Benefits of Clean Outdoor Play Areas on Children’s Health & Development in Quogue, NY
Think about your childhood memories. As you do, we bet that some of those memories are of you playing outdoors. As the use of technology has increased, many children these days don’t play outside like we used to when we were younger. They would rather stay indoors and play with their fancy electronics. While we don’t disagree with children using electronics, we feel that there are distinct benefits if your children integrate that with outdoor play time as well. Scientists have also come to the same conclusion. What are the benefits of your children playing outdoors? Outdoor play improves mental health, physical health, cognitive health, emotional health, social skills, and play skills. Let’s explore this in more detail.
We Analyse the Importance of Clean Outdoor Play Areas for Children’s Health, Learning & Development
– Improved Mental Health. Scientists have proven that being outdoors results in better moods; a decrease in hyperactivity; and a decrease in anxiety and depression related symptoms. With children anxiety, depression, and suicide on the rise, teaching children to enjoy the outdoors may genuinely be saving their lives.
– Increased Physical Fitness. When children play outside they naturally are being more physical in their play. Playing outside encourages running, jumping, climbing, skipping, and more. This increased physical fitness helps them improve their physical endurance. When children are in better shape, the risk of obesity and diabetes decreases significantly. Being outside also helps children develop fine and gross motor skills.
– Development of Motor Skills. Stopping to pick up rocks, leaves, look at bugs, play on a playground, and other activities that children naturally gravitate to when outdoors all are helping to increase their fine and gross motor skills.
– Aiding Cognitive Development. Playing outdoors gets your brain moving as well. When you are playing outdoors you have more opportunities to make decisions and exercise your problem solving skills. Without electronics children will also have to think more creatively to find an activity outside to participate in. Playing pretend becomes second nature for most children when they are playing outdoors. Playing pretend forces children to sequence, plan, and organize. All these things are helping them develop cognitively.
– Helping Emotional Health. As children build forts, fly kits, run and jump, participate in outdoor sports, create an imaginary world to play in; and organize neighborhood kids for activities, they naturally increase their emotional health. Emotional intelligence and empathy are required to work with other people to make these outdoor activities successful. As children successfully plan and participate in these outdoor activities, their self-esteem naturally increases as well.
– Learned Social Skills. Excellent social skills can be developed through outdoor play as well. Groups of neighborhood children playing together outside, requires children to have increased social interactions. With the increase in social interactions children learn to share, cooperate, and help each other out so that their outside time is fun for everyone.
– Building Play Skills. The last area that truly is amped up through outdoor play is play skills. Years ago no one even thought about the basic need or definition of play skills. As children have become more content with solitary play and electronic devices to keep them busy all day, they have not learned how to use their imaginations and creativity. Knowing how to interact with others in play is a skill that many children in this generation would benefit from developing more fully. Outdoor play is an excellent for this to happen!
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Parents love watching their children play outdoors. Now that we can see just how many benefits there are to outdoor play, we are sure you will want to encourage them even more to go and enjoy the great outdoors on clean swing sets and play areas. And while they play outdoors you can sit and enjoy watching them on your porch or deck. But are these areas clean and ready for you to sit on while you watch your children grow into the amazing adults you dream they will become? If not, give Woodedge Powerwashing a call and we will come out and give you a free quote on all your exterior cleaning needs from your roof, siding, pathways, driveways, fences and other structures such as gazebos and playground equipment etc.
