Playground

Modern playgrounds often have recreational equipment such as the seesaw, merry-go-round, swingset, slide, jungle gym, chin-up bars, sandbox, spring rider, trapeze rings, playhouses, and mazes, many of which help children develop physical coordination, strength, and flexibility, as well as providing recreation and enjoyment and supporting social and emotional development.

Playgrounds often also have facilities for playing informal games of adult sports, such as a baseball diamond, a skating arena, a basketball court, or a tether ball.

A type of playground called a playscape is designed to provide a safe environment for play in a natural setting.

[4] In the 1840s in Britain, the Home and Colonial Infant School had a playground for pupils that included climbing structures, seesaws and parallel bars.

[11] In post war London, pioneering designers, charities and child advocates, including Lady Allen of Hurtwood, popularised the concept of the ’junk playground’ - where children played with rubble, built structures and invented their own entertainment.

'[12] Allen campaigned for play facilities for children growing up in the new high-rise developments in Britain's cities and wrote a series of illustrated books on the subject of playgrounds, and at least one book on adventure playgrounds, spaces for free creativity by children, which helped the idea spread worldwide.

Organisations such as the National Highway Protective Society highlighted the numbers killed by automobiles, and urged the creation of playgrounds, aiming to free streets for vehicles rather than children's play.

[15][16] The Outdoor Recreation League provided funds to erect playgrounds on parkland, especially following the 1901 publication of a report on numbers of children being run down by cars in New York City.

[17] In tandem with the new concern about the danger of roads, educational theories of play, including by Herbert Spencer and John Dewey inspired the emergence of the reformist playground movement, which argued that playgrounds had educational value, improved attention in class, enhanced physical health, and reduced truancy.

Playground apparatus was reasonably standard all over the country; most of them consisted of metallic bars with relatively few wooden parts, and were manufactured in state-owned factories.

Exciting, engaging and challenging playground equipment is important to keep children happy while still developing their learning abilities.

These should be developed in order to suit different groups of children for different stages of learning, such as specialist playground equipment for nursery & preschool children teaching them basic numeracy & vocabulary, to building a child's creativity and imagination with role play panels or puzzles.

[citation needed] The American Chief Medical Officer's report (Department of Health, 2004), stated that a review of available research suggests that the health benefits of physical activity in children are predominantly seen in the amelioration of risk factors for disease, avoidance of weight gain, achieving a peak bone mass and mental well-being.

Exercise programmes "may have short term beneficial effects on self esteem in children and adolescents"[23] although high-quality trials are lacking.

It can be seen that playgrounds provide an ideal opportunity for children to master physical skills, such as learning to swing, balance and climb.

But because playgrounds are usually subject to adult supervision and oversight, young children's street culture often struggles to fully thrive there.

[citation needed] A type of playground called a playscape can provide children with the necessary feeling of ownership that Moore describes above.

Playscapes can also provide parents with the assurance of their child's safety and wellbeing, which may not be prevalent in an open field or wooded area.

In the UK, several organisations exist that help provide funding for schools and local authorities to construct playgrounds.

Risk aversion and fear of lawsuits on the part of the adults who design playgrounds prioritizes injury prevention above other factors, such as cost or developmental benefit to the users.

For example, older children may choose to climb on the outside of a "safe" but boring play structure, rather than using it the way the designers intended.

This is done by: How effective these strategies are at preventing injuries is debated by experts, because when playgrounds are made from padded materials, children often take more risks.

For example, playgrounds in low-income areas had significantly more trash, rusty play equipment, and damaged fall surfaces.

[28] The enclosed, padded, constrained, low structures prevent the child from taking risks and developing a sense of mastery over his or her environment.

By contrast, the child on a low piece of equipment, designed to reduce the incidence of injuries from falls, experiences no such thrill, sense of mastery, or accomplishment.

[28] The appearance of safety encourages unreasonable risk-taking in children, who might take more reasonable risks if they correctly understood that it is possible to break a bone on the soft surfaces under most modern equipment.

Experts studying child development such as Tim Gill have written about the over-protective bias in provision for children, particularly with playgrounds.

For example, rubber paths and ramps replace sand pits and steps, and some features are placed at ground level.

Play components may include earth shapes (sculptures), environmental art, indigenous vegetation (trees, shrubs, grasses, flowers, lichens, mosses), boulders or other rock structures, dirt and sand, natural fences (stone, willow, wooden), textured pathways, and natural water features.

An adventure playground encourages open-ended play, sometimes involving potentially dangerous objects such as fire or hand tools.