ARE PLAYGROUNDS STILL VIABLE IN THE 21ST CENTURY?

Each year, park and recreation agencies across the nation spend millions of dollars in purchasing playground equipment for use by children in their communities. In doing so, these agencies are following a tradition as old as the public recreation movement itself. The Boston "sand gardens" developed in 1886 are generally cited as the first time a "public play area" was set aside for young children. Twenty years later, the first professional organization in the parks and recreation field was created.

It was not by accident that this organization was named the Playground Association of America (PAA). Thus, playgrounds have been an integral part of the public parks and recreation movement in America from its inception.

However, for all the advancement in the parks and recreation field, the development of playground sites and equipment has remained basically the same. For example, in the late 1920's, the National Recreation Association, which evolved from the EA.A., recommended the following equipment pieces for pre-school and public school playgrounds:

Pre-school Recommendations

* A sandbox

* small slide

* low climber

* six chair swings.

Elementary School Recommendations

* A slide eight feet high

* a giant stride

* a balance beam

* a horizontal bar

* a horizontal ladder

* six swings on a frame 12 feet high.

Optional equipment:

* seesaws

* traveling rings

* low climbing devices (Butler, 1958).

A recent comprehensive survey of childcare, community parks, and school playgrounds completed by the National Program for Playground Safety (NPPS) found these pieces still standard on many playgrounds today. As can be seen in Table 1, swings, climbers and slides are still the primary equipment pieces on all playgrounds with horizontal bars and ladders still found on school sites.

TABLE 1. EQUIPMENT FOUND ON PLAYGROUNDS(*)

Type of Equipment         Overall %   Childcare %   Schools %   Parks

Slides                         91%            92%         87%     93%
Swings                         72%            68%         64%     86%
Horizontal ladders             52%             3%         74%     52%
Sliding poles                  41%            20%         58%     47%
Arch climbers                  37%            22%         62%     47%
Chinning bars                  26%            10%         48%     21%
Cargo nets                     26%            20%         32%     28%
Spiral climbers                25%             9%         35%     33%
Seesaws                        20%            25%         12%     21%
Monkey bars                    17%            13%         27%     12%
Parallel bars                  15%             5%         29%     12%
Geodesic domes                 15%            11%         24%     10%
Merry-go-rounds                14%            15%          9%     20%

(*) The percentages reflect to what degree these equipment pieces were
found. For example, 91% of all playgrounds surveyed had slides and 72%
of all playgrounds surveyed had swings.

Is there a gap between our 21st century children's recreational needs and what we are supplying them with our 20th century playgrounds? Do park and recreation professionals understand what to look for in playground equipment in order to offer maximum play opportunities for children? Do we choose play equipment for children or for adults? Finally, are playgrounds still a viable option for the 21st century? This article will explore current park and recreation professionals' knowledge and attitudes about quality play environments and the use of that information to remodel existing playgrounds in order to develop new play environments that meet the recreational needs of our children.

Meet the Professionals

At the recent NRPA 2000 Congress in Phoenix, 50 professionals were asked to complete a survey concerning the viability of playgrounds in the 21st century. Forty-eight surveys were useable. The respondents represented park and recreation professionals from 28 different states, Canada, and overseas military bases. The average number of years in the profession was 17. These individuals came from agencies which controlled between one and 350 playgrounds within their system. Altogether, they represented 1,900 public playgrounds.

Why Have Playgrounds?

Fundamental to the discussion of whether playgrounds are still viable in the 21st century is the question: "Why have playgrounds?" The early leaders of the park and recreation field had very definite ideas about the importance and purposes of playgrounds. From the writings of Joseph Lee (1921), we read, "Play seen from inside, as the child sees it, is the most serious thing in life. Play builds the child. It is the essential part of education."

Modern day professionals provided twenty-four different reasons for providing playground equipment. The top eight reasons are shown in Table 2 (Note: respondents could give multiple answers).

TABLE 2. PRIMARY PURPOSE OF PROVIDING PLAYGROUND EQUIPMENT

Purpose                      Number

Recreation                       12
Safety                           10
Play                             10
Interaction                       8
Exercise                          8
Activity                          5
Fun                               4
Social/Physical Development       4

As can be seen in Table 2, providing for the recreation and play needs of children are cited as the primary purposes of providing playground equipment. In addition, safety is also prominent. The responses surrounding safety may involve two aspects. That is, the work of programs such as the National Playground Safety Institute and the National Program for Playground Safety has begun to influence park and recreation professionals to pay attention to the provision of safe playground equipment. Second, the provision of safe outdoor environments, especially in urban areas, is a concern. Rivkin (1990) noted that Central Park in New York City, developed by Frederick Law Olmstead for children in the nineteenth century, is too dangerous for use by families and children in the twentieth century.

