Episode 144 Mariana Brussoni on the importance of risky play

Lars og Pål

On this episode Lars speaks to professor Mariana Brussoni about her research on risky play, injury statistics, outdoor play, the influence of nature on children’s play, and how to keep children as safe as necessary, not as safe as possible, and why this distinction matters so much.

Dr. Mariana Brussoni is a Professor at the University of British Columbia, Director of the Human Early Learning Partnership, and a founding member of Outdoor Play Canada.

Topics covered include injury statistics and play, the concept of affordances, discussion of the term risky play vs adventurous play, special challenges for allowing risky play in schools and child care centers, how free play develops social skills, how understanding of consent relates to play experiences, play as evolved need, the importance of age mixing, the influence of family and culture on play and risk perception, how to recalibrate our expectations of what children are capable of, the influence of having enough time for free play, Jonathan Haidt’s book The Anxious Generation where Mariana’s research plays a prominent role, how infrastructure influences the possibility of play, individual responsibility versus social and cultural change, how to create more space for play in schools, risk benefit assessments, children’s own risk assessments, and much more.

For an overview of the topic, see Mariana Brussoni’s excellent article on Jonathan Haidt’s Substack After Babel: Why Children Need Risk, Fear, and Excitement in Play, published Feb 28, 2024: https://www.afterbabel.com/p/why-children-need-risk-fear-and-excitement

Or this article on OECDs website, on outdoor risky play: https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/1b5847ec-en/index.html?itemId=/content/component/1b5847ec-en#wrapper

For an overview of Mariana Brussoni’s publications: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=53LNwqwAAAAJ&hl=en

Other books and resources:

• See outsideplay.org for lots of resources for parents and teachers, as well as ongoing research projects
• Dodd, Helen F., Rachel J. Nesbit, Lily FitzGibbon (2023). Child’s Play: Examining the Association Between Time Spent Playing and Child Mental Health. Child Psychiatry & Human Development, 54:1678–1686, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10578-022-01363-2
• Dodd, Helen F. and Kathryn J. Lester (2021). Adventurous Play as a Mechanism for Reducing Risk for Childhood Anxiety: A Conceptual Model. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, Volume 24, pages 164–181, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10567-020-00338-w
• Encyclopedia of Early Childhood Development: https://www.child-encyclopedia.com/outdoor-play/according-experts/outdoor-risky-play
• Haidt, Jonathan (2024). The Anxious Generation:: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness. Penguin
• Hansen Sandseter EB, Kleppe R, Ottesen Kennair LE. (2023) Risky play in children’s emotion regulation, social functioning, and physical health: an evolutionary approach. International Journal of Play. 2023;12(1):127–139. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21594937.2022.2152531
• Kvalnes, Øyvind and Ellen Beate Hansen Sandseter (2023). Risky Play: An Ethical Challenge. Springer, https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-25552-6
• Natterson-Horowitz, Barbara and Kathryn Bowers. (2019). Wildhood: the epic journey from adolescence to adulthood in humans and other animals. Scribe.

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