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Ute på dagis (Outdoors in the preschool)
... Genom utomhuspedagogiken skapas en mer rörelseintensiv lärandeform i förskoleklass och skola vilket uppmärksammats av flera vetenskapliga studier som fokuserar våra relationer till den fysiska miljön (t.ex. Grahn, et al., 1997). En allt mindre rörelseintensiv livsmiljö där människan kan få utlopp för sitt evolutionära behov av naturlig rörelse, är sannolikt en av flera orsaker till samhällets höga ohälsotal. ...
... Det visar sig också att förskolegårdar med en stor yta och en större biologisk mångfald stimulerar till utökad tid utomhus. Den goda platsen för yngre barn är "sandlådan", men också rumsbildande gröna miljöer som skapar "personal space", utmaningar, spänning och fascination samt möjlighet till vila och reflektion (Grahn, et al., 1997). Bland ytterligare studier som bekräftar dessa effekter av utevistelsens positiva betydelse för vår hälsa, motoriska utveckling, koncentrationsförmåga och lärande kan nämnas (Fjørtoft, 2000, Ericsson, 2003och Nilsson, 2003. ...
... Consequently, as a learning environment, outdoor environments seem more beneficial compared to indoor settings (e.g., Hattie et al. 1997). Grahn et al. (1997) also suggest that contact with nature has important effects on children's motor coordination and attention abilities, while other studies reveal how access to nearby nature is important for the cognitive, affective, and relational development of children, adolescents, and adults. Nonetheless, the available body of evidence on the impact of neighbourhood greenness or residential proximity to a green space on physical activity is still inconclusive and there is considerable inconsistency in the reported direction and strength of associations (Lachowycz and Jones 2011). ...
... While risky play involves potential costs through the chance of physical injury, research has indicated a myriad of benefits. Through risk-taking in play, children show increased physical activity, improved motor and spatial skills, as well as learning risk assessment and risk mastery (Ball, 2002;Boyesen, 1997;Fjørtoft, 2000;Grahn, Mårtensson, Lindblad, Nilsson, & Ekman, 1997;Smith, 1998;Stutz, 1999). In their 14-week risky play intervention study, Lavrysen et al. (2015) found that children in the experimental group significantly improved reaction times in detecting risk compared to a control group, as well as their own pre-intervention performance. ...
... Most of the research about health and schools has involved real-life settings and considered cumulative or long-term effects. With regard to physical health, Grahn et al. (1997) carried out a study in Sweden in two different day care settings, with 3-7 year-olds. One of the centers was considered typically urban, surrounded by tall buildings, including low plants and a brick path for cycling. ...
The vast majority of people live in urbanized areas. These offer numerous advantages, such as access to a great variety of entertainment and cultural events, services such as educational and medical centers, and opportunities for mixing with different kinds of people in lively public places. Urbanized areas also challenge residents, however, with pollution, crowding and information overload. The effort to deal with the various demands of everyday urban life taxes the physical, psychological and social resources of residents and, over time, this may impair their health. During the past few decades, environmental psychologists have initiated research into the role that the sociophysical environment plays in restoring people’s diminished capabilities. This chapter focuses on restorative environments, which promote people’s health and well-being by supporting their recovery from efforts to meet the demands of everyday life. We first discuss some basic concepts, including health, restoration and the theories that have guided research to date. Then, we move on to describe some key findings in the research area, with particular regard to the restorative potential of different settings in and around cities and their implications for urban residents’ health and well-being. The research evidence concerning environmental supports for restoration is organized into four sections: the residential context, work and school settings, care settings, and other settings. Overall, the results obtained show that restoration is more likely to occur in environments that offer contact with nature, from wilderness to a window view of trees. Most of the empirical studies we review refer to environments with natural elements and features; however, not all restorative environments offer contact with nature, and we also discuss the restorative qualities found in other settings, such as monasteries, museums and urban plazas. In covering the research on these different environments, we consider a variety of short-term psychological benefits that reflect restorative processes, such as improvements in emotional states, the ability to concentrate, and the capacity to inhibit impulsive behavior. We also consider how achieving long-term health goals, such as weight control, might be facilitated by repeated restorative experiences. The empirical evidence obtained over the past few decades offers some guidance for environmental design and planning that can boost the restorative quality of residential areas, workplaces, schools, hospitals and other settings of everyday life. We close by discussing these practical implications and by making recommendations for future research.
... Several studies have linked outdoor play to physical health. Grahn et al. (1997) (as described in Moore and Cooper Marcus, 2008) showed that children who played in wooded outdoors areas of their preschool exhibited advanced gross motor skills, higher fitness levels, and lower sickness rates than their traditional school counterparts. Liu et al. (2007) found vegetation around a child's house to be predictive of a healthy weight in children living in dense neighborhoods. ...