This might mean revisiting the need for providing adequate supervision for these play spaces as well as providing new safe equipment.

What Benefits do Children Derive from Playgrounds?

In keeping with the idea that recreation and play provide benefits to individuals, the professionals were asked to list three distinct benefits that children receive as a result of interacting with playground equipment. Their top twelve benefits are shown in Table 3.

TABLE 3. BENEFITS OF PLAYGROUNDS FOR CHILDREN

Benefits                  Number

Socialization                17
Physical Development         11
Exercise                     10
Fun                          10
Confidence                    9
Social Development            8
Creativity                    7
Interactive Play              5
Motor Skill                   5
Learning Experiences          4
Fitness                       4
Gross Motor Development       4

Socialization/social development: It is interesting to note that the top benefit felt to be derived from public playgrounds is that of socialization. As Malivet and Philippe (1991)state, the playground is a place of encounters and communication, a place to develop and practice social skills, to experience acceptance and rejection, to develop friendships, and to learn about cooperation. However, it should be realized that different factors such as the size, type and arrangement of the equipment, overall layout, number of children present, and type of adult supervision will affect the types of behavior and quality of social interaction.

One response to providing for socialization is the development of large modular structures that link different play elements together. These complex structures may increase peer contact since they are used by children at different levels and provide a variety of motor experiences and a wider range of play behaviors (Bruya, 1985). However, at the same time, these singular, large, all-purpose pieces of equipment can also create a concentration of children in a single area of grounds, creating collision hazards or waiting periods, causing conflicts between children and confusion in circulation (Maufette, 1999). This is especially true when park and recreation professionals select equipment pieces from catalogs with little regard for the ways the pieces relate to each other and the play behavior of children. If socialization is a primary benefit sought, then the playground structures must be designed in such a way to encourage this interaction.

To socialize, children need to talk, laugh, and play with one another, as well as with adults. One of the problems with present playground design is that layouts typically do not invite adults to interact with children. Rather, supervising adults are urged to sit on benches surrounding the play apparatus while children use the equipment.

It should also be recognized that sitting places and materials that stimulate cooperation will also encourage contacts. For example, seating can take different forms: benches, logs, stones, stumps, mounds, or grass.

If one wants to provide for socialization, then playground areas need to be designed with nooks for single children, retreats for two or a few, places for one on one adult/child interaction, places for small groups (three to five) or for several groups (Moore, 1994).

Physical Development and Fitness: Park and recreation professionals also see playgrounds as areas where children can develop physical skills and help muscle development. The need for better physical development of our children is well documented. The lack of physical fitness among our children poses a grave threat to their health as adults. Since the earliest time, playground equipment has been seen as one avenue to promote physical activity of children. But, in our efforts to promote this benefit, attention must be paid to age-appropriate equipment and well designed play areas.

The NPPS study (Hudson, Mack & Thompson, 2000) found that the majority of community park playgrounds were designed for ages 2-12. In other words, park and recreation professionals seem to have adopted the design principle that "one size fits all." In doing this, they are putting children at risk for injury. A four-year-old is not an eight-year-old in terms of physical strength, endurance, and skill. Both parents and children all too often overestimate physical capabilities.

The authors are constantly seeing adults boosting children up on equipment (i.e. overhead ladders, track rides, etc.) that are too high and too difficult for their physical development. The result, when the adults turn attention elsewhere, can be serious injury for the children.

If park and recreation professionals feel that playgrounds should benefit the physical well-being of children, then they must adhere to safe principles of design to accomplish this objective. This means providing a clear separation of equipment according to the developmental age of users and the selection of equipment that provides for the progressive development of strength, endurance and ability.

Fun: Park and recreation professionals in the survey use the word "fun" to describe both the purpose and the benefits of playgrounds. But what does this word really mean and how does it translate into playground design?

Adults' and children's ideas of fun are not necessarily the same. Whereas, a 6 feet high slide holds little excitement for a 5'8" adult, the height may be overwhelming to a four-year-old. Similarly, adults may not fully appreciate the manipulative characteristics of sand and dirt.

The point is that children do not perceive the environment the same way as adults; each pays attention to different things. (Faure, 1991). Thus, if adults want to provide a "fun" environment for children, they need to be able to perceive the playground from the child's viewpoint, not the adult's. At this time, few park and recreation professionals have strong backgrounds in child development and behavior. Unfortunately few playground manufacturers have designers with child development in their backgrounds either. If we are to develop play areas that really meet the needs of children, more research and attention needs to be paid to the characteristics of children, and therefore what we should design for their needs.

