Let the children play ... and the supervisors have peace of mind: designing playgrounds to help those supervising children.

Playgrounds have been an integral part of public parks and recreation from the start of the movement in the late 1800s. In fact, the first professional organization of municipal recreation professionals was called the Playground Association of America. The importance of these early playgrounds is well documented in the writings of the early leaders of the field, including Joseph Lee, Henry Curtis and Luther Gulick. An integral part of these playgrounds was not only the equipment, but also the supervision that was provided. Joseph Lee noted the importance of supervision when he observe that Boston's playgrounds weren't used to nearly their full capacity owing to a lack of supervision. Without supervision, it seemed to Lee, the bigger boys broke up constructive play.

Over the years, public playgrounds have continued to be a mainstay in parks. However, unlike the early playgrounds, the majority of park and recreation agencies have foregone the expense of providing supervisors for these play spaces. Instead, they rely on adults who may accompany children to these areas to provide supervision. Because most adults are ill-prepared to provide supervision, it's not surprising that the lack of proper supervision is cited as a contributing factor in 40 percent of all playground injuries.

The lack of adequate supervision on playgrounds puts public park and recreation departments in a dilemma. On the one hand, the public pressures agencies to provide playgrounds; on the other hand, providing these play spaces without adequate supervision places children at risk and poses a liability exposure to public playground owners in states where government immunity provides limited or no protection. Short of providing staff members to provide supervision to these sites, is there anything else that public park and recreation agencies can do to help the public supervise children in these play spaces?

Yes. One key way that park and recreation agencies can help the public in the supervision process is to consider elements of supervision in the planning and design of these areas. This article will discuss some essential points of design that help facilitate supervision by caregivers who take children to playgrounds.

The design of the playground environment call either promote or binder the supervision process. As such, there are at least four major elements to consider in the design of any playground to aid adults in supervision. These elements are location of the playground site, zones for play, age-appropriate design of equipment and open sight lines. Let's take a look at each.

Location of the Playground Site

As a result of the location of the playground site, there are many potential hazards to children. For instance, if the playground is located in an area where a road runs adjacent to it, there's a real possibility of a child running into the street. We're aware of a park in the Midwest where a road separated the playground from the public restroom. As most parents call attest, the second most-visited place in a park, aside from a playground, is probably the public restrooms. This kind of design is literally an accident waiting to happen. In the same light, unfenced parking lots adjacent to playground sites also pose a problem, as children are more intent on running to and from to the playground than looking out for moving vehicles.

A third moving object that needs to be consider is the bicycle. Bicycle trails are popular entrances to many public parks. Often, these pathways lead right to the playground. It's important that designers lay out a pathway that doesn't interrupt the activities that are occurring on the playground. Pathways that allow cyclists to enter into the playground environment set up a conflict between a moving object and a child. One other note should be made about the bicycle and the playground. Cyclists need to be warned to take their helmets of when getting on playground equipment. Spaces on the equipment aren't designed for children with helmets. Allowing children on playground equipment with helmets can lead to a potentially life-threatening head entrapment.

Forested areas and streams are also elements in the playground environment that can present supervision hazards. These areas are attractive nuisances for children. If a caregiver isn't paying attention to children, the children can easily wander off and get into serious trouble. Having a definite boundary outlined by fences or shrubs helps delineate the playground area for both children and supervisors.

Utility lines running through the playground area can also pose potential problems. We've seen playgrounds where, over time, the power lines have sagged to such an extent that they're within reach of a child standing on a slide. In addition, support structures for the utility lines may be enticing to children who view them as just another climbing opportunity.

A few years ago, parents of private school children found out one day that the business office had made a contractual arrangement with a cell phone company to erect a phone tower in the middle of an existing playground. The first that the principal or other school officials knew of this business arrangement was when the trucks showed up at recess to begin the work of erecting the tower. The parents ended up taking the school administration to court over the issue. The business officials saw no problems with the tower, especially if it brought extra money to the school. However, the judge granted the parents a permanent injunction citing that the best interest of the children was to have a safe environment minus the tower. When providing space for children, the guiding principle should be what's in the best interest of the child, not what's cheap, available or leftover.

Zones For Play

The type of play behavior children might engage in, given the space and equipment that is present, defines play zones. The play site should be divided into zones of different activity types with buffers to prevent user conflicts and accidents. For instance, an architectural firm on the West Coast that was developing a four-field baseball complex contacted the National Program for Playground Safety concerning the placement of playground equipment. The firm had decided to put the playground in the center field area of the complex. Their reasoning was that while adults were watching one child play ball, they could also see another child playing on the equipment. Never mind that the children on the playground might be hit by a fly ball, or that the center fielders might run into the playground area chasing a ball. In addition, while the adults might have been able to see the children on the playground, they wouldn't have been close enough to intervene promptly if a child was in trouble or exhibiting behavior that was disruptive to other children.

