6 Summary of Session 1

This brief overview of the historical and cultural perspectives on young children’s engagement with the outdoors highlights that, although it might seem that the issue is a current ‘hot topic’, in fact it has been seen as an important issue for many years in many contexts. It is true that recent world events, including global pandemics and discussions around children’s wellbeing along with a perceived crisis in childhood, have ensured more and more interested parties continue to join in the discussion.

As you reach the end of this session, you should now be able to:

• list some key voices from the past who spoke about young children’s engagement with the outdoors and nature
• briefly outline some cultural practices of young children’s engagement with the outdoors and nature
• list some of the messages from research about why being outdoors benefits young children and about current practices with young children in the outdoors.

In the next session you will explore further why babies are often excluded from research and practice in this area.

You can now go to Session 2 [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] .