Resources Play

Get 6 tips for promoting dramatic play and harvesting the benefits of play attraction, play retention and beneficial support of language and communication as well as social-emotional skills.

Climbing can make us clever. It is an essential and fun developmental activity for children to strengthen motor skills and muscles. But climbing also connects body and mind. Understand how in this white paper.

Children's energy balance is off, therefore, KOMPAN Play Institute set out to research how many calories school aged children expend when they engage in 30 minutes of free play on KOMPAN play equipment.  

Play between children with disabilities and typically developing children support the areas of self-efficiency, tolerance, and empathy in both user groups. This survey from the KOMPAN Play Institute shows that 71% of the wheelchair users found their nearest playground to be inaccessible.

Playgrounds have been identified as the place within parks where children expend the most energy, why KOMPAN Play Institute set out to examine the retention of children and their parents on a newly refurbished playground at Flag Pole Hill in Dallas, USA. 

Millions of children benefit from programmes and places to spend their time when school is not in session. A well designed outdoor playground is a significant component of a high-quality programme. But what is a high-quality outdoor play environment for an out-of-school programme?

This study shows that the children in a kindergarten where they spend most of their time outdoors in a well-planned garden have a 35% higher level of physical activity than the children in the other kindergartens in the study.

This publication showcases the KOMPAN Play Institute’s recommendations for universal and inclusive playgrounds, based on inspirational cases of universal playgrounds, design points for universal play equipment, and the Institute’s most recent research and user observation on inclusive play.

Most existing research focuses on the effect of playground play on children's physical development, less is known about the influence of playground play on other important development domains,  such as social, cognitive, and language development. 

Toddlers learn and develop skills through play-based experiences. But what is the right play stimulation level to ensure learning? KOMPAN Play Institute has examined how sensory play features effect and stimulate toddlers' play, observing children from the age of 1 to 4 years old. Click through to read the findings. 

Sensory play is all sorts of play as children’s play make use of all of their senses: Touching, seeing, hearing, smelling, and tasting.

New research shows that it isn’t merely children’s bodies and sense of balance that benefit from spinning. A great sense of balance affects their learning skills positively: a great sense of balance is closely connected to mathematical skills.

Children love play to be thrilling. It's fun and good for their development. But what is a great, thrilling playground? In this research we have asked the children. 

This article debates the importance of thrill in children’s playgrounds. Playgrounds are places where children learn how to navigate the world securely. An important life skill, that children only learn by doing. 

This study examines the degree to which non-specialized, age appropriate play equipment and playgrounds can be usable to children with mobility and learning disabilities, as well as to typically developing children.

Some playgrounds appear more visited and interesting than others, therefore, KOMPAN Play institute set out to research what makes a playground more visited and interesting from a user perspective on a refurbished playground at Frimley Lodge Park in the UK.