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In the past two decades, there has been a raft of research on children"s behaviour and their interaction with outdoor environment. The aim of this paper is to present a synthesis of 30 studies from 1985 to 2010 on children"s use of outdoor environments. The aspects taken into consideration include methodological issues and factors that influence the use of outdoor environments. The trends of the studies are discussed. In summary, the children"s place preferences and play behaviours in the outdoor environments are influenced by their developmental needs, individual, physical and social factors. Aziz, N.F., & Said, 2(5) Oct / Dec 2017 (p.97-108) 98 IntroductionIn recent years there has been a growing discourse regarding playing outdoors as both a need and right of young children, and central to their well-being. The body of the research considering children"s rights to play in the outdoor environment has raised especially investigation on children"s play behaviour and their interaction with outdoor environment. These developments have occurred in a large extent due to a range of phenomena that are hindering children"s play experiences at outdoor environments including rapid urbanisation, increase in street traffic, badly planned urban environments, pollution, pressures of educational accomplishment, creation of indoor play technologies and a lack of awareness about the importance of play for children"s development and well-being (Kernan, M. 2010). As a result of these changes, it is increasingly uncommon to see groups of children walking, running or playing on the outdoor environments without adult"s supervision. Such changes certainly have profound repercussions on the psycho-physical development of children (Castonguay, G. & Jutras, S., 2010).Children need to have the environment that addresses them, challenges them, and provides something for them to observe, to think about, to make choices, to attract their attention, to engage in their favourite activities and to give them the opportunity to meet friends. They also need the freedom to explore and to satisfy their curiosity about the world. The opportunity to be in the outdoor environment is important for the development of children"s motor and cognitive skills, interpersonal attitudes and emotions. The differences in outdoor environments such as neighborhoods, parks, playgrounds, school grounds and natural environments can comprise rich sources of stimulation and affordances for children. Affordances refer to the functional properties of the environments offering a child to interact actively with the environment (Gibson, J.J., 1979; Heft, H., 1988;Kytta, M., 2002Kytta, M., , 2004. For example, flat and smooth surfaces can allow for cycling, running and skating; smooth slopes can allow for skateboarding, while shrubs can allow for a hide and seek game. Affordances and other stimulation provided by the environment allow and support children"s exploration and play.Play has been central to the study of children"s outdoor environments. It is the prim...

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This study aims to investigate the differences between urban and rural children in experiencing nature through direct experiences and indirect experiences, as well as nonnature experiences. Questionnaires were distributed to 760 children from 20 schools located in urban and rural areas in Kedah and Penang, Malaysia. The data were analysed using mean score, standard deviation and one-way analysis of variance. The results confirmed that direct experiences with nature among children in both urban and rural areas have declined and children obtain nature experiences mostly through indirect experiences. The results also showed that there were differences between urban and rural children in experiencing nature. Rural children have slightly more direct experiences with nature as compared to children in urban areas, but further analysis showed that the differences of direct experiences between children in Urban Kedah and Rural Kedah were the one that significantly differ with each other. As for indirect experiences, urban children have more indirect experiences with nature as compared to rural children. Meanwhile, for non-nature experiences, there was no difference between urban and rural children. Overall, this study suggests that urban and rural location do influence the frequency of children's experiences with nature particularly the frequency of direct experiences with nature. However, having nearby nature within children's places and spaces is rather more important in making a significant difference on how frequent children have direct experiences with nature. This study further highlights the importance to reconnect both urban and rural children with nature within their daily places and spaces such as home yard, neighbourhood areas, playground, and schools. The directions of future research are also discussed.