During preschool years, children experience a significant development of social–emotional competence, which is foundational to children’s health and well-being (Jones et al., 2015; Cornell et al., 2017; Domitrovich et al., 2017). The school context has proved to be a critical environment where children develop their social–emotional competence, providing a key opportunity to observe and improve children’s abilities to interact with peers and preschool teachers as they cooperate and negotiate to complete daily tasks and resolve conflicts (Jones et al., 2015).

The outdoor is a rich context in terms of sensorial and social–emotional experiences, bringing a variety of benefits to children’s social–emotional development (Kemple et al., 2016; Tandon et al., 2018). The perceived freedom and space facilitate movement and emotional expression and regulation. Indeed, recent systematic reviews showed that natural environments reduce stress, improve mental health (Tillmann et al., 2018), and facilitate children’s social–emotional adaptive behaviors (Mygind et al., 2021; Johnstone et al., 2022).

According to the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning model, social–emotional competence can be conceptualized in five core clusters: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making, which have a significant role in different aspects of life (Weissberg et al., 2015; Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, 2020). These five core categories encompass a constellation of other competencies, such as emotion understanding, self-regulation, communication, and problem-solving skills (Denham, 2006; Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, 2013, 2020). Social–emotional competence at an early age has been positively related to health, positive interpersonal relationships, well-being, and professional success, in the short and in the long-term (Durlak et al., 2011; Jones et al., 2015; Cornell et al., 2017; Eklund et al., 2018). Hence, social–emotional competence has been recognized as a key domain that should be an integral part of early childhood education, such as academic skills (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2017; Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, 2020).

Considering the recognized importance of social–emotional competence in the early years, several intervention programs have been implemented within school context aiming to promote preschoolers’ social–emotional competence. A recent systematic study (Dias Rodrigues et al., 2022a) has shown that body-oriented interventions effectively promote social–emotional competence, although more studies are needed to better understand the benefits regarding preschool age. Body-oriented interventions are based on the premise that emotional and bodily experiences are associated, aiming to promote the awareness of the body, the connection between the body and emotions, and the body in relation to others (Röhricht, 2009; Bloch-Atefi and Smith, 2014; Rosendahl et al., 2021). Body-oriented interventions encompass different types of approaches, such as play, relaxation, or dance. A recent systematic review (Dias Rodrigues et al., 2022b) revealed that the majority of body-oriented approaches implemented in preschool context are focused on play (10 in the 19 studies included in the review), and other approaches such as relaxation or combined programs (e.g., play and relaxation) are less studied. Such fact highlights the need for more studies focused on the effects of other body-oriented approaches on preschoolers’ social–emotional competence (Dias Rodrigues et al., 2022b).

Play has an important role in preschoolers’ social–emotional development, and this may explain the fact that play-based interventions are the body-oriented approaches most applied in the preschool context (Dias Rodrigues et al., 2022b). Although most studies focused on the effects of pretend and physical play, research on loose parts play is still scarce (Gibson et al., 2017; Dias Rodrigues et al., 2022b). Implementing loose parts in children’s play provide opportunities for free play, allowing children to choose and create their own playful activities, to make independent decisions, and to investigate their social world (Gibson et al., 2017), been also considered important to children’s healthy development (Milteer et al., 2012). In this way, loose parts play introduces a range of open-ended and manipulable materials into children’s play setting (e.g., stones, sticks, card boxes, clothespins), promoting their engagement (Gull et al., 2019). Research has shown the positive influences of loose parts play parts in children’s social–emotional outcomes, such as communication (Maxwell et al., 2008), negotiation skills (Maxwell et al., 2008), social interaction (Hyndman et al., 2014) and cooperation (Flannigan and Dietze, 2017), and problem solving (Flannigan and Dietze, 2017). Despite this, the need for more studies focusing on the effects of loose parts play on preschoolers’ social–emotional competence is evident (Gibson et al., 2017; Dias Rodrigues et al., 2022b).

Relaxation is another type of body-oriented intervention that has been implemented in the preschool context. Relaxation intervention programs encompass different techniques aiming to obtain the relaxation response, either through body functions regulation (e.g., breath, tonus) such as breathing techniques or muscular relaxation, and/or through cognitive regulation (e.g., attention) such as mindfulness (Veiga and Marmeleira, 2018). Regardless the technique used, the activities must be adapted to the physical and emotional needs of children (Cooke et al., 2021). Through relaxation children are able to enhance their awareness and regulation of their bodies, emotions, and thoughts (Veiga and Marmeleira, 2018; Cunsolo et al., 2021), as well to face negative stress inductors situations, and look for solutions to better deal with problems (Cunsolo et al., 2021). Despite the lack of studies, in the last few years a growing body of evidence supports the effectiveness of relaxation programs in the educational context, showing the positive influences of relaxation on preschoolers’ social–emotional competence, such as emotion regulation (Flook et al., 2015), social competence (Flook et al., 2015; Marmeleira et al., 2018), and behavior problems (Moreno-Gómez and Cejudo, 2018).

