What Parents Need to Know about Playgrounds The essay, “Learning Responsibility on City Sidewalks” by Jane Jacobs, gives insight into the positive aspects that come out of neighborly interaction and expresses how the creation of playgrounds within the community can taint a child’s upbringing. The use of playgrounds is said to lead to a lack of joint responsibility which can have an influence on the youth within a community. The author feels that parks do not benefit pubescents in same the way that adult interaction does; therefore, they are frugal communal wastes. Like the author, I do not think the government should be held responsible for the creation of playgrounds because playgrounds do not force children to challenge themselves mentally …show more content…
As a child, I attended a school located in Corona by the name of Washington Elementary. The school did have a playground, but only children under the third grade were allowed to play on the small structure. The older kids, such as my best friend Alondra and I, had access to a basketball court, a few handball courts, and a grass field. I was not a fan of competitive sports so Alondra and I were often found hanging out in the large grassy field or in a teacher’s classroom. The lack of playgrounds gave my friend and I the opportunity to create games and scenarios out of thin air. Alondra and I could be zookeepers chasing after our favorite animals or space explorers who eventually discover an alien race! Not having playgrounds forced Alondra and I to open our minds and that lead to endless possibilities of fun. Imagination has a colossal effect on a child’s mind as they grow into adults. Stimulating your imagination when you are young can lead to out of the box thinking which can benefit a child’s learning. Playgrounds, such as the one on the campus of Washington Elementary, often limit the development of one’s imaginative skills and as a result can negatively impact the way a child thinks about certain situations. Playgrounds do not contribute to a child’s imagination which can affect their mental
Vincent Van Gogh stated, "As we advance in life it becomes more and more difficult, but in fighting the difficulties the inmost strength of the heart is developed." Indeed, we often find ourselves in hard circumstances, where our strength can be challenged and tested its limits on an array of unusual activities. After accomplishing all given difficulties, we would get new thrills like being the winner, overcoming fears of height, conquering the opponents, or just winning in new tough games. Children also need this thing to grow physical as well as mental health. Therefore, John Tierney wrote the article “Can a Playground Be Too Safe?” which was published on New York Times on July 18, 2011 to show a common issue in our society. The author wondered
For Jacobs these four keys started just outside the front door, she recognised the importance the street had in cultivating diversity as well as how a lack of safety on the streets could impact it negatively, “The problem of sidewalk and doorstep insecurity is as serious in cities which have made conscientious efforts at rebuilding as those in cities that have lagged” (J. Jacobs …). Although efforts were often made by planners to make the streets safer she felt they missed the mark and that in some ways districts were even tailor made for easy crime. The orthodox approach was that if green space such as a park was provided nearby then it would provide an area for safe play and recreation within the city, however it was often the case that the issues of insecurity on the streets spilled over into the parkland as well. “It is futile to try to evade the issue of unsafe cities by attempting to make
People who say “Rockwell’s playground is still an adventure playground—a construction site with all the splintery edges sanded down. It’s what an adventure playground looks like in a risk-averse culture. And it promotes the kind of play we think children should be doing now: not with just their bodies, but with their minds. The Imagination Playground is a much more cognitive vision of the playground. No one would confuse it with a jungle gym.” (Day 2) This shows that children to Mr.Day should be using their heads more and playgrounds should be safer, but Commissioner of parks in New York Henry Stern has a different idea. He says “His philosophy seemed reactionary at the time, but today it’s shared by some researchers who question the value of safety-first playgrounds. Even if children do suffer fewer physical injuries — and the evidence for that is debatable — the critics say that these playgrounds may stunt emotional development, leaving children with anxieties and fears that are ultimately worse than a broken bone.” (Tierney 1) Showing that kids should be doing physical activities at parks and using their imagination somewhere else. Not only-but also David Ball says “There is no clear evidence that playground safety measures have lowered the average risk on playgrounds,” said David Ball, a professor of risk management at Middlesex University in London. He noted that the risk of some injuries, like long
