Impact of space requirements on outdoor play areas in public kindergartens

Many children spend a great deal of time at their kindergarten. Numerousstudies have indicated the importance of relevant outdoor playspace in promoting children's physical and cognitive learning. In Norway,few studies on the physical aspects of child care settings havebeen performed, especially concerning research assessing in what wayregulations stipulating outdoor space requirements protect play areasfor children. The present study investigates the situation in 2010 regardingspace in outdoor play areas in public kindergartens in relation tochanges in legislation affecting space requirements. The hypothesis isthat changing norms have led to decreasing play area size. The chosenstudy area was the city of Oslo, the capital of Norway, and the selectedmaterial included all public kindergarten premises offering a full-dayservice. The physical situation registered at each premise was analysedin relation to findings from a document review, to understand previousand current space requirements regarding outdoor play areas. The conclusionis that all legislative changes regarding space requirements inoutdoor play areas for kindergartens have consequently led to less playspace per child, as well as reduced protection of the outdoor play area.