What’s the odd broken bone? The deliberately DANGEROUS German playgrounds designed to teach kids how to handle risk that put our safety-first playpens to shame
- A German professor has claimed ‘safe’ playgrounds prevent kids from learning vital lessons about risk management in their early years
- Meanwhile, insurance companies in the UK have refused to insure playgrounds deemed to be ‘too-high risk’ to avoid accident pay-outs
- Research suggests that preventing kids from playing unsupervised damages their understanding of risk management and could harm mental health
- ‘What the spongy surface playgrounds don’t do is teach kids that there is a consequence to falling,’ one researcher said
By DAVID AVERRE FOR MAILONLINE
New German playgrounds are built to be dangerous, forcing children to negotiate perilous obstacles while risking injury if they fall according to a professor of motor development.
Professor Rolf Schwarz of Karlsruhe University of Education, argues that ‘safe’ playgrounds prevent kids from learning how to handle risk in the early stages of their development.
‘If we want children to be prepared for risk, we need to allow them to come into contact with risk,’ said the professor who works with councils and playground designers to develop challenging obstacles.
It comes as Rebecca Faulkner, an executive from New York based non-profit researcher play:groundNYC, said soft landing areas and spongy floors don’t help kids to learn that their actions have consequences.
‘What the spongy surface playgrounds don’t do is teach kids that there is a consequence to falling, and they won’t learn anything from it,’ said Faulkner.
‘The spongy surface really just teaches them that the ground is soft, which, of course, it’s not.’
TY – JOUR
AU – Kambas, Antonis
AU – Antoniou, Panagiotis
AU – Xanthi, G.
AU – Heikenfeld, Roderich
AU – Taxildaris, K.
AU – Godolias, G.
PY – 2004/02/01
SP – 44
EP – 47
N2 – The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of an intervention program focusing on the coordination abilities on the frequency of accidents in the kindergarten. Accidents were mainly “falls during play” (61%), while motor deficiencies were the major factor of accidents (77%). The intervention group (IG) demonstrated a significant improvement of their motor proficiency and reduced overall number of accidents. The control group had a slight improvement. Children of the IG, having low motor proficiency, had fewer accidents by the end of the program. These results emphasised the need for organised development of movement coordination and concrete motor skills in kindergarten in order to effectively prevent accidents.
T1 – Accident prevention through development of coordination in kindergarten children
VL – 55
JO – Deutsche Zeitschrift fur Sportmedizin
ER –
AU – Sandseter, Ellen Beate Hansen
AU – Sando, Ole Johan
PY – 2016/01/01
SP – 178
EP – 200
N2 – e authors point out a basic contradiction: On one hand, we want to keep children as safe as possible; On the other, they suggest, learning to take risks is a normal part of childhood and child development. In Norway, research has shown that early-childhood education and care (ECEC) practitioners have, in the past, taken
a permissive approach to children’s risk taking. In this article, the authors surveys ECEC managers to explore how the increasing focus on safety in Norwegian society aects ECEC programs. ey nd the previously more relaxed attitudes regarding risky play among children to be changing in such settings. ey describe restrictions recently introduced into everyday program activities, and they discuss the implications both for ECEC pedagogy and for children’s play, learning, and development.
Key words: early-childhood education and care (ECEC); play and safety; play in Norwegian preschools; risk taking and play
http://www.journalofplay.org/sites/www.journalofplay.org/files/pdf-articles/8-2-article-we-dont-allow-children-to-climb-trees.pdf
T1 – We don’t allow children to climb trees: How a Focus on Safety Affects Norwegian Children’s Play in Early-Childhood Education and Care Settings
VL – 8
JO – American Journal of Play
ER –
https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/59050691
BUSHCRAFT SCHOOL 