THE GREAT outdoors is becoming an increasingly alien experience for Irish children.
New research shows children spend much less time playing outside in the wild and much more time inside in supervised play areas than their parents did.
A Heritage Council-commissioned study found a decrease of 23 per cent in the number of children who play in fields, a 20 per cent fall in the number who play in wild spaces and a 19 per cent drop in those who play in the woods.
The research was based on a survey of 1,000 parents who were asked to identify where they played as children and where their 7- to 11-year-old offspring play now.
Playing at home, in a friend’s home indoors, in the garden and in the school playground were still the most popular locations across the generations but there was a major increase in the level of supervision of today’s children.
The study found a 31 per cent increase in the level of supervision of play at home, a 22 per cent rise in school playgrounds, a 19 per cent in school playing fields and a 35 per cent increase in outdoor playgrounds.
There was also a 29 per cent increase in supervision while playing in gardens, 43 per cent in indoor activity centres, 16 per cent in fields and 14 per cent in wild places.
The results of the survey, conducted last August by Behaviour Attitudes, were published yesterday to coincide with the launch of a new online heritage resource, Heritage in Schools (heritagecouncil.ie), to promote greater access for children to the natural world.
Heritage Council chief executive Michael Starrett said parental concern about supervision was acting as a barrier to children exploring the outdoors. Playgrounds and indoor centres did not provide the same learning opportunities as the natural world, he added.
“If future generations are expected to protect and preserve our natural world, children must be encouraged to take an interest in and experience the real outdoors,” he said.
The study cited a 7 per cent increase in those playing in school fields, an 18 per cent rise in those playing in outdoor playgrounds and a 41 per cent increase in children playing in indoor activity centres.
Several recent studies in the UK and US have drawn a correlation between, on the one hand, free and unstructured play in the outdoors and, on the other, improved problem-solving skills, focus and self-discipline among children.