Within the playground area itself, moving equipment, such as swings and merry-go-rounds, should be located away from other structures. Children exiting equipment don't necessarily watch where they're going, and can easily move into the paths of other children. In the same light, routes between safety zones should be mapped out ahead of time to avoid children disrupting each other's play patterns.

One design problem that we've seen many times is placing swings in front of slides. Although the use zones may conform to the standards, one needs to remember that these use zones are the minimum for safety, not the maximum. For example, we were doing an assessment at a school where this swing-slide configuration was found on the playground. We had measured the distance between the two structures and found that it met the Consumer Product Safety Commission guidelines. Then we watched as a 5th grader "bailed out" of a swing and landed two feet to the side of the slide chute. Luckily, no other child was present at the time. Had he landed straight across from the slide, he would have touched down on the exit of the chute.

Age Developmental Design

Playground equipment needs to be suitable for the developmental abilities of the users. The one-size-fits-all approach to playground equipment can contribute to serious injury on playgrounds. A preschool has a smaller foot and leg length than a school-age child. In addition, young children don't have the decision-making abilities to know that they're at risk when they get on equipment that's too large for their size and strength.

Despite this fact, the majority of park and recreation departments in the U.S. continue to design playgrounds for ages 2-12. This puts both the agency and children at risk. For example, one of the authors was involved in a legal case in the Southwest where a mother put her 4-year-old on a track ride. The young girl lost her grip, fell to an inappropriate surface and broke her arm. The park and recreation agency claimed that the mother was at fault for putting her child on equipment that was too large for her. However, there were two problems with this line of defense.

First, although there were two composite structures on the site, a review of the master plans revealed that both structures were designed for ages 2-12. Thus, instead of having one structure for ages 2-5 and one structure for ages 5-12, both structures had equipment that was appropriate for ages 2 as well as for ages 12. So, how was the parent to know which piece of equipment on the composite structure was appropriate for her child? Second, there were no signs at the site or labels on the equipment that designated the age appropriateness of the equipment. The only sign present on the playground stated that children under the age of 10 should be supervised, which is what the mother was doing at the time of the incident. The resulting settlement in this case cost the agency well over $100,000.

The point is that, by ignoring the CPSC guidelines that recommend that playground equipment should be separated for children ages 2 to 5 and ages 5 to 12 and that carry the weight of "professional duty of care" in most civil cases, park and recreation agencies are putting children at risk for injury and their agencies at financial risk in terms of liability.

In the above case, if the playground had been designed according to the CPSC guidelines and the American Society for Testing and Materials standards, and had proper signage to inform the mother about which pieces of equipment were appropriate for her child, the park and recreation agency's defense would have been valid.

Open Sight Lines

Supervision means an active, yet unobtrusive, monitoring of the play environment. It also means that the supervisor moves through the play environment and scans frequently in order to help ensure safety and promote injury prevention. Many times park and recreation agencies defeat the concept of active supervision by providing benches around the playground for adults to sit on while the children play on equipment. If park and recreation agencies do provide benches, then the placement of the benches becomes crucial for scanning the playground. Open sight lines refer to the existence of several angles of visual access for the supervisor. To facilitate this, the layout of equipment should be without visual barriers.

Even enclosed structures used for quiet play should provide for unobstructed visibility. In addition, it's important that adults have the ability to respond to emergencies by being able to get to the interior as well as the exterior of the structures to aid all injured child.

If park and recreation professionals believe that supervision is important to keep children safe' on playgrounds, then it's prudent for park and recreation agencies to facilitate this process through better design of their playground structures. Paying attention to the four elements discussed in this article is a start. The second part of the equation is to inform and educate the public about the importance of supervision when taking children to public playgrounds. Good design of playgrounds is the 21st century is the substitute for paid playground supervisors of the 20th century. Remember, however, that equipment won't supervise children; only people do. By drinking about supervision and incorporating into the design of the playground, public parks and recreation organizations are providing a foundation for the safety of children and making a sound investment in the financial well-being of the agency.

The authors all work at the National Program for Playground Safety (NPPS), at the University of Northern Iowa's School of Health, Physical Education and Leisure Services. Susan Hudson, Ph.D., is education director, Donna Thompson, Ph.D., is director of NPPS. Heather Olsen, M.S., is project coordinator of NPPS. Direct correspondence about this article to Hudson at [e-mail].