Details

Purpose: Risky and adventurous play involves fun movement for children in addition to age-appropriate uncertainty and risk of physical injury. It provides benefits for motor and social skills, mental health, and quality of family dynamics. This symposium aims to introduce risky play, explore when and how opportunities for risky play present themselves and investigate the value of it for physical and mental health outcomes and factors associated with variation in tolerance of risky play across settings.

Rationale: Increasing engagement in risky play is a low-cost way to promote activity in children and may contribute to childhood obesity prevention. This has led to exploring creative methods and the development of behaviour change interventions to increase the perceived value of risky play by parents and schools. This symposium will share practical lessons learned on research with different target groups (parents & educators), and how these insights can be translated across different cultures.  

Objectives: The symposium will (i) showcase new ways of measuring risky play and links with health, (ii) describe insights from risky play research with children, parents and educators in different contexts, (iii) share what works when measuring play ‘in the wild’, and (iv) discuss future directions to ensure that societal determinants can be addressed to encourage child-friendly environments that promote risky play.

Summary: In Talk 1, Dr Nesbit will share a theoretical model linking adventurous play to child anxiety and the findings of the British Children’s Play survey, highlighting links between children’s time spent playing adventurously and their mental health. Talk 2 by Prof Sandseter will explore the effects of risky play through innovative technology, including virtual reality, eye-tracking and motion capturing. In Talk 3, Rachel Ramsden will share insights from the new mixed-methods PRO-ECO study that measures children’s outdoor and risky play behaviour, and which draws on participatory methods to include children’s voices in this work.

Format: The format includes an introduction by the Chair (2 min) followed by three oral presentations (15 minutes each). The Discussant will subsequently provide a brief overview (3 min) of the topics presented during the session, and their own participatory action research findings of how teachers in Canada have incorporated risky play into elementary school curricular learning (5 min), allowing 15 minutes for a general discussion moderated by the Discussant. 

Interaction: Delegates will be encouraged to ask questions. The Discussant and Chair will facilitate interactive exchange with attendees during the General Discussion.

Speaker