How do we know what young children think about their playtime outdoors?

Credit: MNStudio via Adobe Stock.

By Emily Ranken on 6 August 2024

At a time when one in ten primary school-age children is thought to have a probable mental health disorder, there are related concerns that opportunities for young children to engage in outdoor play and physical activity are declining, to the detriment of their mental as well as physical wellbeing. If we are to design effective interventions to address these problems, we need measures that take into account children’s own views. Unable to find an existing example of such a tool, we have created our own. We hope this new means of capturing young children’s feedback on the immediate wellbeing impacts of play interventions will be of wider utility to projects aiming to improve outcomes for children. We are keen to hear from people interested in developing the tool and related measures.

A team of us at IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society, with the Bradford Institute of Health Research, have been working with schools, parents, children, community organisations and local authority staff to develop a whole school intervention, called PUSH (Play in Urban Spaces for Health), funded through UCL Grand Challenges. As the project name suggests, it is intended to promote regular outdoor play and physical activity, in this case among children aged 4-7. The objective is to make a positive contribution to child wellbeing.

In taking forward this work, we started from the position that children’s views on their own experience are important: it is their right, according to article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which the UK is a signatory; moreover, children possess unique insights that may not be accurately captured by adults. Accordingly, we wanted to hear first-hand from children about how outdoor play impacted their sense of wellbeing. But we quickly found there were no accurate tools to measure young children’s wellbeing available that could be completed by children themselves just after outdoor play and in classroom conditions.

So, developing such a tool was our first task. We needed a tool that: 1) captured the short-term effects of a play intervention; 2) aligned with aspects of wellbeing that children themselves consider to be important; 3) used child self-reports; and, from there, 4) could be utilized in large-scale trials to quickly capture wellbeing across whole classes.

Based on our review of the evidence and consultations with experts, we identified six key wellbeing domains: emotional and psychological wellbeing, physical wellbeing, social wellbeing, participation in the environment, agency, and safety. To assess these domains, we developed 12 statements for children to respond to. For instance, to measure emotional wellbeing, children would be asked to rate how happy, sad, excited, angry or calm they felt after a play session; and to measure participation in the environment, children would be asked to respond to the statement, “There were things for me to do or play with.” These statements were then incorporated into a tool delivered via Gorilla on tablets, allowing children to use their fingers to select their responses. We ensured that the tool was as inclusive as possible by using simple images and having audio reading out each statement to support children who may not yet have the reading skills to engage with the tool.

Example of one of the statements from the tool in the format we presented to children.

We then tested the tool with small groups of children aged 4-7 in a London primary school. Most children could understand the emotion statements, although younger children needed more help with some of the concepts. The children were able to respond to statements about the play they had engaged in that day. They gave invaluable feedback, showing us, for example, that the older children wanted “a little bit” as an option, because if the only options were “a lot” or “not at all” they would find it hard to choose. Younger children might prefer just two options. We tested children’s understanding of the emotion statements (e.g. “I feel sad”) by asking children to tell us about situations in which they might feel this way; the children were very expressive when explaining these emotions, using their facial expressions and body language appropriately to show what each emotion might look like.

Teachers and teaching assistants also felt the tool worked well, appreciating its simplicity and the potential for engaging the children. They did note, however, that some children would need initial guidance and support, particularly those with special educational needs or English as an additional language. Practical suggestions included using the tool in small groups and ensuring there were enough adults available to help.

We continue to test this tool for validity and reliability, with the goal of using it alongside other global wellbeing measures to evaluate the PUSH intervention, but also contribute to broader efforts in improving child mental health and wellbeing through school-based interventions.

For further information about the tool and about PUSH, contact Emily Ranken (e.ranken@ucl.ac.uk).