Get outside, play and grow : exploring the impacts of nature play on early childhood development and the reliability of play observations/

Date

2020

Authors

Dankiw, Kylie

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thesis

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Abstract

Several initiatives have been trialled as a means of increasing children’s physical activity and engagement in outdoor play, with varying degrees of success. Nature play is one such initiative, which can be defined as unstructured, free play within nature with an emphasis on natural elements such as trees, plants and rocks. Nature play is growing in popularity as children’s play spaces transform from traditional playgrounds into more nature-based play spaces. Despite the growing popularity of nature play, there remains a lack of empirical evidence in understanding the impacts of nature play on children’s health and developmental outcomes. Furthermore, there is a lack of psychometrically sound measurement tools to describe and evaluate complex child play behaviours. Therefore, this thesis aimed to explore the impacts of nature play on the health and developmental outcomes of children aged 2-12 years, through a systematic review of the literature. In addition to this, the reliability of a commonly utilised play observation tool, the Behaviour Mapping Schedule, was investigated.

School/Discipline

University of South Australia. UniSA Allied Health and Human Performance.
UniSA Allied Health and Human Performance.

Dissertation Note

Thesis (Masters by research(Health Sciences))--University of South Australia, 2020.

Provenance

Copyright 2020 Kylie Dankiw.

Description

1 ethesis (130 pages) :
colour illustrations.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 76-85)

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506 0#$fstar $2Unrestricted online access

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