4,151 Children, Followed Forward

As we approach the middle of August, our excitement is building for another school year of outdoor learning. While we love all the seasons, the fall holds a special place in our hearts. We especially love the sensory richness of the autumnal season: cold hands, fragrant leaves, the changing daylight, and mud that lasts until spring. It asks more of the adults than summer does, but we believe it gives so much back to the kids.

A study published in June of this year provided one more piece of hard evidence supporting the benefits of outdoor play in any season.  While researchers have long known that outdoor play and children's mental health are connected, what no one had done was follow the same children forward through time to see where early play habits led.

A team led by the University of Exeter tracked 4,151 children in Scotland, recording how often each child played outdoors at ages two, three, and four. Then they measured emotional and behavioral symptoms at ages four, five, six, and eight.

The results come as no surprise to us, but they bear repeating anyway. For every additional day per week a preschooler played outside, the odds of that child remaining in the healthy, low-symptom group through age eight rose by six to fourteen percent.

The researchers also accounted for the obvious potential confounds: household education, parents' working status, the child's physical health, and whether the family had a garden or a park within ten minutes of home. The pattern held regardless.

The lead researcher, Professor Helen Dodd, called it "a simple, low-cost way to support better mental health." She argued it belongs in public health, education, and planning policy, not just in parenting advice. We agree.

As the research builds proving what families and educators have always known, we look to lawmakers to support outdoor education in a meaningful way. That means funded outdoor learning opportunities, maintained playgrounds and accessible wild spaces, so all children can access nature even if they have no yard of their own. It also means recess treated as essential rather than optional, and outdoor learning treated as instruction rather than a reward for finishing other work.

But regardless of what may happen on the legislative level, we will keep supporting the families, caregivers, and educators working every day to bring the benefits and the beauty of the outdoors to children. 

Join us and rewild childhood.