Leigh Giangreco · USA Today · January 3, 2023

^{Featuring Dr. Amber Fyfe-Johnson, Nature and Health researcher}

At least one researcher is probing whether being outdoors helps children or whether those participating in outdoor preschool benefit from other types of privilege. Amber Fyfe-Johnson, an assistant research professor at Washington State University, published a review last year of nearly 300 studies examining the effects of time spent outside on children of all ages.

The review found that green spaces had a positive effect on children’s physical activity, cognition, behavior and mental health. However, the study represented only a brief snapshot, Fyfe-Johnson said.

“Are kids healthier because they’ve been existing in a nature-rich environment, or do people who are already healthy have the opportunity to live in a nature-rich environment?” she said.

Using Tiny Trees as her laboratory, Fyfe-Johnson is conducting a five-year study funded by the National Institutes of Health evaluating the effects of outdoor preschool on health outcomes in childhood. The study, which will conclude this June, looks at 100 children attending Tiny Trees and 100 children attending an indoor preschool, but who were waitlisted at Tiny Trees. About 60% of families involved in the study qualify for free or reduced tuition and 40% are families of color, she said.

Ronnie Koenig · Today · November 16, 2019

Featuring Dr. Amber Fyfe-Johnson, a Nature and Health researcher

Amber Fyfe-Johnson, ND, PhD, an Assistant Research Professor at the Initiative for Research and Education to Advance Community Health (IREACH) at Washington State University is studying the effects of outdoor learning on kids and believes this type of schooling will lead to better physical and emotional health.

“This is the first one to look at kids that are outside all the time,” said Fyfe-Johnson.

She’s using technology to track the kids’ movements and thinks that she will find that they experience positive effects in everything from sleep quality to digestive health.

It’s a chance for the smallest students to get unplugged lesson plans in a digital age, replacing phones with stones and screens with greens.

Elise Takahama · Seattle Times · October 2, 2019

Featuring Dr. Amber Fyfe-Johnson, a Nature and Health researcher

But while the state pushes forward to promote outdoor learning, some families have voiced worries about the idea.

“Number one, weather,” said Amber Fyfe-Johnson, who studies health and education at Washington State University. “But if you dress kids appropriately and keep them active, they’re fine … And the second concern I hear is about kindergarten readiness or academic metrics — are there schools preparing kids for kindergarten?”

This is why Fyfe-Johnson recently launched a project exploring the effect nature-based early learning has on children’s mental and physical health.

Over the next five years, she plans on partnering with Tiny Trees to track children’s academic growth, physical activity, body mass index, sleep and digestive health, she said.

Previous studies, she said, have suggested that kids are twice as physically active outside as they are inside. Her goal is to offer more evidence that outdoor time is crucial for children’s development.