Sensory exploration of nature: Deriving physical, emotional, and social benefits from nature play

Spending time in nature during early childhood can be formative and can profoundly influence the development of positive environmental behaviors, attitudes, and ethics. Studies show that nature play can help children develop skills and capacities to learn, focus, and assess risk; inspire creativity and imagination; and promote physical health. Given the benefits of spending time in nature, children should have opportunities to learn in and experience nature. Understanding how children experience nature can enhance the ways in which early childhood educators integrate nature play into their curricula. This paper investigated how children explored and experienced a naturalized area through language and their senses.

This study took place in a small Prairie Habitat Garden (0.2 acres) connected to a day care center on the campus of a Canadian university. The day care center emphasized the importance of outdoor play and learning, and the day care teachers took the children outside every day. Once per week, the teachers took the children to the Prairie Habitat Garden for about an hour. The garden included native prairie plants and grasses, a boulder field, bird houses and a bee house, and an interpretive sign about the garden.

The participants for this study ranged in age from 2.5 to 5 years and represented a diversity of nationalities. The researchers observed the children during organized activities and free play in the garden and then had conversations with the children afterwards. They conducted weekly observations for 8 weeks, taking notes while observing, after observing, and after speaking with the children. On occasion, the researchers interacted with the children during their time in the garden, bringing the children together for organized outdoor activities. While observing, the researchers paid particular attention to the children's sensory experiences and their expressions of those experiences while learning in the garden. Once the researchers completed their observations, they analyzed their notes to identify themes.

The researchers identified three major themes from their observations. First, children experienced the natural world through all of their senses. They explored their natural surroundings by bounding through leaf piles, kicking up dust, balancing on rocks, listening to bird song, and smelling wet earth. The children learned from the feelings these experiences evoked; they did not require language to learn. For example, they did not name the different ways the ground felt under their feet; but they did seek out the experiences of walking on different types of ground.

The second theme was that although the children did not require language to learn, the researchers found that language facilitated learning. During outdoor play, teachers sometimes put words to an experience (such as hearing birdsong) to draw attention to that experience if it was being overlooked by the children. During free play, teachers also took advantage of child-inspired teachable moments to gather the children for an organized discussion or activity. The authors also found that language helped the children share experiences they deemed important. For example, the children in this study invented the word “tippy” to describe unstable rocks to caution each other when playing in the boulder field.

The third theme was that outdoor play evoked children's emotions and encouraged them to take positive risks. The children, while closely monitored by adults, took positive physical and emotional risks. For example, they learned that they had to exercise care and caution when scrambling over “tippy” rocks. When a few of the children discovered a sign that they interpreted to mean “beware of poisonous snakes” (there are no poisonous snakes in that part of Canada) and shared this information with their peers, the other children experienced fear and excitement and wanted to explore the area looking for snakes. Alternatively, when a child warned the others about the dangers of poison ivy, all they children avoided any area that contained plants that might be poison ivy. Other studies have shown that this kind of risk-taking at an early age can help children better assess risks as they grow older.

This study has several limitations. This was a short-term study that investigated how children experience nature. Long-term studies are needed to understand how early childhood nature experiences impact attitudes and behaviors in adulthood. Additionally, this study was very context specific. Given a different day care center, in a different location, with a different group of participants, the researchers might have observed different phenomena. Finally, the researchers frequently reflected on their own biases while observing. While they tried to mitigate this bias by considering the observations of teachers and soliciting feedback from teachers, their observations were likely colored by their own expectations.

The authors recommend that educators increase the amount of time children spend in nature and pair nature play with activities and conversations about the earth and the importance of sustainable living. The researchers also indicated that while children may not need language to learn through nature play, language may be helpful in teaching children about nature and sustainability. Pairing nature play with activities and conversations about the earth and sustainability may be beneficial.