Risky Play: as safe as possible or as safe as necessary?

The concept of risky play has risen in popularity over the last decade, yet remains a new research area. Gemma Goldenberg from the Baby Development Lab discusses decision making around risky play and its place in early years education.

Measuring Early Childhood Educators’ Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior–Related Self-Efficacy: A Systematic Review of Tools

Early childhood educators’ (ECEs) self-efficacy is often predictive of their ability and likelihood of promoting healthy activity behaviors in childcare settings. To date, ECEs’ physical activity and sedentary behavior–related self-efficacy has been measured in a variety of ways in childcare-based research, creating difficulty when comparing across studies. To identify the different approaches ECEs’ self-efficacy is assessed, the current study aimed to compare all existing tools that quantitatively measure physical activity and sedentary behavior–related self-efficacy of pre- and in-service ECEs. Seven online databases were searched for original, peer-reviewed, English-written journal articles. Articles were deemed eligible if they employed a tool which measured physical activity and/or sedentary behavior–related self-efficacy of pre- or in-service ECEs. A total of 16 studies were included in this review, and 13 unique tools were identified. All tools measured task self-efficacy ( n = 13), while only 1 tool measured barrier self-efficacy, and approximately half of the tools ( n = 7; 54%) reported on the validity and reliability. Great variability existed among the self-efficacy items included in the tools; however, common constructs included: teaching/leading physical activity, fundamental movement skill development, and physical activity programming. Very few tools mentioned sedentary behavior ( n = 2) and outdoor/risky play ( n = 2). Given the low number of studies that tested validity and reliability of their self-efficacy tools, the lack of consideration for barrier self-efficacy, and the paucity of tools that fully encompassed physical activity, sedentary behavior, and outdoor play considerations for ECEs, future research is needed to validate a new, reliable tool.

Associations between Children’s Risky Play and ECEC Outdoor Play Spaces and Materials

Children spend a large amount of time each day in early childhood education and care (ECEC) institutions, and the ECEC play environments are important for children’s play opportunities. This includes children’s opportunities to engage in risky play. This study examined the relationship between the outdoor play environment and the occurrence of children’s risky play in ECEC institutions. Children (n = 80) were observed in two-minute sequences during periods of the day when they were free to choose what to do. The data consists of 935 randomly recorded two-minute videos, which were coded second by second for several categories of risky play as well as where and with what materials the play occurred. Results revealed that risky play (all categories in total) was positively associated with fixed equipment for functional play, nature and other fixed structures, while analysis of play materials showed that risky play was positively associated with wheeled toys. The results can support practitioners in developing their outdoor areas to provide varied and exciting play opportunities.