Risk and Safety a Nice Collection of Writings

I think it is the ever increasing concern for risk and liability that really got me interested in playground design. It is not enough it simply design a fun or education or inspiring children’s space. The space needs to meet guidelines that have been developed through a lot of research and thought. Guidelines that make a very small and fairly safe box within which play can happen. I think the challenge of design within the safety guidelines but outside the box may be one of the main things that attracts me to playspace design. Well, it is fun too.

On one of my favorite blogs Let the children play, the author has but together a wonderful collection of links and views on safety and risk in play. It is worth a review if these topics interest you. Her list of resources is below.

::: Outdoor Play: Does Avoiding the Risks Reduce the Benefits? Helen Little and Shirley Wyver

The ultimate aim for parents, teachers and other play providers should be to provide outdoor play environments where the risks of serious injury are reduced, but creativity, challenge and excitement are maintained

::: Putting Risk into Perspective Tim Gill

Perhaps most important of all, we need to reflect on our own childhoods, and remind ourselves of what it might have felt like for Amma, when she climbed the tree in her nursery higher than ever before

::: Wild Things Clare Warden

‘Many children are not allowed to explore and test themselves in play and to feel in control of being “out of control”.’

::: Risk and Challenge: Essential Elements in Outdoor Play Spaces

::: Risks, Dangers and Hazards

Unfortunately, some early childhood educators and managers have responded to these factors by urbanising early childhood centres, with prefabricated, pre-built playspaces. Underlying this trend is a relinquishing of the responsibility for creating safe and engaging natural outdoor playspaces for children.

::: The Benefits of Risk in Playgrounds

When we become overly concerned with eliminating every potential bump or bruise on the playground, we also eliminate the potential for healthy lifelong developmental skills

I still believe children’s environments should be as safe as necessary, rather than as safe as possible. And I still believe that falling down is a normal part of an active childhood.

::: Just try to Stop Us @ Teacher Tom

Can a child hurt himself with a piece of string? If I let my brain run freely through my nightmares, I can come up with a few horrific possibilities, but realistically it ain’t gonna happen.

Sorry for me blogging absence. My husband and I adopted a baby girl two months ago and my eyes, arms, and mind have been full of here ever since.