Childrenʼs play and physical activity in traditional and forest (natural) playgrounds

Torkar, Gregor (author), Rejc, Aljoša (author)

Early childhood is a crucial period for the physical and cognitive development of children. A child's exposure to nature is proven to be beneficial in this period of human life. The aim of the present research was to investigate children’s play and physical activity on a traditional playground and on a forest (natural) playground. Twenty-five observations took place on the traditional playground, and twenty-five observations were recorded on the forest playground. Twenty-five participating preschool children were observed in both playgrounds, but not necessarily in the same order. Research findings confirmed important qualities of natural playgrounds that provide children with a wide range of playing and learning opportunities not available on other playgrounds. Children were playing more with different natural materials in the forest playground and they more frequently played different chasing games and hide and seek in the forest playground. Participating children were also more physically active on the forest playground, and boys were more active on the forest playground than girls. The research concludes that it is important for preschool teachers to use natural playgrounds frequently and with regularity. Research design in this article is also an example of how GPS trackers can be beneficial for educational research.

• Language: English
• Keywords: early childhood, playground, forest, play, physical activity, children
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: PEF - Faculty of Education
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2017
• Number of pages: Str. 25-30
• Numbering: Vol. 3, iss. 1
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-94389
• UDC: 373.2
• ISSN on article: 2469-9632
• DOI: 10.12973/ijem.3.1.25
• COBISS.SI-ID: 11661641

Copyright

Podatek o licenci CC BY 4.0 je naveden na spletni strani revije (https://www.ijem.com/journal-information) (Datum opombe: 2. 9. 2025)

• Publication date in RUL: 23.08.2017

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: International journal of educational methodology
• Publisher: RHAPSODE
• ISSN: 2469-9632
• COBISS.SI-ID: 11549769

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: gozd, telesna aktivnost, vzgoja v ranem otroštvu