Children's activities and experiences in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) institutions are essential for children's present and future lives. Playing is a vital activity in childhood, and playing is found to be positively related to a variety of outcomes among children. In this study, we investigated how risky play – a fundamentally voluntary form of play – related to children's well-being, involvement and physical activity. Results from structured video observations (N = 928) during periods of free play in eight Norwegian ECEC institutions indicated that engagement in risky play was positively associated with children's well-being, involvement and physical activity. The findings in this study suggest that one way to support children's everyday experiences and positive outcomes for children in ECEC is to provide children with opportunities for risky play. Restrictions on children's play behaviours following safety concerns must be balanced against the joy and possible future benefits of thrilling play experiences for children.

While research has investigated risk-taking in play for children from the age of four years upwards, less is known of risky play with children under four years. A small-scale observational study with children from five childcare settings with differing characteristics was undertaken to explore the occurrence and characteristics of risky play for children under four years of age, in relation to the current understanding of risky play. The study found similarities across the different contexts, which seem to reflect the characteristics of risky play for children aged one to three years. The findings suggest that the existing definition and characteristics of risky play are appropriate for two- and three-year-old children, but for one-year-olds, the study found discrepancies indicating deviations from existing definitions, indicating that the concept may not be so useful for this age group. To develop understanding of risky play, this article suggests new categories and an adapted definition.

The focus of this theoretical paper is to explore three biopsychosocial levels of children’s risky play: (1) mental health and emotion regulation, (2) social functioning and challenging norms, and (3) physical health and development. As such, in this paper, we expand Sandseter’s and Kennair’s focus in their original article in 2011 on the evolved function of risky play as an anti-phobic mechanism, and consider other types of risk than physical risks and other types of play, including other types of emotional regulation than anxiety reduction. Motivated by the thrilling emotions involved in risky play, one matures in competency and masters new and more complex psychosocial settings. Play with emotional, social, and physical risk may have evolved to increase the child’s psychosocial competency here-and-now, but also train them for future adult contexts. We recommend that future research consider how risky play in all contexts may have a similar function.

Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) places value and benefits on children’s play in nature-based outdoor spaces. However, there is a lack of knowledge regarding teachers’ support of play in environments with rugged terrains and natural materials. Therefore, this systematic review aims to locate, present, and discuss research literature on how teachers in ECEC settings can support children’s play in nature-based outdoor spaces. According to the review, teachers’ support of children’s play was described in the literature as encouraging children’s free and unstructured play through facilitating actions addressing the children’s perspectives and the opportunities offered by the physical environment. Furthermore, teacher support was also described as teacher-led and teacher-guided interactions where teachers and children communicate or collaborate in playful situations. Differences and overlapping elements of types of teacher support are discussed, and implications for researchers, practitioners, and ECEC teacher education are provided.

Despite increased interest in children’s risk-taking in play, little is known of this aspect considering children under three years. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the concept of scaffolding to potentially describe patterns in staff–child interaction in 1–3-year-olds’ risky play. Empirical data were taken from an exploratory study, executed as a focused ethnography with multiple data collecting techniques, resulting in a sample of 198 instances of risky play. Findings indicate that scaffolding is a pertinent theoretical foundation for describing high-quality staff–child interaction in risky play, leading to increased opportunities for developmentally appropriate stimulation. Of the 171 instances where staff were present, staff did not interact at all in 70 of the instances (41%). Staff–child interaction, directly related to children’s risky play, occurred in the remaining 101 instances. Of these 101 instances, ‘Scaffolding’- and ‘Non-scaffolding’-interaction were observed in 78% and 22% of the instances, respectively. Implications are discussed.

This article focuses on how Early Childhood Education and Care institutions provide for 1- to 3-year-olds’ risky play—a previously little researched topic—utilizing data from an exploratory, small-scale study investigating aspects of risky play in the age-group. The main findings describe how three essentially different Early Childhood Education and Care centers provide different opportunities for risky play. These environments are assessed with the theoretical concept of affordance and suggest that versatile, flexible, and complex environments and equipment—with little objective risk—are optimal for children’s risky play in this age-group. Being a new topic, the affordance assessment is discussed in relation to a standardized measurement, the Infant-Toddler Environment Rating Scale—Revised edition. Findings indicate that the two approaches partly coincide but also that there are discrepancies. Interpretations and implications are discussed.