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Natural Playscapes_Guide_web

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Outdoor play increases fitness levels and builds an active lifestyle. Running, walking, and exploring burns more calories than indoor activities. These activities also improve muscle, heart, and lung function. Playing outside involves uneven surfaces (e.g., rocks, branches) and unstable surfaces (e.g., gravel, mud). Playing around these elements increases balance, agility, dexterity, and depth perception. This also builds sensory skills in children. Sunshine and natural light lowers the chance of nearsightedness and improves distance vision in children. Children are more likely to develop nearsightedness looking at screens indoors than children who prefer to play outdoors. Children who play in natural settings have a wider freedom of movement to develop gross motor skills in novel ways, such as crawling, rolling, standing, and jumping. Children who play outdoors tend to be healthier than children who play indoors. Being exposed to new elements helps build their immune system and antibodies which fight infections and diseases. IMMUNE SYSTEM IMPROVED VISION BALANCE & COORDINATION REDUCED OBESITY EXPLORE P H Y S I C A L 7

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