, Health, and Well-being

Lastly, it should be noted that the value of risk is very important in the environment as it defines the thinking and calculative capacity of a toddler along with his or her strength as well. The risks taking the child is comparatively more and innovative and involved in outdoor activities as compared to the other one. Coming up to the value of risk, so it should be noted that the educators should effectively initiate the risk management activities so as to ensure that no child is injured while playing. If the capacity of the risk is a high level that, it might cause a danger to the wellbeing of a child (Orellana, & Valenzuela, 2017). But, if there is no risk present in the outdoor event then it reduces the learning to just half. Parents in the current environment also encourage their child to take a risk and effectively develop the motor skills as well. By taking risks only, many children develop the leadership skills within them and find their passion as well. An authentic or challenging environment is an environment that provides equal opportunity to every child to grow by overcoming various risk-taking situations in the outdoor environment (Hawley, 2018).

So, in this way, it can be said that risk plays a positive role in the process of development of a child using an outdoor challenging environment. However, if the degree of this risk is not optimal then the value might turn into negative experiences. Thus, it should be noted that it is very important to balance the priorities and initiate an effective approach to help children identify risk and overcome it as well. The negative value of risk directly affects to the wellbeing of a child, in addition, the mental, as well as physical skills of a child, might get affected if they face a higher degree of risk in the environment. Thus, it can be said that both absence and more than required presence of risk can hamper the wellbeing of a child in an outdoor environment (Wainwright, Goodway, Whitehead, Williams, & Kirk, 2018).

Thus, in the limelight of above-mentioned events, the fact should be noted that the above-mentioned essay highlighted various aspects of helping a toddler or pre-schooler to face authentic environment and challenges in it as well. The essay began with explaining the importance of outdoor events in the life of a child. Further, it also explained various approaches and ideas with the help of which a toddler can groom their physical as well as mental abilities. The risk is considered as an important aspect in the growth of a child that should not be ignored. Confrontation of the right amount of risk is very important for a child as it grooms their motor skills and develops them physically as well. However, the educators should always maintain a balance while presenting the risk-taking activities so as to prevent the children from injuries. 

Balancing the Need for Risk and Safety in Outdoor Environments

References

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Ergler, C., Smith, K., Kotsanas, C., & Hutchinson, C. (2015). What makes a good city in pre-schoolers’ eyes? findings from participatory planning projects in Australia and New Zealand. Journal of Urban Design, 20(4), 461-478.

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