Researchers sometimes combine the use of different approaches to gain the strengths of two or more approaches. Hence, there are potential benefits of combining loose parts play and relaxation for preschoolers’ social–emotional competence. For example, in Lee et al. (2020), a 1-week program with daily sessions of 70 min that combined loose parts play and mindfulness activities, showed positive effects in almost all the outcomes studied, such as happiness after play, play disruption, play disconnection, play interaction, play intensity, and play skill.

The main purpose of this study was to examine the impact of body-oriented intervention programs on preschoolers’ social–emotional competence. More specifically, this study aimed to investigate the chronic and acute effects of three different body-oriented programs, namely Loose parts play, Relaxation, and Combined loose parts play and relaxation program, on preschoolers’ social–emotional outcomes. These outcomes include emotion discrimination, identification, and recognition; positive and negative emotion expression; self-regulation; stress regulation; social competence; externalizing problems; and conflict resolution abilities.

It was hypothesized that preschoolers’ social–emotional competence (emotion discrimination, identification, and recognition; positive and negative emotion expression; self-regulation; stress regulation; social competence; externalizing problems; and conflict resolution abilities) would benefit from 12 weeks of the three body-oriented intervention programs and that the programs would produce chronic and acute effects on preschoolers’ social–emotional competence.

All schools contacted to implement the programs accepted to participate in the study. All intervention programs had good compliance, exceeding 83% (20 in 24 sessions) in the Loose parts play program, 71% (17 in 24 sessions) in the Relaxation program, and 79% (19 in 24 sessions) in the Combined program. Children’s absence was related to school absence on the days those sessions occurred. Although children were informed that they were free to not participate in the sessions, that never happened.

The present study aimed to examine the effects of three body-oriented interventions on preschoolers’ social–emotional competence. Both Loose parts play and Relaxation programs increased preschoolers’ positive emotion expression and several within-groups changes were found for the Loose parts play, the Relaxation and the Combined programs, suggesting the effectiveness of the three programs to promote emotion discrimination and identification, and self-regulation. From baseline to post-intervention, both Loose parts play and Relaxation programs improved children’s positive emotion expression but only children from the relaxation group improved their social competence. Throughout the intervention period, children from the control group decreased their conflict resolution abilities and increased externalizing problems.

All schools that were contacted to implement the programs accepted to participate in the study. Such high level of acceptance might be related to the recognition of the importance of social–emotional development by early-childhood education professionals. Also, preschool teachers seem to acknowledge the critical role of outdoor time for preschoolers’ health and well-being. Moreover, the low time commitment (two biweekly 30-min sessions) might have facilitated the acceptance of the program.

The mean attendance rate of children to the programs was 82%, which is considered a good rate comparing to other body-oriented intervention programs (Goldstein and Lerner, 2017). Children were informed that they were free to engage in other activities, during the session time. However, this never happened and children always choose to participate in the sessions, showing highly motivated to participate. Hence, the level of attendance reveals school absence. A high level of motivation may be related to the fact that sessions enabled children to engage in active and playful activities that they were not used to engaging. Moreover, sessions were implemented in the outdoors and therefore were an opportunity to be outside, and to experience the freedom of movement and expression. Also, especially in the Loose parts play program and in the Combined program, children had the chance to play with original objects/materials that there were not used. Finally, the warm presence of the psychomotor therapist and the preschool teacher might have been important to the high level of motivation.

In what concerns to the effects of the three body-oriented programs, our findings showed that both Loose parts play and Relaxation programs effectively increased positive emotion expression. Although studies with older school aged children had already shown the positive effects of a relaxation intervention on the expression of positive emotions (Alba, 2013; Lindsay et al., 2018), this is the first study to extend these findings to younger children. In fact, relaxation states have been related to positive emotions. In particular, when children are calm and more relaxed, they can experience and express more positive emotions (Amutio et al., 2015; Fredrickson et al., 2017). It is important to note the active and playful dimension of the relaxation intervention implemented. Such physical activity and playfulness (Chang et al., 2013) might have also benefited positive emotion expression.