The subjects were observed to climb on structures and furthermore jumped from the different heights. Through the interviews Sandseter gathered that the children where frightened by climbing high and jumping down to the ground but was more exciting than going down the intended way. The second category is play with high speed, and this was commonly observed when children rode their bikes at high speeds or ran down hills. The risk comes from running into something or someone. The children describe the play with high speeds as scary, but continued to push the risk, as they would start to slide head first down the hill. Play with dangerous tools is the third category, as the children where aloud to work with knives and hammers. The children did not see this as risky play as they felt competent with the dangerous tools; the staff when interviewed suggested this as risky play, when the children would use the knives to whittle sticks. The fourth category of risky play is play near dangerous elements such as the ocean, cliffs and the fire pit in the preschools. Again the children did not see this as risky play but the staff saw children playing by the ocean and the fire pit was risky, as they feared the children falling in. Rough and tumble play is another category as children would play fight and wrestle. The children found expressed this as risky play as it was a scary activity but all agreed it was great fun. The last category of risky play is play where children can disappear or get lost. As the preschools where surrounded by forest the children where aloud to explore, they would not go alone because it was to scary but rather went in groups to eliminate the risk of getting lost. The six categories of risky play created by Sandseter’s study is the key factors of the
Let’s pause for a second, let’s take a look what nature has for us. It is beautiful and yet harmless. Kids’ don’t spend the sufficient time to intake the benefits of nature. Louv says, “Playtime, especially unstructured imaginative, exploratory play is increasingly recognized as an essential component of wholesome child development” (48). He is saying to let our kids free and explore on their own. It is what brings fun to their lives. Knowing what comes next it’s pretty boring. Imagination brings excitement and knowledge to the human kind.
Play helps build sturdy learning foundations because later levels of learning are built upon the earlier ones. All types of play, from fantasy to rough-and-tumble have a crucial role in the development of children. It is the lens through which children experience their world and the world of others. If deprived to play, they are at bigger possibility for atypical development and deviant behavior. Without play, self-control does not develop satisfactorily Goldstein, J. (2012)
In modern Western countries, adults take the responsibility of managing children’ behaviours, activities and the environment as protecting children from significant injuries. Also, parents are likely to pay more attention to protect their children from external injuries such as traffic accidents, stranger’s dangerous, personal accidents and other factors (Wyver et al., 2010, p.264). Under these kinds of protections, children lose many opportunities for free play and lead to the increase of childhood obesity as well as inactivity health issues (Wyver et al., 2010, p. 263). Beside the protection from parents, the features in the childhood environment are less risky for children to play with. For example, some Western countries such as the United Kingdom uses the rubber playground to reduce the rates of children injuries (Wyver et al., 2010, p. 265). The surplus safety from both parents and environment minimises children’s chances and experiences of encountering risks. In some way, the surplus safety infringes children’s right of play and silences their voices on their lives. Wyver et al. (2010, p. 263) argue that the surplus safety is negative to children from both legitimate anger and child development anger. Surplus safety may not substantially build the child-friendly
On the contrary, Broadway Elementary School has observed there to be a decrease in injuries during recess by utilizing a coach - showing a decrease in the aggression of students during play due to the reduction of students getting harmed as well (Text 4, lines 10-13). Moreover, in addition to the study’s findings on how structured play can allow a child to develop their problem-solving abilities, the study performed by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation have found that when compared to schools that were not included in the program with structured recess, the participating schools that did have the program with structured recess had students that felt safer and more included (Text 3, lines 10-12). The lack of the feeling of exclusion and students getting harmed and the increase in those who feel more comfortable and included in activities due to structured recess illustrate the effect structured recess has on the behavior of students — this effect being
'Now, for the first time in fifty years, researchers are seeing a significant decresase in kids' creativity.' One of the most cherished aspects of childhood is creativity, and the imagination that comes with playtime. Screens are taking away youth's most precious charm. In order to develop into a healthy human, children require playtime. ' Play is important for kids.
