21st Century Play Yards: A Balancing Act! Remember lunchtime recess and romps on the playground with friends after school? For many children, those days and those playgrounds are gone. There is a transformation, a renaissance for playgrounds, as a part of the free play movement.

The first playground on record in the United States was built in 1887 in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. As playgrounds evolved through the 20th century, designs and equipment became uniform, predictable, and safe because of a wave of injury liability cases and standardized safety regulations (Moore 2006).

However, the risk-aversion pendulum swing seems to have reached the end of its arc. The playground design movement is seeking a fresh, new balance between adventure and security in creative play spaces for 21st century children. Several European countries are leading the way in this reform and American planners are learning from their global neighbors.

Why the change?

Over time, people realized that the ultra-safe playgrounds of the 1980s in ways, may result in more and 90s were boring for children, and children’s development suffered. fearful children and increased levels of Psychologists, development specialists, and education researchers psychopathology” (Rosin 2014). If socially recognized that “risky” play challenges prepared children for future acceptable ways do not meet this need life challenges. Ellen Sandseter, professor of early childhood education for adrenalin, children tend to seek a fix through less appropriate, more reckless means.

Outdated playground equipment also does not allow children to develop their bodies in the ways they need to. According to Angela Hanscom, a pediatric occupational therapist, the senses in children’s joints and muscles (proprioceptive sense) does not develop if children do not get the variety of active play they need. The heavy chores and outside, large-body play of children in past generations have largely disappeared (Strauss 2015b). Psychologists recognized that children “desperately need to have a multitude at Queen Maud University College, explains that children “have a of whole-body sensory experiences on sensory need to taste danger and excitement.” Apparently the play a daily basis in order to develop strong doesn’t actually have to be dangerous, it just has to feel dangerous. bodies and minds” (Strauss 2015a). She continues, “[The ’] being harmed, mostly Movements like twisting, bouncing, and

extension.psu.edu/youth/betterkidcare being upside down help children to orient the spatial-relations wiring in their brains. The physical contact in rough play helps regulate brain chemicals that lead to calmer and more focused learners who also get better at non-verbal communication such as facial expressions and gestures. They “know how strong they are, as well as how to hold back this strength when the play requires them to do so” (Frances Carlson in NAEYC 2011). The adventure play that today’s redesigned play yards encourage also nurtures a ’s creativity and sense of self-worth. This flexible, adventurous play is helping to develop the next generation of designers and architects!

What are the current best practice standards for outdoor play for children? When outdoor play yards are designed to stretch children’s minds and bodies, there is a direct relationship between a child care center’s outdoor environment and its children’s physical health. Children who attend preschools with larger playgrounds engage in more physical activity than children in preschools with smaller playgrounds do. Large playgrounds with open space are associated with higher physical activity levels. In addition, those children who have access to portable play equipment like tricycles, balls, and hoops tend to be more active than children exposed only to fixed play equipment like jungle gyms and balance beams (Physical Activity Guidelines 2012).

Today’s playgrounds have many names, such as outdoor learning spaces and playscapes. They provide positive movement challenges through varied surfaces, especially uneven, non-uniform ground surfaces. They incorporate slopes, steps, and interconnected pathways. Slides built into slopes of a hill give both thrill and safety. Playgrounds for older children may incorporate net climbers, rock walls, play cubes, and zip lines to meet older children’s physical and emotional needs. Because of the innovative design of play cubes, children are highly visible at all times. Shock-absorbing (safety) surfacing remains an important criterion of today’s playgrounds, especially under fall zones.

Most new play areas also incorporate shaded spaces and places for quiet or expressive play such as platforms, easels, trellises, and mud kitchens to support the next generation of chefs, entertainers, artists, and caregivers.

According to Jan White, early childhood outdoor play advocate and educator, quality outdoor learning environments should be intentional about seven areas of outdoor play: access to water, natural materials, living plants and creatures, physical play and movement, imaginative-expressive play, construction/den play, and play beyond the program fences (White 2014).

extension.psu.edu/youth/betterkidcare How can early care professionals transform the play yard experience? Caregiving teams can implement low-cost strategies to incorporate positive 21st century ideas into existing play spaces.

• Create purposeful plantings – add fragrance, texture, color; plant vegetables, fragrant herbs, ornamental grasses, climbing plants, and bulbs and shrubs that add seasonal color.

• Provide props for heavy work – wagons, garden tools, logs to roll, stones to carry, ropes to pull.

• Plan climbing, jumping, and balancing opportunities – add logs, stumps, lengths of lumber, hoops, boulders, hay bales, bricks, hollow blocks, stepping stones, crates, and more.

