Behavior Mapping Of Young Children’s Play Behaviors

Optimal design of outdoor play spaces has potential for widespread benefits to young children due to the positive contributions to children’s social, physical, and cognitive development. PURPOSE: To assess cross-sectional associations between schoolyard location with children’s physical activity, play type, and social behaviors. METHODS: For one outdoor period, children at one school (n=17, 3-6y) were observed using two focal child direct observation systems [Observational System for Recording Physical Activity in Children-Preschool (OSRAC-P) and Play Observation Scale] and behavior mapping (5s observe, 25s record). Outcomes linked to locations included physical activity intensity and type, context, activity initiator, group composition and size, and cognitive play type. Behavior maps were digitized and optimized hot spot analysis was used to identify statistically significant clusters of behaviors (Figure 1). RESULTS: Moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (29% of observations) clustered in the open space for preschoolers, with no clustering for kindergarteners. The most common activity type was walking (27%) which did not cluster. Other activity types clustered in different playground locations (e.g., sitting on stumps). Cluster locations differed by age group (e.g., preschoolers had a climbing cluster on logs, kindergarteners had one on the hill). Open space was the most common context (55%) while functional play was the predominant type of cognitive play (35%). Children most often spent time in the presence of a peer (44%) or multiple children (28%) and directly engaging with other children (57%). Average group size was 1 (max 6) with larger groups clustered in the mud pit for kindergarteners but not preschoolers. CONCLUSION: Behavior mapping is a viable tool for characterizing the rich context of children’s outdoor free-play. Additional research is needed to explore differences by age and schoolyard design.