Go Play Outside

Outdoor play is fundamental for children’s development as it can promote healthy social and physical development, emotional wellbeing, self-confidence, risk management and overall physical activity. Yet opportunities for children’s outdoor play have been decreasing across generations largely due to parental concerns about safety. This trend must be reversed and it requires a big societal shift.

Recognising this urgent need, the BC Injury Research & Prevention Unit (BCIRPU) at the BC Children’s Hospital Research unit has developed the Risk Reframing workshop to help parents and early child educators learn the importance of outdoor play for children and develop strategies for letting them engage in healthy outdoor play. This workshop has been delivered across Canada since 2013, resulting positive changes in behaviour, practice and policy among workshop participants.

However, the Risk Reframing workshop was available only in-person which was not the most efficient or practical way for promoting the large-scale societal shift. To this, we developed an online educational too for parents called https://outsideplay.ca, making it amenable to a broader population.

Brussoni, M., Ishikawa, T., Han, C., Pike, I., Faulkner, G., & Mâsse, L.C. (2018). Go play outside! Effects of a risk reframing tool on mothers’ tolerance for and parenting practices associated with children’s risky play – a study protocol for a randomized controlled trial. Trials, 19, 173. DOI: 10.1186/s13063-018-2552-4. [link]