The park had playground equipment, a large mowed field for activities that required substantial space and a couple of picnic tables. The nature center in the park was disappointing; it would be more suitably described as a neglected area of the park allowed to grow wild with a well-defined mowed edge. The playground equipment was in good shape and the grass had recently been clipped. There were no lights in the park and the park was very clean. There was a path that led through the playground and wove through streets, the back of houses, and at times along a small trench of water.
First and foremost, it is a hands-on experience. At the elementary level, one of the primary ways kids learn is hands-on because their reasoning skills have not developed enough to understand abstract ideas. Recess helps children develop cognitive skills like awareness, reasoning, observation skills, creativity, concentration, and imagination (Dowdell, Gray, and Malone, 24). When playing, children use their imagination and creativity to make up games like walking on the moon. They may imagine a stick is a flag and the white rocks are the rough surface of the moon, or maybe there is a moving bridge and that is what they assume walking on the moon with less gravity feels like. Kids are very observational; they learn by watching how their peers, teachers, and others act. If a teacher seems uninterested in whatever discovery a child makes, he or she is more likely to leave it and move to something else. It will become less important to him or her because the teacher finds it, or seems to find it unimportant. The physical aspect seems somewhat self-explanatory. Playing betters children’s movement and motor skills such as co-ordination, balance, and agility. The more they do, the more they want to do, and the better their skills become. Finally, the area with the most development because of the nature of it, social and emotional. In large group settings, like school
Parents do not want their children playing on playgrounds that put them at risk for getting hurt. "Sometimes, of course, their mastery fails, and fall is the common form of playground injury. " This shows that in the building of playgrounds, equipment ends up becoming unsafe for children. So manufacturers have to make the playgrounds even safer than before.
Bernama (2015) stated that as the outside world has become more dangerous and with the increasing number of crime rates, parents are reluctant to let their children to play outside. They certainly do not want to risk their children’s safety. This has caused their children to spend more time inside and even the percentage of common activity for young adults like riding bicycle and walking to places are decreasing. They should at least get to ride bicycle to places as their daily routine and get to exercise through it but when their safety issue cannot be assured, it is hard for them to make it as a routine. Besides, there is no one to look after them when they are outside as most parents are full time worker. Harris (2013) stated that parents from previous generation also full time worker but, their neighbours will help them by keeping tabs of all children who play in the neighbourhood. However, everyone is so busy nowadays and don’t have the time to keep an eye on the children during the day. Besides, the young adults themselves have a fear in strangers that causes them to have less interest in doing outdoor activity such as riding bicycle and even to play outside (Sobel, 2012). This fear of strangers actually has been planted to their mind by the adults and also because of the media play. In addition, there is also a concern about the safety of play
it provides different play and children can face new skills and challenges. outdoor play does not just mean the garden, it progresses further for example, the park, walks, shopping malls, day trips out and much more. it gives children the opportunity for healthy exercise and the opportunity to learn more about the world and nature. To begin with, children will have less restrictions than being indoors, they have more space as large scale play can be provided. It also allows children to be able to use all of their senses, sight, hearing, smells, and they can enjoy the sense of being free and not restricted indoors. Being outdoors means the play is often open ended and furthermore children can play in different types of weather. The outdoor play encourages children to use their imagination and be creative with the resources at hand. Outdoor play often goes well with indoor play as it provides different experiences, however it is also important to remember that after outdoor play there also needs to be quiet play/areas for
Furthermore, by introducing shared open spaces with other classes, we can bring out the full potential of the children physically, mentally and emotionally. They will have more sensory play when exposed to a wider range of materials outdoors more often. The importance of sensory play is supported by Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development in the sensorimotor stage which states child’s intelligence is developed by the basic motor and sensory explorations of the world around them.