KOMPAN

Play safety - free play, risk assessment and self-esteem

Isn’t a playground a curious place? On the one hand we want it to be as safe as possible to avoid serious accidents happening. On the other hand we want our children to be stimulated physically and learn new skills in the playground. New skills that can add onto the physical, social, cognitive and emotional development of our children – and give them self-esteem. The only way around learning new  skills,  is running a certain degree of risk: You only learn to walk by leaning forward and risk falling – in fact walking is standing and falling at the same time!

Helping out makes helpless
In a report made by the Hamburger Forum – an organization doing research in childhood, playgrounds and children’s play -  behavioral studies of children at play indicate that children playing freely have more successful play experiences than children guided and supervised by well meaning adults – parents as well as teachers. In the nine observations made, the trend is clear: When an adult yells a well meant warning – or even a direction – to the child, the risk of an accident due to confused concentration, is more apt to happen. Off course adults can guide children. Only, instructions should be given when and if the child needs it, not prematurely.

In fact the most striking result of the report is that children normally are perfectly able of assessing risk on their own. They do not knowingly involve themselves in play activities that would bring them in severe danger. But to exceed their limits, gain new abilities, and not least feel the well known thrill of risk, they sometimes have to go outside the  playground to find play activities appropriate for their age and capacity.

A very clear story of this comes from Utrecht: In Grift Parc, next to the big playground, a fine tenant’s house with a very modern design is placed. The roof starts 90 cm above the ground to take a span, shaped like a big round leaf, up to a height of about 9 meters.  The community workers have had to make a closure of the 90 cm part of the roof – the “entrance” - to avoid the youngsters go BMX racing on the roofage. – The playgrounds were right next to this.

The story tells that risky behavior is part of growing up. When the playgrounds are too dull, too predictable or – as a worst case: non-existing – the kids go elsewhere. 


The role of playgrounds in risk assesment
All these facts are sustained by an extensively documented report by professor David J. Ball from Middlesex University, England: Playgrounds – risks, benefits and choices. One of the most important assertions for the subject of this article is that risk assessment comes from risk taking. Being too preoccupied with the risks, the surfacing, the norms on a playground might take away the focus and target of the playground in the first place: to make children play  - and thus develop a sound sense of risk. Far more accidents in the UK, with which his report is concerned, happen outside the playgrounds, in sport and school yards, than in the playgrounds. And not least, there is a tendency that children from areas with fewer playgrounds have more accidents than children from areas with more playgrounds. Meaning: children learn to estimate risk by playing – in a playground.

So: let the children play. As freely as they can within reasonable limits – the Utrecht roof might exceed this. Let them play in a stimulating and safe environment, which regards their physical, social, cognitive and emotional development!

 
Sources:
Risiko im Spiel- und Bewegungsverhalten von Kindern, Hamburger Forum, 2001 (Universität Hamburg, Professor Knut Dietrich; LUK (Landesunfallskasse) Hamburg, Elke Fontaine; Kroschke Stiftung für Kinder; KOMPAN Play Institute, Regina Hass

Playgrounds – risks, benefits and choices,  Professor David J. Ball, Middlesex University, School of Health, Biological And Environmaental Sciences, Centre for Decision Analysis & Risk Management.

By Jeanette Fich Jespersen, M.A, KOMPAN Play Institute Manager  

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