• Emphasize portable equipment – trikes, balls, buckets, streamers, muffin tins, and blocks; offer natural, “loose parts” items like acorns, sweet gum burrs, field corn, seashells, drift wood, and river rocks.

• Give permission for children to use play equipment, supplies, and toys in unexpected, novel ways as they create, experiment, and express their ideas. Repurpose household items for play.

• Welcome adventure play – suggest such ideas as to institute an “up the slide” day; to roll down a long hill; to get wet, messy, or even anxious with nerves; to spin with a full bucket of water; to walk on a pathway made of wiggly limb segments; to play with a length of 4” X 4” lumber in the play yard; to roll balls, toy cars, or an old tire or wooden spool down a ramp or hillside.

• In response to children’s ideas, ask, “How can we make it possible to safely offer this?”

• Continue to supervise and have visual contact with all children, while allowing them to build, create and experience a sense that they have special, secret, one-of-a-kind spaces.

Early childhood professionals can join the playground renaissance. As they provide supportive, engaging, adventurous outdoor experiences under the watchful eye of caring adults, they can mitigate risk for children and spark excitement and learning.

Consumer Product Safety Commission continues to be an authority on playground safety standards. Early childhood professionals need to continue to be watchful about overexposure to sun and hot play surfaces.

Joe Frost, one of the leaders in playground safety reform and litigation testimony, writes reflectively that, “In the real world, life is filled with risks—financial, physical, emotional, social—and reasonable risks are essential for children’s healthy development” (Rosin 2014).

extension.psu.edu/youth/betterkidcare Want to keep thinking about this topic?

Watch this video and think about how it might inspire more creative use of open-ended building materials in your play yard (Stoddard 2013). http://www.rebeccafoxstoddard.com/the- dragonflies-build-an-obstacle-course/

Check out the following Better Kid Care On Demand lessons:

• Get Outdoors. Explore.

• Let’s Move Child Care – Increase Physical Activity

• Fresh Harvest: Children Grow in the Garden

References: • Moore, Robin. 2006. “Playgrounds: for Americans Midcourse Report: https://www.washingtonpost.com/ A 150-Year-Old Model.” In Safe and Strategies to Increase Physical Activity news/answer-sheet/wp/2015/09/01/ Healthy School Environments, edited Among Youth. Washington, DC: US the-decline-of-play-in-preschoolers-and- by Howard Frumkin, Robert Geller, I. Department of Health and Human the-rise-in-sensory-issues/?tid=a_inl Leslie Rubin, and Janice Nodvin, 86- Services. http://www.health.gov/ 103. Oxford University Press. paguidelines/midcourse/pag-mid- • Strauss, Valerie. 2015b. “Why Kids course-report-final.pdf are Getting More Aggressive on the • NAEYC. 2011. “Q&A with the Author Playground.” The Washington Post. of Big Body Play: An NAEYC Online • Rosin, Hanna. 2014. “The Accessed August 10, 2016. https:// Event.” National Association for the Overprotected Kid.” The Atlantic. www.washingtonpost.com/news/ Education of Young Children. http:// Accessed August 10, 2016. http:// answer-sheet/wp/2015/03/29/why- www.naeyc.org/event/big-body-play www.theatlantic.com/magazine/ kids-are-getting-more-aggressive-on- archive/2014/04/hey-parents-leave- the-playground/?tid=a_inl • Pennsylvania Chapter of the American those-kids-alone/358631/ of Pediatrics. 2014. Model • White, Jan. 2014. Playing and Child Care Health Policies. Susan • Stoddard, Rebecca Fox. 2013. Learning Outdoors: Making Provision S. Aronson, Ed. 5th ed. Elk Grove “The Dragonflies Build an Obstacle for High Quality Experiences in the Village, IL: American Academy Course.” Video. Accessed August 10, Outdoor Environment with Children of Pediatrics; 2014. www.ecels- 2016. http://www.rebeccafoxstoddard. 3-7, 2nd edition. Routledge. healthychildcarepa.org com/the-dragonflies-build-an- obstacle-course/ • Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans Midcourse Report • Strauss, Valerie. 2015a. “The Decline Subcommittee of the President’s of Play in Preschoolers – And the Rise Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition. in Sensory Issues.” The Washington 2012. Physical Activity Guidelines Post. Accessed August 10, 2016.

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Supported by funds from the Office of Child Development and Early Learning, jointly overseen by the Departments of Human Services and Education. Claudia C. Mincemoyer, Ph.D., Better Kid Care Program Director This publication is available in alternative media on request. 2182 Sandy Drive – Suite 204 State College, PA 16803 Penn State is an equal opportunity, employer, and is committed to providing employment opportunities to all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, or protected veteran status. © 2016 The Pennsylvania State University HO_21stPlayYards.indd