I decided to work smarter, not harder! I'm researching academic articles on loose parts play and realize that many of you are also are curious about this topic. Why not document some of what I am finding here so it is easier to find? I'm not going full APA formatting for you yet, but here are some useful studies and articles. If you look at these in Google Scholar, you can also see what articles cited these, which is helpful in getting the full breadth of the topic. I went through 35 pages of results for "loose parts" to find some we can all access online. As I read through these, I will try to update with information relevant from each, strengths, etc. I chose to organize this list by recency, with more recent articles up front. There are more available, but I am trying to choose ones people can actually access. :-) If you find others that may be applicable, please share!
Houser, Roach, Stone, Turner, and Kirk. (2016).
Let the children play: Scoping review on the implementation and use of loose parts for promoting physical activity participation.
