Nature play in early childhood leads to great and varied language production

Abstract Active play opportunities in nature are beneficial for healthy child development: Recent reviews have shown that playing in natural environments contributes to children’s motor skill improvement, attention restoration, play skill diversification, and has an impact on wellbeing and cognitive development. This study focuses on the benefits of nature play for productive vocabulary, which is important for learning to read in later years. We investigated the effect of playing in a nature-based environment on preschooler’s (2–4 years old) word production using language sample analysis. A total of N = 30 children (2–4 years) from three Dutch early childhood centers participated. To measure children’s productive vocabulary, we recorded their language production for ten minutes while playing in two conditions: 1) a non-nature-based playground and 2) a nature-based playground. Audio tapes were transcribed, and the total number of words and the number of unique words were counted. Findings indicated a positive effect of playing in the nature-based playground on both the total number of words spoken by the children and the number of unique words. These results suggest that nature-based play environments may support the growth of children’s productive vocabulary.