Child Playgrounds
Sherri Arnold
Research has found that playgrounds are essential to not only
physical strength, but mental strength as well. Playgrounds
help develop social, emotional and cognitive skills. Children
however, need more than the traditional playground. They need
playgrounds that challenge their skills and provide opportunities
to learn new ones.
How did the importance of play develop?
Plato and Aristotle found that play was important in the
education of children. Furthermore, Locke, Rousseau,
Deway, Montessori and others reinforced that play
should be an integral part to educational programs.
The National Recreation Association in the 1900’s developed
guidelines for certain equipment for playgrounds
like providing a sand box, swings, a small slide and
a climber. This is known as the traditional playground.
Unfortunately not much has changed since then. Many
people believe play is good for burning off energy and
for physical growth. Therefore, traditional playgrounds
are fine because they satisfy this requirement. It has
been found that there are two factors in the development
of the child: unstructured and structured learning. Most
of the child’s development is from unstructured activities
which most do not comprehend.
What are the benefits of play?
The developmental benefits of play include cognitive
development, increased imagination and creativity,
increased discover and reasoning, manipulative skills
and though development and improved problem solving.
What are the types of playgrounds and what do they
contribute to children?
There are three major types:
1. traditional type: Traditional type: slides, swings, see
saws, etc. identifiable to children, but does not provide
for cognitive and social play
2. contemporary type: joins or connects different pieces
forming a continuous piece known as the superstructure
or multi functional structure. Less numerous, more costly,
liked more by kids than traditional type, encourages
educationally worthwhile forms of play.
3. adventure/creative type: contains loose parts like
old tires, lumber, crates and other materials. Allows
children to create their own things, provides flexibility,
needs a play leaders satisfies cognitive, social and
physical developments
Design guidelines
1. children need different play opportunities to complete
their social, intellectual, and physical needs.
2. play leaders and teachers should work with children
in a variety of ways during play time
3. there should be diverse activity spaces for structured
games, creative play, play with natural elements, water
and sand play, quiet play and shared open space
4. successful playgrounds do not just depend on the play
structures themselves, but also the organization and
landscaping of the entire site
5. play areas need to allow the children to create their
own environment to some degree to allow for adventure
and creative play
6. provide ambiguity to stimulate fantasy play, loose
parts for creative and cognitive play, clear accomplishment
points to reinforce development of self concept
7. provide a variety of small spaces, changes in level,
changes in surface, stair seats, bushes, plantings,
colors, textures, overhead elements, etc.
8. the playgrounds should be accessible to all
9. provide stages of difficulty so that children can choose
goals which they can accomplish
10. use a variety of climbing situations and places above
the ground so that the children can choose the challenge
and excitement they are ready for
Annotated Bibliography of important sources
Bruya, L.D. Play Spaces for Children. Volume II, North
Texas State University, 1988.
This book is a collection of papers from a variety of
authors, professors and sociologist. The topics cover the
development of playgrounds and equipment, playground
safety, and playground solutions for children.
Cohen, U., Hill, A., Lane, C., McGinty, T., and Moore, T.
Recommendations for Child Play Areas. University of
Wisconsin, Milwaukee, 1978.
This book is an excellent resource for child play areas.
It covers theories of play and contains numerous design
recommendations. Each section or topic covers an issue,
justification, pattern and lastly recommendations.
Senda, Mitsuru, Design of children’s play environments,
McGraw Hill, Inc. New York; 1 992.
Senda is an architect and professor in Japan and has
been designing play structures and environments for
over 20 years. He studied child
play areas for ten years and has
created numerous indoor and
outdoor play environments.
This book references many
successful projects and shows
how creative one can be when
designing play spaces and
environments.
www.unl.edu/
casetudy/456/sherri.htm