In what concerns to the effects of the Loose parts play program on children’s expression of positive emotions, the perceived freedom throughout the session, might have facilitated the experience and expression of positive emotional states. Although two other studies had already shown that play-based intervention programs effectively promote children’s positive emotion expression (Moore and Russ, 2008; Rao and Gibson, 2021), these studies did not focus on loose parts play (i.e., pretend play; Moore and Russ, 2008) or combined play with other body-oriented approaches (i.e., loose parts play and mindfulness; Lee et al., 2020). Altogether these findings reinforce the potential of loose parts play to promote children’s positive emotion expression.

Considering the positive effects of both body-oriented approaches (Loose parts play and Relaxation) on children’s positive emotion expression, the lack of effects of the Combined intervention program was not expected. Such finding may be explained by the reduced time available for both approaches (15 min for loose parts play, 10 min for relaxation), considering that in a previous study focused on a combined program, the loose parts play part had an hour duration (Lee et al., 2020).

Our findings suggest that relaxation might be the best body-oriented approach to promoting social competence. The relaxation program involved a progression in terms of the activities’ social level. The first sessions comprised individual relaxation activities, then sessions progressed to activities in pairs, and later to group activities. Such progression, embedded in a playful atmosphere, might have benefited the development of social skills. These findings are in line with a previous study that showed the effectiveness of a 12-week mindfulness intervention on preschoolers’ social competence (Flook et al., 2015).

Our findings also showed that all the intervention programs effectively improved emotion discrimination and identification, which goes in line with a previous study showing that relaxation (Richard et al., 2019) enhances emotion understanding. However, only the Relaxation program effectively increased children’s emotion recognition. Contrary to the discrimination and identification tasks, emotion recognition was assessed through parents’ perspectives on children’s abilities to recognize their parents’ emotional expressions. In the Relaxation program children were first guided to observe and become aware of their own body sensations and expressions, and later to observe others’ bodies and expressions, and to establish the relationship between bodily and emotional states. Such focus and progression might have been important for children to become attentive and aware of others’ emotion expressions. Nevertheless, the lack of effects of the combined program on emotion recognition suggests that these gains require time and orientation, since the combined program only involved a 10-min relaxation practice.

Although a recent systematic review showed contradictory findings for the benefits of body-oriented interventions in preschoolers’ self-regulation (Dias Rodrigues et al., 2022b), our findings show that, after the 12-week intervention period, the three intervention groups showed an improved self-regulation measured by the HTKS, in comparison to the control group who showed decreased self-regulation. These findings are in line with previous studies (Chinekesh et al., 2014; Duman and Ozkur, 2019; Loukatari et al., 2019) and reinforce the idea that integrating specific outdoor body-oriented moments in the early-childhood curriculum are critical for preschoolers’ self-regulation development.

Concerning self-regulation measured by salivary cortisol levels, there were no significant differences between groups neither before nor after the intervention period. Also, cortisol levels measured throughout the 1st session, did not vary in any of the programs. However, it is important to note the significant decrease in salivary cortisol levels during the 24th session of the Loose parts play program. Such a decrease suggests that children who had more opportunities to freely play with loose parts, improved their ability to reduce physiological arousal, unlike the other intervention groups. It is important to note that contrary to Relaxation and Combined sessions, Loose part play sessions were child-directed. Hence, the experienced freedom during loose parts play intervention might be particularly beneficial for children’s self-regulation.

This study has some limitations. Participants’ allocation to the groups was not randomized. Besides, the small sample size influences the observation of positive effects. Henceforth, future studies should consider replicating of the present study with a random allocation, and a higher sample size. Besides, it is important to run a follow-up evaluation in order to examine the long-term effects of the intervention programs.

This study examined the effects of three body-oriented intervention programs on preschoolers’ social–emotional competence. Both Loose parts play and Relaxation programs increased preschoolers’ positive emotion expression and several within-groups improvements were found for the loose parts play, relaxation and combined programs, suggesting the potential effectiveness to promote emotion discrimination and identification, and self-regulation. This study reinforces the importance of integrating outdoor and body-oriented approaches into the preschool curriculum for children’s social–emotional development.

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.

The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by University of Évora Ethics Committee. Written informed consent to participate in this study was provided by the participants’ legal guardian/next of kin.

ADR, GV, JM, and CP contributed to the design and conception of this study and cautiously designed the intervention program. GV, JM, and CP supervised the implementation of the study. ADR collected the data, which was analyzed by ADR, GV, and JM. EL performed the saliva analyses. ADR wrote the first draft of the manuscript. ADR, GV, JM, EL, DG, and CP contributed to manuscript revision, read, and approved the submitted version. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

This work was funded by national funds through the Foundation for Science and Technology, under the project UIDP/04923/2020.

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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