Ever wonder why people have fears of height? People have been pondering this question for who knows how long, maybe since man was able to climb. The author John Tierney has a genuine way of looking at it. He even has an article about it called “Can a Playground Be Too Safe?” It explains that it has been scientifically proven that children who take healthy risks early in life are not as fearful as those who don't.Lake Stevens should build a risky playground because children can overcome fears.
According to Mr. Tierney, people can overcome or head off fears before they start in the playground. For example “While some psychologists — and many parents — have worried that a child who suffered a bad fall would develop a fear of heights, studies
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In addition “Children need to encounter risks and overcome fears on the playground,” said Ellen Sandseter, a professor of psychology at Queen Maud University in Norway. “I think monkey bars and tall slides are great. As playgrounds become more and more boring, these are some of the few features that still can give children thrilling experiences with heights and high speed.” (Tierney 1) This illustrates that children need to be entertained and that parks with healthy risk can be beneficial to the kids. Why imagine you are high or going fast down a slide when you …show more content…
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
Indeed, the safety of children is the main purpose of this article, so he provided us with a series of studies to confirm his argument. For example, some psychologists have shown the pattern: A child who’s hurt in a fall before the age of 9 is less likely as a teenager to have a fear of heights. They believe that if the children are allowed to go outside their safety zone, they will learn how to accept obstacles as well as hard situations. They will be stronger and more willing to confront new challenges as time goes by. Moreover, Dr. Ball said. “If children and parents believe they are in an environment which is safer than it actually is, they will take more risks." And a real example, Nayelis Serrano, a 10-year-old from the South Bronx, she used to play jungle gyms. Her experience about that game is so wonderful. She was scared it at first, but she kept continuing to the top of bar, and she won. She said. “I’d like to see it in our playground. Why not? It’s kind of dangerous, I know, but if you just think about danger you’re never going to get ahead in life.”
Fear is a potent emotional response developed by the intrinsic need to learn in order for one to better their means of self-preservation. Though often overlooked, fear is a mental construct which presents great importance in understanding an individual’s thoughts and mannerisms. Children can help scientists to better recognize how these fears emerge. The early years of life can be considered the most daunting; everything in the environment surrounding a child is fairly new, strange, and unfamiliar. In the psychological community, it is widely accepted that fears are determined from two main constituents: biological and environmental factors. Both factors play an essential role in defining fear as well as the determination of what a child may
Parrish, A. M., Yeatman, H., Iverson, D., & Russell, K. (2012). Using interviews and peer pairs to better understand how school environments affect young children's playground physical activity levels: a qualitative study. Health Educ Res, 27(2), 269-280. doi: 10.1093/her/cyr049
Change your response to the fear as you confront it. You can, for instance, learn to laugh at your fear. This is what comedian Kevin Hart learned to do, and he became
The authors purpose of this paper can be defined directly from the title, Can a playground be Too Safe? clearly he belives that the playground today can actually be more harmful then those of the past both pertaining to physical and mental development. He attacks the idea that a safer playground can actually be very detrimental to the youth of today. stating leaving children with anxieties and fears that are ultimately worse than a broken bone. The question then presents itself, to what audience is the author
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
Human's fears should not be taken lightly. Fear could do anything to one's minds, though without fear, man can be as savage as animals. In the book Lord of the Flies, William Golding presented fear of the unknown to be a powerful force in a man's mind. Fear of the unknown is a powerful force, which can turn to either insight or hysteria. The kids feared of not being rescued off of the island, so they made signal fires on top of the mountain. Then, there and gone, Roger's fear of the old rules he abided to. Also, there were the fears of the beast which confused and isolated the kids from the top of the mountain.
Based on my generation from age eight to ten I loved playing at Lawrence Park in Tucson, AZ. Every time my parents would ask, “where do you want to go” I would literally yell, “the park!” Being bored inside all I wanted to do was play tag, run, and climb the monkey bars all day. Lawrence was the one destination where I could be free: no one telling me to stop running, be quiet, or keep my hands to myself. I can remember having the time of my life as a kid enjoying myself at Lawrence Park. Hopefully I could say the same for an older generation and future generation compared to my experience of play.
