Outdoor play activities are indispensable opportunites for children's physical, social and cognitive developments as well as development of their creative skills. In addition, they are informal learning methods. The importance... [ view full abstract ]
Outdoor play activities are indispensable opportunites for children's physical, social and cognitive developments as well as development of their creative skills. In addition, they are informal learning methods. The importance of outdoor play experiences has been accepted by everyone. Researchers claim that today's children spend less time playing outdoors than their ancestors because of various reasons. This study aims to investigate pre-school children's play behaviours and to compare their parents' play behaviours to theirs. It is thought that this research will contribute to the related literature in order to understand children's outdoor play behaviours.
The participants of this study were 398 parents who had children between the ages of 3 and 6 and attended pre-schools in Adana, a city in southern Turkey. As a data collection tool, following Clements' study (2004), "The Inventory of Parents' and Children's Outdoor Play Experiences", developed by the researchers, was used. The inventory consisted of 3 parts. In the first part, there were questions addressing demographic info about family and child. In the second part, there were questions about parents' play behaviours during their childhood and in the third part, there were questions about play behaviours of children attending pre-school. Totally, there were 28 questions. The inventory was sent to parents of the children through the teacher and then taken back. An additional letter was attached to the inventory. In the letter, parents were instructed to consider their own childhood and their children's present time life experiences. The results of the study pointed out that today's children considerably spent less time playing in the outdoor in comparison to their parents. According to parents, this derived from health conditions, worries about security, environmental impossibilities and use of technological instruments (computer, television, tablet, ...). The results are compatible with the findings in the related literature.
