Let your child play and exercise outdoors at playgrounds and parks and on various types of equipment, with supervision. Observe if your child is ready. If they look frustrated, stop and let them try something else.
Children who play outdoors regularly tend to be fitter and leaner, develop stronger immune systems, play more creatively, have more active imaginations, report lower stress levels and demonstrate greater respect for themselves and others. Burdette, H. L., & R. C. Whitaker (2005). Resurrecting free play in young children: Looking beyond fitness and fatness to attention, affiliation and affect. Archives of Paediatric and Adolescent Medicine, 159, 46-50. FjØrtoft, I. (2004). Landscape as Playscape: The effects of natural environments on children’s play and motor development. Children, Youth and Environments, 14(2), 21-44.
A researcher suggested that adult over-protection during outdoor play could potentially contribute to children’s risk anxiety, a loss in confidence when presented with overcoming a risk-taking task, and negative results for cognitive development due to reduction in active play.
Children learn and discover personal abilities and attributes, likes and dislikes, and demonstrate their strengths in different developmental domains to solve problems.