To compare against the educators’ childhood experiences, the world of children today turns to have less opportunities to free play with risks (Early Childhood Australia, 2013). Risk is generally viewed from two domains: positive for children development and negative for children’s physical health (Early Childhood Australia, 2013). Educators’ thoughtfully plan activities and environments in the centres can facilitate children to achieve the outcomes of the EYLF effectively. According to XXX, she suggests that educators can discuss risks with children, the potential risks of the activities and the risky play (Dwyer, 2016) for the purpose of building children’s senses of
Imagination is a concept of the human mind that varies between people of different ages to the different expectations and perspective of each individual. In The Little Prince by Antonie de Saint – Exupéry and The Educated Imagination, “The Motive for Metaphor” by Northrop Frye, the two writings mention about the importance of imagination and how imagination differs between adults and young people such as kids and youth. Perspective is an important concept of imagination because due to perspective, the Little Prince in The Little Prince could understand something the adults could not, which is the boa drawing. In “The Motive for Metaphor”, Frye mentioned, “Then there’s a level of imagination, which produces the literary language of poems and plays and novels.” (Frye 6) This quotation indicates how Frye, as an
Some of the equipment might be out of date or might be on the verge of breaking or rotting. Parks we have should be upgraded with better equipment that is higher quality. The slides we have could be more stable. Some children might not want to go down such a small slide. Others might not want to go down such a big slide.
A specific playground was selected, to be the Pembroke playground, due to its recent refurbishment of the floor surface and new equipment which also gave me the opportunity to learn the process from the restorers of the site themselves. At M Quip Co. Ltd., the whole construction process was explained from the formation to the placing of the Styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) tiles used for the safety surfacing of the selected playground.
It was only those who had been crawling for a minimum of eight weeks who showed any acceleration in heart rate (the measure employed by the researchers to determine fearful responses). A follow-up study was initiated that saw infants being given 40 hours of training in a walker to help them move themselves. Compared to a control group who received no such training, the researchers claim to have found “firm support for the conclusion that experiences with self-produced locomotion contribute to the development of fear of heights” (Bertenthal and Campos, 2009, p.
To learn and experience something new and out of your norm can be a pretty scary thing, almost like being in a foreign country and not knowing your surroundings; what do you do? You panic! I can remember clearly an event during my childhood, it was one of the hardest thing I've ever had to do, and that was learning how to rock climb. All my friend’s parents would take them to a nearby gym after school. It was a gym for kids and rock climbing was the cool thing to do. I wanted to go so badly and feel cool, just like my friends, but I was always afraid of heights. Never liked heights as a child, and when I was growing up I was left with that fear. One day I decided to face my fears, and thought to myself that rock climbing was an important skill to have under my belt. Also I thought this was a step closer to overcome my fear and rock climbing was the perfect way to get over that fear. I also knew this would be a great experience and will help me become physically and mentally stronger. What I didn’t realize was that learning to rock climb would also boost my self-esteem and to make me believe in myself more. I always felt on edge when I was faced with a new situation. It made me feel uncomfortable and not quite myself, it still does sometimes. But I knew with my very first rock climbing lesson there weren’t any more excuses! I simply had to face my fear and just do it. There was no going back.
Walking past a public park is like walking through a zoo. You could feel the energy these kids have. The noise, the excitement, and the laughter in these kids are extraordinary. You will never see the joy on a kids face once they are in the park. Even the ice cream truck cant get the kids attention. Why is the slide or swing so enjoyable to a kid. I was once a kid and I still don't know why I enjoyed it. It's just a relationship that just happens between a child and a public park. Public parks are a fun, relaxing and enjoyable place for a kid, until its time to go home.