Jumping off rocks: Why children need to play outdoors to thrive

Nature is a form of therapy at TimberNook, where kids heal behavioral problems by playing in the woods.

Credit: TimberNook

Jumping off rocks. Climbing trees. Hanging upside down. It spins so fast it could make an adult dizzy.

Meet Angela Hanscom, an occupational therapist who concludes that children need adventurous activities to develop a healthy sense of body and mind. He argues that not only do children need far more movement than our sedentary society allows them, but if they are to thrive, they need exactly the kind of movement that would leave adults breathless.

Often brought into classrooms to solve behavioral problems, Hanscom realized that today’s children were not getting enough free play, exploration, and exercise to enable them to focus properly in school. He began using movement as therapy; He helped children heal by spinning very fast on the carousel and flying very high on the swing.

Hanscom, a mother of three, was founded TimberTail In 2013. It started as an experimental therapy program in his own backyard before expanding to three woodlands in Maine and expanding into franchises nationally. I recently read “Stable and Barefoot: How Unrestricted Outdoor Play Builds Strong, Confident, and Skilled Children.” He discussed the philosophy of child development, which is also the subject of his book.

How dangerous is it for children to be too sedentary?

Current research shows that children sit in chairs for approximately nine hours a day. Being taken to school, being taken home from school, sitting for hours. Then they go home and have homework. They may do some exercise, but most of the time they are still in an upright position. What should actually happen is the children spinning around in circles. They have to go upside down because there are these little hair cells inside the inner ear, and when we move quickly, the fluid in the ears moves back and forth, stimulating these hair cells and enhancing what we call vestibular sense. If this is underdeveloped because children are not moving enough, then this can affect what we call sensory integration; This basically means that the brain is organized so that children can learn.

Why is it important for children to climb trees and jump off rocks?

It helps you know where your body is in space so you can stay in your seat without falling over. This is actually a problem. Children are literally falling off their chairs in schools now. The way we treat this as occupational therapists is to have our children spin in circles and this helps them gain greater body awareness so they can navigate their environment effectively.

Sometimes I see a child spinning in circles and hear an adult say “don’t spin.” You’ll feel dizzy or get off that rock, it’ll hurt. But if, as adults, we prevent them from acting in this way, we actually become an obstacle to the neurological development that needs to happen in order for them to be safe in their environment.

Some may describe your style of outdoor therapy as radical and progressive, while others may view it as common sense. How would you describe this?

I think of it more like restoration. I don’t think this is a progressive idea. For me, as an occupational therapist, a child’s true occupation is play. And playing outdoors is truly meaningful for many of us. Many of us have fond memories of it, but it’s also really at risk. … That’s why it’s so therapeutic. That’s why many therapists will train in this because they see how healing it is. It’s about giving children what you have, what they always should have.

In fact, it is a very traditional approach, as opposed to a radical approach.

Yes, we are just trying to preserve a tradition. We say you can’t touch this. For example, when we go to schools, teachers are not allowed to enter play time and provide teaching moments. We’ll save that for later. This is the time when they need to figure things out. Children need this time.

Have you recreated your own childhood?

Growing up in Vermont, we were a group of kids, five or six of us. But at TimberNook, it’s like 25 kids creating communities in the woods with natural materials. It is a dream come true for children. It is played outdoors for hours. It forces them to think creatively.

When did you start collaborating with schools?

We started going to schools with TimberNook in 2017. It was a fascinating process. We’re at 10 schools now, but one in particular, Laconia Christian Academy, is really doing it right. They started this five years ago and did it for two hours once a week while TimberNook was in school and saw immediate benefits. So they increased it to four hours of forest time.

It’s a very academic school. Once they saw the benefits, they moved up to a half-hour recess and an hour on top of the four hours of TimberNook time.

Did increased play time have an impact on academic performance?

They did not see any change in academics during the pandemic. If anything, they’ve seen an increase. The school principal said: We see happiness, we see that children are more resilient, stronger, able to solve their own problems. This was really interesting. We are now investigating this with the University of New Hampshire on how school culture changes. This work is just getting started, but it’s going to be really fascinating because I think it’s time to rethink what we do in schools.

What was it that kept kids away from playing outside? Screens? Or is it that parents are afraid of dangers outside?

One of the biggest factors comes from fear. Fear is something we cannot see, but it is one of the main reasons why parents and schools do not provide adequate outdoor playtime. Fear that there is not enough time for play in the school environment. Tendency to feel that schools need to push more academics. Fear that children will miss out if they don’t get enough exercise at a very early age. This causes children to spend too much time on sports. … Screen time is another important factor. It’s highly addictive and replaces a lot of good old fashioned play time. The kind where children dig in the ground for hours, roll downhill, and develop muscles and senses for healthy child development.

For many families, the pandemic meant your child was forced to stare at a screen for hours for distance learning.And It’s hard to walk it back now.

We are in a bigger hole than we were before. I think the pandemic has exposed many problems and unfortunately made the situation worse.

Are you optimistic that we, as a society, can try to make this change?

I really think people are waking up. I think it’s time now, there’s a lot of interest and now everyone you talk to knows it’s a problem.

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