Why Should Child Play Outside? Teaching Your Child Independence

[June 3, 2020] Researches show that the children who play outside regularly have a better immune system and a more substantial sensory skill than those sitting before a dazzling screen for hours at a stretch. In 2018, Harvard’s Health researcher Claire McCarthy revealed that playing outside improves executive function, risk-taking ability. A long span of attention is another benefit of encouraging your child to move and play outside, which can ensure the flourish of an independent personality and open-minded self-awareness for their bright future.

In 2010, US campaign ‘Let’s Move!’ against obesity, which is the cause of several diseases, explicitly focused on engaging children in physical activities. Presenting the terrible reality that a US child under 18 spends, on average, 7.5 hours a day with entertaining electric devices, the program declares that every day a minimum of 60 minutes of outdoor activity is essential to the growth of the youngsters in proper weight. Outdoor playground is the best, if not the irreplaceable, solutions for the development of your young one’s communication skills and socialization

Here are five benefits that your child will achieve from the outdoor playground

1.  Health Benefits and Immunity

Every parent desires a fit and healthy child with strong muscle and energetic motor skills. Instead of indoor physical exercise to burn down the extra calorie, running, walking and jumping in wide space is the best possible encouragement to secure perfect BMI according to your wish regarding your child. Besides, vitamin – D is vital to immunity, healthy sleep, and good mood of children and the contact of sunlight in outdoor games offer it profusely.

2.  Emotional Maturity and Appreciation for Nature

Your child will feel more emotionally secure among same-age kids and will grow a natural sense of humor. Besides, compassion is a human thing and is only possible to attain in actual communication with friends. Shared happiness only increases the flow as it is contiguous. A child with outdoor experience is more empathetic to the natural world than the ones who are distant from the touch of green.

3.  Socialization and Communication Skill

The freedom, enjoyed in a less crowded place, helps the kids to open up and grow social. At the same time, the peer-relationship with playmates or siblings while playing outside can develop co-operational skills. Moreover, taking turns in a game or sharing playthings influences a child’s behavior to be more positive and tolerant.

4.  Sensory Skill and Attention

Whereas children using electronic audio or video devices get weaker in auditory capacity and eyesight day by day, the opposite happens to them, playing outside in open fields or gardens. They also develop better tactile or taste sense in direct contact with weather and nature. They also have a longer span of attention in a particular game than the users of quickly shifting TV channels or online content.

5.  Executive Function and Risk-Taking

A Harvard Medical School research shows that when children play outside, they automatically gather a set of crucial executive functions like planning, prioritizing from a list of tasks, troubleshooting, negotiating, and multitasking. They also get confident about risk-taking in the process. All these are necessary personality traits to be independent.