Children’s play, well-being and involvement: how children play indoors and outdoors in Norwegian early childhood education and care institutions

The purpose of this article is to investigate the relationship between children’s play, well-being and involvement in activities, as well as to identify how children play in both indoor and outdoor kindergarten environments. The article addresses two research questions: (1) What are the relationships between 3 to 4 year old children’s play, well-being and involvement in play? (2) In what types of indoor and outdoor kindergarten play are 3 to 4 year olds involved?

The results indicate that there is a significant and positive correlation between children’s play, their well-being and their involvement in play. The children spent two-thirds of their free play time on different types of play, and there were significant differences between the types of play the children involved themselves in indoors and outdoors.

A total of five boys and five girls from eight different kindergartens were involved in the investigation. This study uses the Design experiment in education methodology, which focuses on building, testing, evaluating and calibrating interventions through collaboration between researchers and practicing educators. The study is quantitative, and the researchers used 80 video recordings of the children playing freely both indoors and outdoors.

Storli, R. & Sandseter, E. B. H. (2019). «Children’s play, well-being and involvement: how children play indoors and outdoors in Norwegian early childhood education and care institutions». International Journal of Play, 8(1):65-78.