INTRODUCTION
Urban areas require stormwater management. Recently there has been a movement towards more nature-based, green infrastructure approaches for managing stormwater. These systems have also demonstrated additional ecosystem benefits much needed in urban areas. At the same time, decades of research support the need for access to nature for healthy childhood development. Designing and locating nature-based stormwater systems where children frequent renders systems as multi-functional spaces, providing synergetic opportunities, which benefit individuals and communities. Challenges to integrating these spaces include safety, cost, and management, all of which can be overcome by smart and appropriate design. Such design requires collaboration between different skillsets and stakeholders through some minimal, but essential changes in the consultation and design process. Ultimately, integrating nature-based stormwater practices into children's outdoor spaces will provide economic, environmental, and social benefits to urban areas.
The purpose of the International Making Cities Livable (IMCL) movement, founded in 1985, is to enhance the wellbeing of all inhabitants, strengthen community, improve social and physical health, and increase civic engagement by sustainably reshaping the built environment of our cities, suburbs, towns and villages.
The purpose of the study was to examine outdoor environments to understand whether or not young children had access to play materials and loose parts to enhance their playful experiences. This study sought to gather the availability of SAFE and quality play opportunities in early childhood outdoor environments. The study took place in one state of the United States. The study found 75% of outdoor spaces had a playground structure that including a place for children to climb and slide down. The study found 83% of programs had appropriate surfacing materials provided in the outdoor play environment. Loose parts, such as toys, balls, and action figures were also included in the outdoor play and learning environment. The significance of play that this study shows is outdoor environments have an abundant opportunities to support the developmental characteristics of children.
The current paper had two aims, first to investigate Turkish pre-service preschool teachers’ perceptions of different kinds of landscapes that can be used to achieve their educational goals, their ideas about the characteristics of these settings, and the contribution to children’s education, the resource needs, motivations, and barriers they associated with these settings, and second to explore the possible relationship between nature relatedness of the participants and their outdoor setting type preferences (educational and personal). The participants were 300 pre-service preschool teachers from two universities in Turkey. The researchers used a landscape preferences questionnaire accompanied by 16 photographs of types of outdoor settings and human influence attributes to explore the landscape preferences of the participants. Additionally, a nature relatedness scale was used to investigate the participants’ understanding of how human beings and nature are connected. The results showed that while the participants’ educational preferences were generally in the categories of park and maintained settings, their personal preferences were water and natural areas. The results also revealed that although there were no significant differences in the preferences of the participants’ educational landscape and their level of nature relatedness, there were statistically significant differences in their personal landscape preferences and levels of nature relatedness.
The design and location of green outdoor areas close to people’s home affect their health. Above all, having some sort of outdoor area has a noticeable effect. Those who live in blocks of flats without balconies experience considerably more stress and tiredness. If one has a balcony, the values for stress and tiredness experienced are significantly lower, reduced by 27% and 28% respectively. Those who have access to allotments or gardens are best off. Those who have gardens of more than 600 square metres experience the discomfort of stress only half as often as those who live in blocks of flats without balconies. The differences regarding tiredness are even greater. Those who have their own gardens suffer from tiredness only 42% as often as those who live in blocks of flats without balconies. These values are statistically verified. The group of people living in blocks of flats without balconies does not include people who have holiday cottages or who rent allotments, who are significantly healthier. Whether one lives in the centre or on the periphery of a town has an effect, regardless of type of dwelling. The incidence of tiredness, irritation, and headaches increases significantly the nearer one lives to the centre. An interesting question is if there is any significance to being able to see parks and green areas from the windows of one's workplace. The answers in this investigation show that the effects are in fact noticeable. Comparisons have been made between people who have similar jobs and who do not spend any of their work time out of doors. If parks and green areas can be seen from the window during the working day, people at the workplace are much fitter. For example, these people experience painful irritation only 25% as often as those without a view from a window, and experience uncomfortable stress only 40% as often. These figures are statistically verified.
