Balanced and Barefoot Lessons for Healthier Childhoods
“Due to less time spent developing strength, coordination, and balance, children are becoming more and more unsafe and accident-prone. In order for children to develop any skills of the mind or body, they must practice them daily, ideally through meaningful play experiences.”
― Angela J. Hanscom
Angela Hanscom is a pediatric occupational therapist and the founder of TimberNook, a nature-based play program that blends OT principles with immersive outdoor experiences. In her book Balanced and Barefoot: How Unrestricted Outdoor Play Makes for Strong, Confident, and Capable Children, she lays out a compelling case for why unstructured play, nature time, and physical movement aren’t just “nice to have”—they’re essential to a child’s healthy development.
Drawing from both clinical insights and real-life observations, Hanscom highlights what kids today are missing: time to move, take risks, go barefoot, and just be kids. The message is clear—our modern lifestyle may be convenient, but it’s robbing children of the very experiences that help them grow strong, confident, and regulated.
As a dad, OT, and someone who sees these patterns every day, this book hit home. I couldn’t narrow it down to the typical 3 takeaways so here are 7 takeaways I think every parent, teacher, and health professional should know.
7 Takeaways from Balanced and Barefoot
1. Recess Should Be Untouchable
Recess isn’t just a break—it’s one of the most critical parts of the school day for brain development, physical health, and emotional regulation. But too often, adults try to structure or “improve” it with coordinated games, excessive rules, or time limits. The truth is, kids need recess to be theirs—a time to move how their body needs, follow their curiosity, and engage in spontaneous, immersive play without adult interference.
Through her years of observation, Hanscom found that it takes an average of 45 minutes for kids to fully enter deep play. If they’re only given 20 minutes, they never get past the surface. Worse, overly controlled recesses lead to more acting out, not less. In one New Zealand study, removing rules from recess led to fewer behavior issues and reduced the need for time-outs and teacher intervention.
To unlock the full benefits of recess, we need to stop micromanaging it. Hanscom offers four simple guidelines that can help create an enriching and empowering recess experience:
4 Guidelines for Better Recess
1. Extend the Time: Aim for at least 45 minutes to allow kids enough time to move through social dynamics and reach deep, creative play states.
2. Minimize Rules: Too many rules stifle creativity. Let kids take age-appropriate risks and work through challenges on their own. Fewer rules = fewer behavior problems.
3. Step Back: Avoid adult-led games or constant instruction. Children need time away from adult influence to make decisions and solve problems independently.
4. Provide Loose Parts: Offer open-ended materials like sticks, ropes, logs, rocks, and tarps to inspire building, inventing, and imaginative storytelling. These materials fuel the best kind of play—creative, unstructured, and wildly engaging.
2. Rethink the Classroom
If you walked into a typical classroom today, it wouldn’t look much different from one 50 years ago—rows of desks, bright posters covering every inch of the walls, and kids expected to sit still for long periods of time. The problem? This setup does very little to support how children actually learn.
Kids aren’t designed to sit still and passively absorb information. They learn best through movement, exploration, and hands-on experiences. Instead of forcing them to sit in one spot for hours, we should be structuring classrooms in a way that encourages active, meaningful learning. Research shows that incorporating movement into lessons enhances focus, memory, and engagement, while too much visual clutter can actually overstimulate the brain, making it harder to concentrate. Schools like Waldorf minimize distractions by using natural materials like wooden blocks and wool dolls, which inspire creativity without overwhelming the senses.
Instead of relying on quick fixes like wiggle cushions or fidget toys, let kids move in a way that actually supports their learning. Have them switch positions every 10–15 minutes, practice math through movement games, or act out historical events instead of just reading about them. The more they move, the better they learn.
Ways to Bring Movement into Learning
Toss a ball while answering math facts
Teach geometry through movement (e.g. have kids create shapes with their bodies)
Use the floor for writing tasks
Swap worksheets for active games (e.g. hopscotch for addition, movement-based spelling, or singing number songs while moving in a circle)
Let them stand or squat while discussing ideas
Try daily dancing
3. Playgrounds Used to Build Grit, Now They Just Look Pretty
Most modern playgrounds look safe, bright, and well-designed—but many are missing something essential: challenge. Today’s plastic play structures are closer to the ground, packed with safety features, and often so “safe” they’re boring. The towering metal slides and spinning merry-go-rounds of the past have been swapped out for equipment that may look fun but doesn’t actually develop strength, coordination, or sensory integration. The result? Kids outgrow playgrounds quickly or head off to the sidelines to create their own games out of sticks, dirt, and imagination—which, ironically, is usually more developmentally useful.
The shift began in the 1980s, when lawsuits and rising insurance costs triggered a safety-first movement. Equipment wasn’t just updated—it was neutered. Merry-go-rounds, 15-foot swing sets, and teeter-totters were scrapped in favor of shorter slides and soft flooring. Even the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s guidelines (not laws) became weapons in litigation, leading to over-correction. One therapist and early advocate for safe playgrounds, Joe Frost, later admitted: we went too far. Reasonable risk, he argued, is essential for healthy development.
And he’s right. Risk builds confidence. Spinning builds balance. Heights train focus and body awareness. The merry-go-round, for example, creates powerful vestibular input—helping kids regulate attention and feel calm through movement. Today’s kids are losing out on these benefits, and it’s showing in classrooms where attention and regulation struggles are on the rise.
