Outdoor and Nature Play and Social Emotional Development
- Type
- Course
- Date of Publication
- February 8, 2024
- Price
- See Agrilife Learn
Overview
Course Information
Increased engagement in outdoor and nature play can benefit young children's learning across all developmental domains.
The purpose of this 2-hour course is to offer early childhood professionals strategies for supporting children's social emotional development through outdoor play and learning activities.
Upon completion of this course, you will be able to:
- Identify ways children's connections to the natural world foster their social emotional growth;
- Discuss the value of unstructured outdoor and nature play for young children's social emotional development; and
- Create effective outdoor and nature play experiences to support social emotional development.
The development of this online course was 100% funded by federal Child Care and Development Funds from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, as part of an $8,000,000 grant from the Texas Workforce Commission.
Looking for solutions in your county? Contact your local extension experts
More choices in Childcare Training
- Course
To facilitate positive social and emotional outcomes for children, early childhood educators need to understand and recognize the role of stress and trauma on early brain development and implement proactive and responsive measures to build children’s resilience.
This 2-hour course aims to help early childhood professionals understand how they can play a part in cultivating positive social emotional outcomes for each child by applying trauma-informed and resiliency-supporting practices in early learning settings. - Course
Children do not develop in a vacuum, so their social emotional development and mental health outcomes depend in part on the protective factors available in the settings and systems where they live, learn, and grow.
The purpose of this 2-hour course is to highlight the roles of families and communities in supporting young children’s mental health and provide early childhood educators a variety of strategies to maximize the positive influence those systems can have on a child’s social emotional development. - Course
Despite the known benefits of outdoor and nature play for young children, early childhood educators and administrators may worry about issues of safety and liability.
The purpose of this 2-hour course is to equip early childhood professionals to view risk in outdoor and nature play as a process of balancing risks and benefits, rather than a barrier to including outdoor and nature play in your program. - Course
Planning effective outdoor and nature play experiences to support young children’s learning requires an intentional approach.
The purpose of this 2-hour course is to help early childhood educators and directors translate the intentional teaching practices they likely already use in other areas to create outdoor and nature play activity plans tailored to the individual needs of the children in each group within the program. - Course
Early childhood educators can make the most of planned outdoor and nature play experiences in terms of children’s learning through the interactions they have with children as they play.
The purpose of this 2-hour course is to offer early childhood professionals actionable strategies for facilitating learning through outdoor and nature play. - Course
Outdoor and nature play can bring early childhood professionals, families, and community partners together in support of young children’s learning.
The purpose of this 2-hour course is to share examples of successful efforts to engage families and communities around outdoor and nature play and prompt early childhood professionals to reflect on opportunities that might work well in their programs.