Outdoor spaces design in early childhood settings – analysing opportunities for children’s play in Portugal

ABSTRACT In this paper, we characterise outdoor spaces and play opportunities in 12 Portuguese early childhood settings (ECS), extending scientific knowledge about how outdoor environments are commonly organised and used in Portugal. To achieve this goal, we developed an observation tool (GO-Exterior) based on scientific literature concerning design and planning of outdoor play environments. The study reveals that most outdoor environments lacked important features to provide interesting opportunities for children’s play, with significant deficits in terms of natural areas and materials, loose objects and diversity in surfaces or topographies. Data gathered support the need for specific policies and strategies to improve outdoor play opportunities in ECS. GO-Exterior can potentially support further studies in this area, providing important data for interventions in early childhood centres following a play value perspective on the design of outdoor spaces.