Play-full research, naturally!

Kids going out to play in the woods and streams seems good, right? But what do the data say about the actual benefits?

PEER recently evaluated the processes and outcomes of Four Winds Nature Institute’s (FWNI) professional development for early childhood educators, childcare providers, and parents. As part of that contract, FWNI asked PEER to review the literature underpinning their program work, with the intention of grounding their work in the scholarly literature and creating a piece to share with program stakeholders such as school administrators who give release time to educators. PEER decided to seize the moment and invest additional PEER resources in the project so it might provide greater value to a wider audience.

While the literature review we created on the benefits of nature play is not comprehensive by any means, it does focus on the most recent studies on the subject. Perhaps more importantly to us, it collects academic material into an accessible format that may be more useful to program staff for sharing with funders, donors, school administrators, educators, and partners. We presented on and distributed copies of the literature review at North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE) and New England Environmental Education Association (NEEEA) conferences in the fall of 2018 and have received warm feedback on the usefulness of this work. Amy will also present this work in Oakland, CA this in May 2019 at the Children and Nature Network conference. We thought it was fitting to share it here as well.

Stay tuned for a future blog post about PEER's case studies of three Forest Days programs in Vermont and New Hampshire that show how some public schools are embracing nature play.