UBC Associate Professor Dr. Mariana Brussoni was awarded an additional $1.3 million for her ongoing work to maximize outdoor playtime for early education and child care centers to support pandemic management and preparedness activities. Dr. Mariana Brussoni Time outside has always been a priority for Deborah Bakker and her family, and even more so during the pandemic. At the onset of COVID-19, when her two young girls were at home full-time while she and her husband juggled work, their evening routine quickly moved outside. Every day, there was a two-hour walk through the neighborhood woods, with occasional detours to the nearby park. Now, Gwen and Katie are back at daycare and school, but the family still gets out as much as possible. “When we spend more time outside moving our bodies, looking at the trees and the sky, the girls sleep better and are less moody,” explains Deborah. “It really helps with their ‘big feelings.’ We all benefit from being in nature.” So Deborah was excited to learn that her youngest daughter’s daycare was to be part of a research project looking at ways to increase outdoor play in early childhood education and care centers.
COVID-19 shines a light on the importance of outdoor play
The research program is led by Dr. Mariana Brussoni, associate professor in UBC’s department of pediatrics and school of population and public health, and director of UBC’s Human Early Learning Partnership. It’s called PRO-ECO, “Promoting Early Childhood Outdoors,” and the team has received a $1.3 million grant from the federal government’s Early Learning and Child Care Innovation Program to begin the second phase of the study. The first phase, which began last year with a trial at eight YMCA daycare centers around Greater Vancouver, is underway. Supported by the Lawson Foundation. “We already know from many other studies that more outdoor play is better. What we are doing with PRO-ECO is focusing on how we can change the attitudes and practices of preschools and families to support more outdoor play in their centers, especially in the context of the pandemic,” says Dr. Brussoni, who is also a BC Children’s Hospital investigator. “Extending the study will give us really important information, so at the end of it, we can come up with recommendations or guidelines that other child care centers can follow.” “When we spend more time outside, moving our bodies, looking at trees and the sky, girls sleep better and are less moody. It really helps with their “big feelings”. We all benefit from being in nature.” Deborah Bakker The team of Dr. Brussoni has been working alongside the YMCA of Greater Vancouver on all aspects of this project, right from the initial design. They look at many different elements — from the attitudes and beliefs of teachers and administrators, to outdoor play policies at each location, to provincial policies governing child care facilities. “The staff education and training embedded in the project has brought renewed excitement and enthusiasm for outdoor play and exploration to our early childhood educators,” comments Sarah Gallop, YMCA Director of Early Childhood Development. “It has enabled our staff to spend longer periods of time outdoors, become more creative in planning outdoor activities for children and become more confident in communicating children’s adventure and outdoor tales to their families.”
Get creative with your play area ‘makeovers’
The final component of the project is the actual physical space itself. That’s where UBC School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture professor Susan Herrington comes in. She and a group of her students did the “dirty” work of rebuilding the outdoor play areas. The budget is limited – $6,000 per site, with some provided by BC Cancer to incorporate sun protection into the interventions. “Increasingly in Vancouver, childcare centers are part of mixed-use complexes that also house apartments and retail. Since these complexes are usually made of concrete and glass, we see a lot of hard, inert surfaces in the outdoor play areas in these centers. This has made it more difficult to bring nature and natural loose parts into these places,” observes Herrington. An outdoor play area in one of the YMCA Child Care Center transformed through the PRO-ECO project. After spending time in each space and analyzing how children play in the existing spaces, students come up with ideas specific to each center. They worked with Métis botanist Lori Snyder to learn more about incorporating native plants into play areas and worked with wood artist Eric Scragg to upcycle a giant tree stump into a natural climber wood for a site. The team had to be creative, reusing affordable materials to increase opportunities for play. Herrington cites one example: “Students used the tape that marks the hiking trails as hanging streamers that sway in the breeze. It looks really pretty and the kids are jumping and reaching up to try and grab it.” In another example, one of the daycare centers is located under the Burrard Street Bridge and the goal was to block some of the “questionable activity” that was happening outside. Herrington says, “We’ve redefined the banners (usually displayed on construction fences) that advertise development projects. In collaboration with a local company, the students created scenes of nature on the banners they placed on the fence of the center.
New critics give rave reviews
Feedback has been overwhelmingly enthusiastic, especially in the eight centers that have now completed their outdoor interventions. One child made a bouquet of leaves to give to one of the landscape architecture students. Another child made a drawing as a thank you gift. At one centre, children were so excited about new plants called ‘bunny tails’ that they created their own songs. Leonilyn Lumbo, a veteran preschool educator at Bob and Kay Ackles YMCA Nanook House Child Care, is an enthusiastic supporter. “The first time we all explored the updated space, it didn’t take long to see how excited the kids were to experiment and learn, especially when it came to climbing, balance and many other valuable skills,” observes Lumbo. “The importance of outdoor play has never been more apparent than in the past two years during the pandemic.” Mariana Brussoni There are many other benefits of increased outdoor play, according to Dr. Brussoni. Her other studies showed that children’s well-being, depressive symptoms, prosocial and antisocial behaviors, and anxiety were significantly positively affected by spending more time outside. “If you’re thinking about your favorite childhood toy memory, chances are you’re outdoors,” says Dr. Brussoni. “If you dig into it, people talk about a sense of joy, a sense of freedom, moving their bodies, voices, immersed in nature, playing with other children outside. The importance of outdoor play has never been more apparent than in the past two years during the pandemic.” Deborah Bakker has eagerly watched the transformation of her daughter Gwen’s nursery. He’s seen firsthand the benefits of maximizing outdoor time, but points out that it’s much more than that. “Dr. EO Wilson’s biophilia hypothesis really speaks to me, which basically says that we won’t save what we don’t love. If you don’t have a visceral connection to trees and how they calm you, then you won’t care if they cut the tree down,” explains Deborah. “You can only achieve that if you’re regularly under a tree and you can’t just do it on weekends.” This story originally appeared on the BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute website.
