Playgrounds develop kids' minds and bodies
From sharing to decision-making to self-advocacy, children benefit from just plain playing
Published: July 18, 2009, 7:11 am
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Michael Robert Floyd had a big decision to make. Should he climb a slide or build a castle?
The 6-year-old with smiling eyes headed for the slide and was up and down in seconds, landing in a mound of wood chips that he would soon shape into his make-believe castle.
Michael’s play—combining exercise and imagination—illustrates why play is such a huge factor in the development of a child.
“Kids build muscle and character on the playground,” said Alison Risso, director of communications for KaBOOM!, a nonprofit organization that empowers communities to build playgrounds. “Play is critical for problem solving, for getting along and learning to make yourself happy.”
Along with physical benefits, playing leads to healthy brain development, allowing children the opportunity to work in groups, to share, to negotiate, to resolve conflicts and to learn self-advocacy skills. When children are not allowed to play— when their days are so structured it deprives them of any chance of playing—they suffer, experts say.
“I see it in the work they do, their level of concentration and whether they are able to focus on ideas and think things through,” said Molly Bethel, director of the Locust Street Neighborhood Art Classes. “Kids have a really difficult time with having the patience to depend on their own ideas. They are too dependent on technology.”
In this East Side neighborhood, once riddled by crime, the Fruit Belt United Playground on Mulberry Street signals a positive future.
“In this neighborhood, everybody sort of knows everybody else, so the parents and children can walk here,” said Sharon Benz, community coordinator for the Center of Sustainable Communities & Civic Engagement at Daemen College. “It’s like a little gathering place.”
Michael, his aunt, La Vern Bryant, and his cousins frequently visit the Fruit Belt playground, a KaBOOM! “done-in-a- day” project built in 2005 and one of 1,500 in the country.
“Imagination is a good thing because when you’re in a depressed neighborhood, you can’t imagine being anywhere else unless you have an active imagination to take you there,” said Bryant, 40. “That’s why I take my kids here.”
Play with purpose
When Paul Yacono’s son Ben started kindergarten at Glendale Elementary School, the playground was in a sad state. Its timbers had started to crack, broken parts were not replaced and there was only one swing.
“It was 27 years old and wooden,” said Yacono. “My wife didn’t like it. I didn’t like it, so we decided to build a new one. It was a lot of work, and trust me, there were times when I thought things were not coming together.”
Today, a blue-and-gold playground stands crowded with little bodies in motion. On swings, down slides and sitting on a long, modern day teeter-totter called the X-Wave. The two years it took Yacono and other parents to raise the funds, research the equipment and build the structure was a lesson in the science of play.
“The rubber particles cost twice as much as pea gravel, which costs twice as much as the wood chips,” said Yacono, referring to the playground base. “Pea gravel is cheaper in the long run, and the insurance companies like it. It has a really good fall rating.”
Smart design
Take a good look around a playground near you. There is a reason behind each piece of play equipment. Balance beams, swings, slides all serve a purpose in the development of a child. Spinning is huge. Climbing the ladder to a slide becomes as important as navigating monkey bars, according to one 7-year-old, who explained his style:
“You have to kind of like get to the next rung quick unless your hands hurt and then you have to fall down,” said Jacob Sempert, who made it halfway across the bars before he fell in a sea of pea gravel.
“I saw my Dad put in this pole,” said Jacob, getting up from the ground, reaching into his pocket to remove a fistful of pea gravel before embracing one bright blue support pole.
Marc and Tammy Sempert were members of the Glendale Playground Committee. The parents of two spend much time at the playground located a block away from their Town of Tonawanda home.
“We set up a circuit-training section,” said Tammy Sempert, “so the children could progress from monkey bars to balance beam to glider. A good traffic flow allows the kids to go down the slide and hopefully not run into someone else.”
Part of the premise of play— creating an illusion of risk — allows children to push their limits in a safe environment. The process encourages independent thinking and problem solving. But more importantly for the child, it is fun.
“It’s a cultural norm that things that are fun are frivolous,” said Risso of KaBOOM!. “While it is important that children succeed academically, it’s chipping away at recess time. Schools think by taking away that extra hour, children will do better on a standardized test when in fact the numbers show the opposite.”
British and American youth are the unhappiest children in the developed world, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund, pointing to the decline over the last 15 years in outdoor, unstructured play.
Children need to manipulate their own environment. That’s why there are so very many moving parts in playgrounds. A local landscape architect takes it one step further.
“Sand and water and logs and rope captivate children,” said Joy Kuebler. “By introducing natural play into their daily lives, they can learn how to keep themselves occupied and explore things with a critical eye.”
Space management
At Buffalo School 90 Science Magnet, Kuebler helped create an interior courtyard for children in prekindergarten to first grade. Located on A Street near Martin Luther King Park, the courtyard includes logs for jumping and balancing, and boulders for climbing.
“It provides an interesting opportunity to let this young audience believe they are in a huge place,” said Kuebler. “I played with scale, adding berms to change ground levels, creating hills and valleys. The idea of playing tag and hiding became something they all wanted to do. We want them to touch everything.”
Larger spaces might include garden mazes, where hills become slides and allow children to play without an agenda.
“There is a whole generation of kids who have their time scheduled,” Kuebler said. “We must give them a greater sense of ownership over themselves.”
jkwiatkowski@buffnews.com
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