Early Childhood Outside (ECO) Educational App - Randomized Controlled Trial Study

To help educators and administrators provide children with high quality and stimulating outdoor play time, we developed an educational app (LINK: https://outsideplay.ca/). Freely available at https://outsideplay.ca, it uses evidence-based health behaviour change techniques and theory.

We examined the effectiveness of this app in changing early learning child care (ELCC) educators’ and administrators’ tolerance for children’s risky play and providing risky play opportunities for children at their centre. A total of 563 participants participated in our randomized controlled trial between December 1, 2020, and March 15, 2021. We found that the ECO education app was effective and had a sustained effect in increasing educators’ and administrators’ tolerance of risk in children’s play.

Generously supported by the Lawson Foundation

2020-2021

Brussoni, M., Han, C.S., Lin, Y., Jacob, J., Munday, F., Zeni, M., Walters, M., & Oberle, E. (2022). Evaluation of the Web-Based OutsidePlay-ECE Intervention to Influence Early Childhood Educators’ Attitudes and Supportive Behaviors Toward Outdoor Play: Randomized Controlled Trial. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 24(6): e36826 [LINK: https://www.jmir.org/2022/6/e36826/]

Brussoni, M., Han, C.S., Jacob, J., Munday, F., Zeni, M., Walters, M., Cheng, T., Schneeberg, A., Fox, E., & Oberle, E. (2021). A Web-Based Risk-Reframing Intervention to Influence Early Childhood Educators’ Attitudes and Supportive Behaviors Toward Outdoor Play: Protocol for the OutsidePlay Study Randomized Controlled Trial. JMIR Research Protocols, 10(11), e31041. [LINK: https://www.researchprotocols.org/2021/11/e31041/]