There are huge concerns about the extent to which children in the UK are overprotected - discouraged from playing outside, from taking risks, from making choices. The trend, spawned by over-protective parents, is given greater momentum by early years practitioners who, fearful of accidents and recriminations, find it easier to adopt the same over-protective attitude.
Depriving children of opportunities to take any control over aspects of their lives can only adversely affect their development as independent and competent individuals.
The situation is very different in Denmark, where a central aim of the early years curriculum (see box) is to create 'a competent child' and regular access to the outdoors is seen as a key means through which to achieve this.
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