If you want a better playground, look for equipment that encourages risk-taking, climbing, and spinning. Or better yet—just head to the woods with a rope, a few logs, and no agenda. Sometimes, the best playground isn’t a playground at all.
4. Barefoot Time Builds Stronger Bodies (and Better Arches)
Shoes may protect kids’ feet, but they also interfere with one of the most important parts of childhood development—natural movement. Going barefoot, especially outdoors, does more than just connect kids with nature. It strengthens the arches, improves balance, and helps fine-tune sensory input through the feet.
Doctors in India noticed something interesting: flat feet were far more common in urban kids who regularly wore shoes than in rural children who spent most of their time barefoot. After analyzing the footprints of 2,300 children, they found a strong link—kids who wore shoes early and often were significantly more likely to have flat feet. The researchers also identified that the critical period for arch development is before age six, making those early years a key window.
Biomechanist Katy Bowman explains it well: footwear alters movement. Most shoes limit natural foot engagement, weakening muscles over time and changing how kids walk. Going barefoot, on the other hand, offers constant feedback—pebbles, hills, grass, sticks—creating a natural workout for the foot’s tiny stabilizers. It’s like reflex integration and strength training wrapped into one.
If you’re looking for a simple way to support healthy development, let your kids go barefoot more often—especially outside. Fortunately, there are many, many brands now available.
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5. Nature Time Is Good for the Eyes
Nearsightedness is on the rise, and it’s not just because of screens. While many blame excessive device use, newer research points to something even more fundamental: not enough time outdoors. In countries like Singapore, where rates of myopia in children are particularly high, schools are now increasing outdoor time as a strategy to reduce glasses prescriptions—and early results are promising.
Optometrist Donald Mutti, OD, PhD, at Ohio State University, says kids who are genetically predisposed to myopia are three times less likely to develop it if they get consistent outdoor exposure. Scientists aren’t completely sure why outdoor time protects the eyes, but one leading theory is that sunlight helps preserve the natural shape and length of the developing eye. Between ages five and nine, the eyes are still growing, and natural light might play a key role in keeping vision sharp.
It’s not just the light that matters—it’s what kids are doing while outside. Staring at screens keeps their eyes locked in at a close range, while playing outdoors forces them to shift focus between near and far, strengthening their visual muscles. Bright sunlight also stimulates the pupils to contract and expand more frequently, promoting better eye responsiveness and function.
Bonus: natural light exposure also helps regulate circadian rhythms, improve mood, and decrease the impact of noise pollution—something that’s becoming more of an issue for kids in overstimulating environments.
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6. The Overlooked Power of the Vestibular System
One of the most important systems in a child’s development is also one of the most neglected: the vestibular system. This inner ear–based system controls balance, spatial orientation, and body awareness—and it’s what helps kids move through the world with confidence and control. Without it, everything becomes harder: attention, coordination, even emotional regulation.
Angela Hanscom shares a sobering pilot study that compared modern kids to their 1980s counterparts. The results? Only 1 in 12 kids had average core strength and balance skills based on 1984 benchmarks. Many couldn’t even spin in a circle 10 times without falling over or showing abnormal eye movements afterward. These findings point to an alarming deficit in vestibular development—likely driven by too much sitting and too little full-body movement.
Here’s why this matters: the vestibular system is the foundation for other senses. As OT pioneer Jean Ayres once wrote,
“All other types of sensation are processed in reference to this basic vestibular information.”
If it’s underdeveloped, everything else—vision, hearing, coordination, and attention—can suffer too.
The fix isn’t complicated: let kids move more, and move differently. Activities that take them out of an upright position—like swinging, rolling down hills, hanging upside down, spinning, or tumbling—offer powerful vestibular input that can’t be replaced by walking or running alone. These experiences strengthen core muscles, support reflex integration, and help regulate the nervous system.
Let your kids go upside down. Let them roll, spin, and swing. These aren’t just playtime activities—they’re brain-building, body-balancing essentials.
7. Independent Play Takes Time—Let It Happen
Kids today don’t get nearly enough time for unstructured, outdoor play, and it’s showing. Many are so used to scheduled activities, constant supervision, and adult-led entertainment that when they’re finally given free time, they don’t know what to do with it.
At TimberNook, a nature-based play program, kids are given 2–3 hours of uninterrupted outdoor play every day—and the changes are dramatic. At first, many don’t know how to engage with their surroundings beyond surface-level exploration. They line up for the rope swing, check in with adults, or look for structured activities because that’s what they’re used to. But after a few days, something shifts. They start creating their own play—climbing boulders, building forts, inventing stories, and engaging in deep, immersive games. By the end of the week, kids who once needed guidance jump straight into play within minutes.
The problem? Most kids don’t get enough time to reach this deeper level of play. They need space, patience, and the absence of adults telling them what to do. The more opportunities they have, the faster they develop this ability.
How to Encourage Independent Outdoor Play
Give them at least 2–3 hours outside daily
Resist the urge to direct: Let kids figure out what to do instead of offering suggestions.
Make outdoor time non-negotiable: Kids need consistent exposure to nature to build independence.
Provide simple, open-ended materials: Sticks, ropes, rocks, and logs encourage imaginative problem-solving.
Step back and observe: Let kids be bored at first; creativity follows.
Bottom line: If we want kids to develop independent play skills, we need to stop structuring every moment of their day and give them the space to figure it out on their own.
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