A Framework Combining Prior Research, Stakeholder Feedback, And Observations To Inform Classroom And Schoolyard Redesign

Schoolyard and/or classroom redesign can be used to promote physical activity during existing free-play opportunities with little burden to school staff. However, those with decision-making power often do not know how to approach identifying optimal redesign strategies when they have the need or resources. PURPOSE: To describe a process for informing redesign strategies based on multi-source information and illustrate its use in one example school, which serves preschool and kindergarten children at risk for communication and/or language delays. METHODS: We examined existing research on the population of interest and completed an audit of the existing spaces, including positive (greenness) and negative (ultraviolet radiation) exposures. Behavior mapping was used to record the physical activity level, type, context, group composition, play type, conversation, and location of each child (N = 16) every 30-s during indoor and outdoor free-play. We solicited feedback from stakeholders (teachers, program director), and experts on inclusive design. Emerging themes were identified and used to create a ranked list of redesign strategies. RESULTS: While observations indicated children spent ~30% of observations in conversation and only 15-21% of observations alone, the need for more opportunity for social interaction and language use was highlighted in both prior research on this population and by teacher feedback. Children engaged in less light-to-vigorous physical activity indoors (19%) than outdoors (61%), likely due to the predominance of sitting/squatting/kneeling (50 vs. 12%) and the smaller variety of activity types (median = 3 vs. 7) compared to outdoors. Children spent 20% of outdoor time in nature play, but audits, prior research, and teacher feedback indicated both positive and negative aspects of nature. Weather-related issues (need for shade) were apparent from teacher feedback and audits, which indicated most of the schoolyard was uncovered. CONCLUSION: This process can be employed by schools or child care programs aiming to modify indoor or outdoor play spaces, potentially reducing wasted resources due to use of redesign strategies that are not optimized for the space or sample. Further use may lead to refinement of this described methodology.