Playground safety awareness: what is the child's role?

The child did what she always did on a cool but sunny autumn day. She asked Mom if she could go out to play Mom's reply was affirmative. Mom helped her child put on a jacket to keep the chill away. With a zip and a kiss, the child ran to the neighborhood park, hoping her friend would already be there.

Time spent at the park is a wonderful part of life for the child. Both child and parent were comfortable with the park setting. Because of the well-kept conditions of parks facilities and its proximity to their home, Mom wasn't overly concerned about elements of danger. She was confident the child could venture to the park, as she often did, and return home safely.

The child ran to her favorite toy on the playground, the spiral slide. She stood at the top, and gazed out to see if her friend was coming. As she headed down the slide, the drawstring on her jacket became caught. The weight of her body carried her down the slide, but the drawstring caught at the top of the slide, and wouldn't come loose. With no way to get her footing, the child strangled.

Progress and Perils

Fortunately, such scenarios aren't as common as they once were. Awareness of playground safety has progressed rapidly in just the last 20 years. (See the box on p. 46.)

Among manufacturers, safety awareness is evidenced by one-piece designs for spiral slides, which reduce the possibility of clothing drawstrings being caught in a seam. Products that allow openings only smaller than 3" or larger than 9"--thereby reducing the likelihood of a child's head or body part becoming trapped--are further evidence of safety awareness among manufacturers.

Safety awareness among playground builders is evidenced by the common knowledge that a six-foot minimum safety clearance is required around a playground structure or component. Owner awareness about the need for safety surfacing, options in unitary and loose-fill materials, and the depth required to adequately cushion the impact of a child's fall to the surface is also evidence that America's playgrounds are safer than ever.

And yet injuries requiring emergency room treatment continue to occur ever day. The American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons estimates that more than 509,650 injuries related to playground equipment cost society $9.8 billion for medical, legal and liability, pain and suffering, and work loss expenses.

Most disturbing are deaths that still occur from playground-related injuries. Yearly fatalities estimates range from 17 to 22 deaths. That translates to more than one child per month each year. From Jan. 1, 1990, to Aug. 1, 2000, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission collected data and recorded 147 playground-related fatalities. The hazard pattern of these reported incidents is as follows: 82 deaths from hanging, 31 deaths from falls, 24 deaths from tip-over or collapse of equipment. Of the remaining cases, eight were from entrapments or equipment impact, and 22 had no available information about the pending circumstances.

The commission reports that one incident involved a child who strangled when a cord that had been tied to a slide platform became wrapped around his neck as he went down the tube slide. Another case involved a five year-old who had a sled rope around her neck while climbing the slide ladder. When she fell from the top platform, the sled caught on the railings. A six-year-old male was believed to have been balancing on his bicycle seat while trying to untangle the rope of a trapeze bar from an overhead horizontal bar. The victim's bike helmet and head got caught between the trapeze bar/hand hold assembly and the cord that suspends the trapeze. The helmet's chinstrap tightened around the child's neck and cut off his oxygen supply A near-death circumstance involved an eight-year-old girl who was sliding down a slide during recess when the cords of her hood became entangled in the poles of the slide. Her teacher was on the scene to free her, but the girl suffered a brain injury from near strangulation.

Statistics collected and compiled in The ABC's of School Injuries in Utah, by the Utah Department of Health Violence and Injury Prevention Program in collaboration with Intermountain Injury Control Research Center at the University of Utah, reveal that more than two-thirds of school injuries occur on the playground or playfield. Nationally school settings accounts for 45 percent of all playground-related injuries that require emergency room assistance. According to The New York State Department of Health's Bureau of Injury Prevention, traumatic brain injury is the second leading diagnosis of all injuries sustained on playground equipment in the state of New York.

Playgrounds: Havens Or Hazards

For all the measures we've taken in the past two decades to make playgrounds safe, injury statistics make playgrounds seem like dangerous places. Some might conclude that playgrounds should be done away with altogether. "If you don't build it, they can't get hurt," is the thinking here.

Yet, almost instinctively, we recognize the need for play and play places. As one expert has put it, "children need to run, and hop, and jump, and do all the other things that kids do ..." to become fully developed both physically and mentally. Playgrounds provide the perfect setting for children to socialize and make friends. In the words of the authors of Play and Child Development,

   "A social play environment is the most
   natural and challenging environment
   and thus the most stimulating for children's
   brain development. Although a
   full range of motor skills can be nurtured
   though adult-directed activities,
   the opportunity for children to engage in
   physical movements related to spontaneous,
   natural play is needed as well.
   Young children particularly need to be
   outdoors where there is space for all
   kinds of physical movement as they
   engage in play activities alone or with
   their friends. Moreover, they need time
   and opportunity to participate in the
   social, sociodramatic and cognitive elements
   possible in physical play."

But, when we take our children to the park to swing, is our primary concern about the development of our child's brain or motor skills? Or do we just want to have fun? When we send our child to the neighborhood park to meet a friend at the slide, do we think they may fracture a bone, or worse, sustain a debilitating injury or even die?