It is also evident that children use equipment pieces differently than adults intended and will use everything available in the play environment (containment barriers, benches, supporting structures, etc.) in surprising ways. Despite knowing this, we seem amazed when children go up the slide chutes instead of sliding down them, jump out of swings when they are at the highest point, or hang upside down on overhead ladders. The point is, that for over 100 years, we have paid very little attention to designing playground equipment for the "fun" of children. We expect the children to conform to the equipment, rather than having the equipment provide for children's needs.

If park and recreation professionals believe that fun should be a benefit of playgrounds, then they need to pay more attention to the concept of fun from the child's point of view. This means designing playgrounds that create stimulating and interesting challenges for children. Too many of our present playgrounds are simply cookie cutter structures that are designed based on adults desires rather than children's needs. Not surprisingly, according to research, most children spend less than fifteen minutes playing on outdoor playground equipment (Maufette, 1999).

Confidence: As indicated by the park and recreation professionals in the survey, playgrounds are also places where children should be able to develop a sense of confidence. Confidence results when one is challenged but is able to succeed through one's action. As Olds (1986) states, "ultimately, the ability of children to be competent is affected by the number and variety of things there are to do, the number of places there are to go together, and accessibility of these things and places within the outdoor space."

The word "challenge" sometimes gets equated with the word "risk" in terms of playground design. They are not one and the same. According to the dictionary, a challenge is a test or contest, something to overcome whereas risk is defined as a chance or probability of injury or loss. This is an important distinction to make in terms of playground design. In order to provide challenge, one should increase the complexity of a task but not necessarily raise the probability of risk (i.e. injury). How can this be done?

One has to understand the challenge or the task that is presented to the child, then work to increase its complexity in developmentally appropriate ways. For example, if the task is one of providing balance, then having a young child walk a straight line is a challenge. As the child is able to control his/her body through space, the complexity of this task can be increased by raising the line 12" off the ground (i.e. a balance beam). It is the next step that marks the difference between challenge and risk. At this point, many people would assume that the next step would be to raise the height of the balance beam to four feet. However, this merely increases the risk, not the complexity, of the task since falling from the height of four feet significantly raises the probability of an injury. Rather, to increase the complexity of the task, one might provide a beam that increased in length, changed angles, tipped or changed into stepping stones. The point is, that height serves only to increase the risk not the complexity of the task.

It is important to build self-esteem and confidence for children in a play environment, but not at the cost of injury to a child. Thus, park and recreation professionals need to pay closer attention to ways playground equipment pieces they select help to instill the confidence that they indicate is so beneficial to children.

Creativity and Interactive Play: Imagination and creativity are internal, not external, attributes. Despite knowing this, many park and recreation professionals still succumb to theme equipment. Thus, slides look like rocket ships or dinosaurs and modular designs look like cars, ships, or airplanes. While there may be some instances where a theme structure is appropriate (i.e. airplane at Chicago airport play area), in general, theme structures lock children into the adult's imagination and not their own. It is hard to be a pirate on a dinosaur or a astronaut on a boat. The point is that a creative playground is one that provides for creative and expressive play, dramatic play, and cognitive development. It is child-centered, not adult-centered.

Semi-enclosed structures and manipulative play materials such as sand and water help to develop imagination and encourage fantasy play. These areas can also promote interactive play among children, as can activities that require cooperation, such as pulleys and multi-seated spring rides.

Challenges to Providing More Appropriate Playgrounds

From the above discussion, it is apparent that the provision of quality playgrounds is not without problems. However, when park and recreation professionals were asked to name the three most difficult issues regarding providing playground equipment for children in their community, their answers had more to do with the "hows" than with the "whys" of playgrounds.

As seen in Table 4, park and recreation professionals see the major problem with playgrounds being finance, not design. The cost of various superstructures has increased significantly in recent years. However, the question remains: do they offer anything new and different? In some cases, it might be prudent for some professionals to examine exactly how many play activities they are getting for their money that are really fitting the needs of children.

TABLE 4. DIFFICULT ISSUES REGARDING PLAYGROUNDS FOR CHILDREN

Issues                          Number

Overall Cost                        33
Location (Space and Politics)       14
Maintenance                         10
Safety                               8
Equipment costs                      8
Age appropriate equipment            7
Safe surfacing                       6
Vandalism                            6
Liability                            5

The second major issue on many professional minds is the difficulty surrounding litigation and having safe equipment. Indirectly, this issue relates to the design of the playspace. A safe play area is generally one for which some consideration has been given to the selection of the equipment and layout of the playground.

Age appropriate equipment (7) and selecting components that challenge children (3) were relatively low concerns. Only one person mentioned that antiquated equipment might be problematic.

