Children's play, well-being and involvement: how children play indoors and outdoors in Norwegian early childhood education and care institutions

Abstract

In this article, we report on a Norwegian study exploring the relationship between children's play, well-being, and involvement, and identify how children play in indoor and outdoor environments at their early childhood education and care (ECEC) institution. In this quantitative study, structured video observations (960 two-minutes sequences) of 80 free play sessions (indoors and outdoors) at eight ECEC institutions were analysed to measure the time spent in different kinds of play types, and to code children's level of well-being and involvement, using the Leuven well-being and involvement scale [Laevers, F. (2005). Well-being and involvement in care settings. A process-oriented self-evaluation instrument. Retrieved from https://www.kindengezin.be/img/sics-ziko-manual.pdf]. The results demonstrated that there was a significant and positive correlation between children's play and their well-being and involvement. Children spent 2/3 of their time in different kinds of play during their free play time in ECEC, and there were significant differences between the types of play children engaged in indoor versus outdoor environments.