Teaching the Children

The next step in the evolution of playground safety involves teaching the primary users of playgrounds--children--about their role in playing safe. Our focus must be directed at making child safety awareness information more readily available to children. Educators, parents, playground owners, manufacturers and even builders have a part in teaching playground safety to kids. We must increase children's awareness of playground hazards, teach children safe play habits and provide support to adults as they reinforce appropriate playground behavior. When referring to hazards on playgrounds known to cause serious and fatal injury to children, the Consumer Product Safety Commission says, "The incidents and circumstances surrounding them illustrate the child's lack of awareness of the inherent dangers of using the playground in conjunction with objects that are not part of the structure."

A variety of ongoing efforts to teach playground safety awareness to children are found in local circles as well as nationally. Landscape Structures Inc., a playground equipment manufacturer, makes playground safety information available to children through the popular cartoon character Arthur. Other playground equipment manufacturers are also looking for ways to distribute safety message to children.

National organizations, such as the National Program for Playground Safety, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have always dealt with the need to teach children as well as supervising adults about playground safety. In addition to training and certification for adults who supervise children at the playground, the National Program for Playground Safety has created the Kid Checker program. The program allows children to take part in identifying potential hazards at the playground.

SLYDE The Playground Hound has emerged as a national playground safety icon whose sole purpose is to promote playground safety awareness to children aged 2 to 12. Through the medium of games, books, cartoons and assemblies, children are exposed to SLYDE's safety messages. For example, in 1995, the Consumer Product Safety Commission published Guideline for Drawstrings on Children's Clothing to inform manufacturers, retailers and consumers of the voluntary effort to prevent drawstring deaths. The guideline calls for eliminating drawstrings from necks and hoods of children's upper outerwear, such as jackets and sweatshirts. This important safety message, combined with the cool-but-careful antics of SLYDE The Playground Hound, enables children to identify with the complicated issue of drawstring hazards. They remember to, "Tuck It In, Or Take It Off," a safety message from their trusted friend SLYDE. In addition to safety at the playground equipment itself, SLYDE The Playground Hound addresses safety issues, such as dealing with bullies and strangers.

An excellent example of a playground owner who accepted the challenge of creating greater safety awareness at a local level is risk manager Stephen Finley, who created a program called "Play Cool at School" for students grades K-3 in the Denver public school system. This comprehensive program addresses adult issues, such as selecting equipment and supervising students, but focuses on children and their responsibility for safe use of equipment. Children were consulted on the development of the program by participating in the selection of the mascot Pazi The Parrot, whose job is to assist instructors in teaching children how to use equipment safely.

Childhood is one of the greatest gifts we're given in this life. The joy, frustration and growth that occur from the ages of 2 to 12 help develop the characteristics that we exercise as adults. We'll never eliminate every potential playground hazard. But because we know hazards do exist, we must continue to learn from our past, share what we know and move forward.

Happy Endings

It was a cool, brisk autumn day. The child asked Mom if she could go out to play. Mom's reply was affirmative. Mom helped her child put on a jacket to keep the chill away. The drawstrings had been removed to prevent the child's jacket from becoming caught in the play equipment. With a zip and a kiss, the child ran to the neighborhood park.

She met her friend at the playground, where they spent all afternoon at play. They imagined the playground was a faraway castle, with crocodiles beneath patiently waiting for the chance to gobble them up. They played tag. The swings took them up to the treetops. They gathered leaves in big piles, jumped in middle and completely disappeared. They had serious discussions about how life would be when they were grown-ups. And when it was time to go home, they held hands the whole way.

RELATED ARTICLE: Playground safety awardness: a history.

The timeline on the topic of playground safety is relatively young. Just more than two decades ago, in 1981, America was introduced to the first draft of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission's guidelines for public playgrounds. Consumer-driven, this landmark document was the forerunner to playground recommendations, guidelines and requirements for the sophisticated playground equipment found in most new playgrounds today. Since 1981, the CPSC Handbook for Public Playground Safety has been revised three times. The American Society for Testing and Materials has contributed at least six standards relating to playgrounds, each of which details specifications for designing, manufacturing, building and maintaining a safer playground.

The National Playground Safety Institute was established as an education and certification program for training designers, builders, owners and supervisors to inspect playgrounds for potential hazards that could cause injury. The NPSI pro gram has made playground safety and inspection standards, guidelines and literature simple enough for most adults to grasp. Since 1996, the NPSI program has qualified more than 8,000 persons to inspect playground equipment for potential injury-causing hazards.

Now a handful of states have made efforts to increase public awareness about playgrounds through the legislative process. For example, California requires all playground equipment areas accessible to the public be audited by a NPSI-certified playground inspector. In 1998, Michigan adopted the CPSC Handbook for Public Playground Safety as a state standard. North Carolina requires all childcare facilities to conform to the CPSC, whereas Texas requires all publicly funded projects to adhere to the CPSC guidelines. Although these states vary in their approach to the topic, one thing is clear--the level of awareness about the issues and characteristics of playground equipment is greater than ever before.

Curtis Stoddard is co-founder of the National Playground Contractors Association, and serves on the Executive Committee of the National Playground Safety Institue. Stoddard operates a playground sales and service company in Idaho, and is a columnist for Today's Playground. He can be reached at [e-mail].