It would appear from the information in Table 4 that park and recreation professionals look at playground equipment as something to buy rather than as items to meet children's needs. In other words, "how to do it" is more important than "why we do it."

Are Playgrounds Viable for the 21st Century?

Ninety-two percent of the park and recreation professionals in this limited survey felt that playgrounds were viable recreation spaces for the 21st century. The authors agree with this validation of playgrounds as long as park and recreation professionals start to pay attention to four major issues.

The first issue has to do with a growing disparity between availability of knowledge about quality play environments and the use of that information to remodel existing playgrounds and develop new play areas. As shown in this informal survey, most professionals are concerned more with finance and litigation than with design and layout that might fit children's needs.

The second issue has to do with the disparity between using large play equipment as something that fits all children's needs, rather than attempting to design comprehensive play environments that include features for all types of play. Simply putting a large and expensive play structure in the middle of a park does little to enhance the play activities of children and may lead to the second issue cited by professionals: litigation. One size does not fit all. Areas for younger children should be separated from those for older children. In addition, equipment should be provided to meet the needs of each age level.

The third issue has to do with the disparity between the focus of design of environments with high aesthetic appeal rather than design features that evolve from the play needs of children. Too many of our play areas are visually attractive to the adult eye but do little for the play value of children.

Finally, we simply continue to have too many play areas with outdated equipment, and frequently it is in poor repair on our nation's playgrounds. The NPPS study of the nation's playgrounds showed a significant correlation between the age of the equipment and maintenance issues. Equipment installed prior to 1981 had significantly more maintenance problems. These problems included broken parts (28%), missing parts (30%), gaps in the equipment which could entrap the head of a child (28%) and rust (37%). In addition, pre-1981 equipment also had more protruding bolts (28%) and splinters (39%) than equipment installed after 1981 (Hudson, Mack, and Thompson, 2000).

Children of the 21st century deserve play environments that are appropriate to their needs. In order to make playgrounds viable for the this century we need to:

1. Refocus our attention on the actual play behavior of children.

2. Refocus our attention on the actual benefits children can derive from a quality play area.

3. Refocus on how we develop play spaces for children.

If we do these things, then playgrounds will be a viable influence in children's lives and a means of meeting the recreation and play needs of children in the present and in the future.

References

Bruya, L.D. (1985). Design Characteristics Used in Playgrounds for Children. In J. L. Frost and S. Sunderlin (Eds.), When ChildrenPlay, Wheaton, MD: Association for Childhood Eduation International.

Butler, George (1958). 2nd Ed. Recreation Areas -- Their Design and Equipment. New York: The Ronald Press Company.

Faure, A. (1991). De espaces jeux pour les jeunes enfants in LeJeune Enfant et l'architecte. Les lieux de la petite enfance IDEF, Syros Alternatives, France.

Hudson, S. Mack, M. & Thompson, D. (2000). How safe are Ameria's playgrounds? Cedar Falls, IA.: National Program for Playground Safety.

Lee, Joseph. (1921). Play in education. New York: The Macmillan Company.

Malivet, N. and Philippe, (1991). Les fonctions sociale et pedagogiques deL'espace. Une response, l'ecole Victor Hugo de l'Aigle in Le jeune enfant et l'architecture. Les lieux de la petite enfance. Institut dePromotion sociale de l'enfant (IPSE) et l'Institut de l/enfance et de la famille (IDEF), et de la famille (IDEF).

Mauffette, A.G. (1999). Revisiting children's outdoor environments: A focus on design, play and safety. Hull, Quebec, Canada:Gauvin Press.

Moore, G.T. (1994). The developmentally appropriate design of child care facilites. Communication presented at the United Nations Conference on the Rights of Child-Stronger Children, Victoria, Canada.

Olds, A. (1987) Designing Settings for Infants and Toddlers, in Spaces for children, In Weinstein and David (Eds). New York: Plenum Press.

Rivkin, M.S. (1990). Outdoor Play--What Happens Here? In J.L Frost and S. Wortham (Eds.) Playgrounds for Young Children, Reston, VA: American Association for Leisure and Recreation.

Susan D. Hudson, Ph.D. and Donna Thompson, Ph.D. are the authors of "Are Playgrounds Still Viable in the 21st Century?" on page 54. Hudson is the education director of the National Program for Playground Safety located at the University of Northern Iowa. A member of NRPA for 28 years, Dr. Hudson is a frequent presenter and prolific author in the field of playgrounds and leisure services. Dr. Thompson is the director of the National Program for Playground Safety. An acknowledged expert in the field of playground safety for over 20 years, she was one of the original members of the National Playground Safety Institute Board (NPSI) and has appeared on numerous television news programs including Good Morning America and Later Today regarding issues relating to playground safety.