The ethological command in art is a review of certain aspects of form perception that may be influenced by biological evolution. The information from recent ethological studies, which examines the similarities between animal and human behavior, should interest the artist and augment his intuitive capacity to create aesthetic form. Many factors are involved in the evolutionary changes of most animal species. One factor that has guided the development of animal and human behavior is called selection pressure. An example of selection pressure is the need for social communication for sexual reproduction and group protection. Another category of selection pressure resides in the various dangerous animals and predators that impinge on the survival of particular animal groups. So intense is predator selection pressure that some animal species appear to have evolved unlearned recognition and avoidance of predators. The visual cues for both social signals and predator recognition are termed 'releasers' because they evoke a somewhat stereotyped reaction when viewed by certain animals. Man was certainly exposed to specific selection pressures during his long evolutionary history, and, as a result, he uses intricate social signals, such as facial expressions and body postures, for communicating emotional states during interpersonal contact. The spontaneous fear exhibited by man to snakes, scorpions and other insects with many legs suggests that these avoidance responses represent emotional by-products for survival purposes-residual from an earlier evolutionary period. If the artist desires to create an exciting piece of art, he might consider using various releasers and selected social signals to enhance the visual impact of his work. Some of the visual releasers that will be discussed comprise paired concentric circles, serrated contours and linear bands that exhibit high conspicuousness. The artist can attempt to control the viewer's arousal by selecting visual releasers that will evoke the desired response. /// Dans le domaine de l'Art, l'orientation éthologique consiste à reconsidérer certains aspects de perception des formes qui peuvent être influencés par l'évolution biologique. De récentes comparaisons éthologiques sur l'évolution du comportement animal et humain devraient être de nature à intéresser l'artiste et à augmenter sa capacité intuitive au moment de créer une forme esthétique. De nombreux facteurs agissent sur l'évolution de la plupart des espèces animales. Un premier élément, ayant guidé le développement du comportement animal et humain, est la pression sélective. Un exemple de pression sélective est le besoin de communication sociale visant à la reproduction sexuelle et à la protection du groupe. Une autre catégorie de pression sélective est illustrée par les bêtes féroces, qui réduisent le temps de survie de certaines espèces animales. La pression sélective de la bête féroce est si intense, que certaines espèces animales ont un flair inné provoquant une réaction de défense vis-à-vis des bêtes féroces. Les indices visuels des gestes de communication sociale et de détection des bêtes féroces sont appelés signes stimulants car ils évoquent une sorte de réaction type chez les animaux se trouvant en contact avec ces bêtes féroces. L'homme fut certainement exposé à des pressions sélectives précises au cours de sa longue évolution, d'où l'utilisation de gestes de communication compliqués, tels qu'expressions faciales et attitudes corporelles évoquant les états émotionnels dans les rapports humains. La peur spontanée ressentie par l'homme devant un serpent, un scorpion ou devant tout autre insecte multipattes montre que ces réactions de fuite sont des dérivés émotionnels de l'instinct de conservation, remontant à une époque antérieure de son évolution. Si l'artiste désire créer une œuvre d'art extraordinaire, il devra tenir compte de divers signes stimulants et gestes de communication pour rehausser l'impact visuel de son œuvre. Certains signes stimulants visuels, parmi ceux dont il est question, comprennent des cercles concentriques jumelés, des contours dentelés et des bandes linéaires aux formes très marquées. L'artiste peut essayer de contrôler le degré d'excitation chez l'observateur en sélectionnant des signes stimulants visuels qui évoqueront la réaction souhaitée.
In the endeavour to achieve a more sustainable society, the shaping of environmental attitudes and behaviour among youth must be considered of utmost importance. Therefore this article outlines a research project studying outdoor-oriented organizations in Sweden during the 20th century. The conceptual framework of "ecostrategies" is used for discussing views and practices with regard to the utilization of nature (i.e., domination of nature vs. active and passive adaptation to nature). The Nordic tradition of friluftsliv (open-air life) and allemansrätt (everyone's right of access to the countryside within certain restrictions) is an important framework, both when discussing outdoor life organizations of external origin and when discussing future prospects of outdoor life. So far a brief study of the Swedish Scout and Guide Association (and its predecessors) has been carried out which indicates that the Scouts have been lagging behind the public environmental debate. Reasons for this lack of manifest causality between outdoor life and environmental engagement are discussed, and further studies outlined.
Older people must be understood in terms of changes that occur both in themselves and in the world around them. The transactions between older people and their environments are discussed in terms of the support-autonomy dialectic and specific behaviors involving environmental reactivity and proactivity. Three examples of research are discussed to illustrate how autonomy is maintained on one level while necessary support is accepted on another level (environmental multiplexity): shared housing, intrainstitutional relocation, and the household environment of impaired people.
The aims of the study were to assess the effects of light on the production of stress hormones, classroom performance, body growth, and sick leave, of school children. About 90 children were investigated in their school environment for a duration of one school year. The children were situated in four classrooms differing in respect to the access to natural daylight and artificial fluorescent light. The results indicated the existence of a systematic seasonal variation with more stress hormones in summer than in winter. The children situated in the one classroom lacking both natural daylight and fluorescent daylight tubes demonstrated a marked deviation from this pattern. High levels of morning cortisol were associated with sociability, while moderate or low levels seemed to promote individual concentration. Annual body growth was smallest for the children with the highest levels of morning cortisol. Possibly, the production of cortisol had some influence on sick leave. It may be concluded, that windowless classrooms should be avoided for permanent use.
Children's short-term memory was studied under 2 experimental conditions: 1 in which recall was expected to be facilitated due to the provision of a study period and 1 in which a distracting task was imposed that was expected to interfere with recall. 40 subjects at each of 2 age levels, 7 and 11 years, were tested in a serial-position recall task in a control as well as in 1 of the experimental conditions. Overall, recall was higher at the older than at the younger age level. In the facilitation condition, recall improved for the older children only, especially at the primacy positions. In the distraction condition, recall declined and performance for the older age level did not differ from that of the younger. The results were discussed in relation to the development of rehearsal strategies.