Katie Dickison

LBST 392

Nancy van Groll

June 28, 2020

                                                Self-Submission

When I first started this tutorial, I wasn’t quite sure what direction I wanted to go in regarding the benefits of outdoor play on children’s development. But when I read my first article, which was a broad overview of many different subtopics on outdoor play, there was one in particular that caught my eye, which was risky play. Now, I had heard of the term risky play before, but I knew very little about it and the issues surrounding inhibiting a child’s involvement in risky play. This is one of the reasons why it caught my attention in the first place. The other reason was that I work in a daycare where we’re constantly setting rules and boundaries for the kids as to where they’re allowed to go and what they’re allowed to do on the playground. With that being said, we’re essentially inhibiting all of those children’s involvement in risky play; we are apart of the problem. And I now know from this tutorial that this contributes to the bigger issue of restricting their natural development; their ability to gain proper environmental competence, a sense of purpose, self-worth and efficacy, social competence, and resilience.

In learning this information myself, it became apparent to me that there are a lot of parents out there who are not aware of this. For example, parents have become even more protective of their children than they ever have before. When once children were able to walk to school on their own or go off and have free time with their friends in the neighbourhood, many parents nowadays won’t even let them go to the end of the street or play without supervision. In their minds, they’re just trying to keep their children safe, but what they don’t realize is that they are setting them up for failure later in life. Failure being that they won’t know how to manage and perceive risk on their own, which means they’ll either get themselves into greater danger or continuously rely on others to protect them and solve their problems. This is precisely what more parents need to be made aware of. They need to know the damage that they are causing; otherwise, they won’t change their behaviour. It’s not enough to tell parents that their community is safe, and there’s a low likelihood of adverse outcomes from being outdoors. Even though it may be safe, many parents are not likely to take that risk, which is why it’s better to inform them of the danger they are putting their children in if we want anything to change, which we do. It’s crucial for children to experience potential risks so that they can learn, if they do make mistakes and get hurt, what to do in order for it never to happen again.

Overall, this tutorial was very beneficial in that it introduced me to a topic that is crucial for children’s development, which is a great interest of mine and something that many parents and caregivers should be interested in as well, even more so than myself. With that being said, moving forward in my studies, I would love to continue down this path of risky play but maybe specify my focus on another subtopic to strengthen my understanding of the subject. Therefore, when I begin working with children on a more full-time basis as a teacher, for example, I will be fully prepared and knowledgeable as to what I need to do in order for my students to succeed as best they can.