This is a guest article from Kiran Talvadkar and Alice Sturm with Nature Play Parents.
One of our most important jobs as parents and caregivers is to keep kids safe. While it may seem counterintuitive, structured risk-taking is beneficial to your child’s physical and emotional development. When we let children take risks, they learn! In early childhood education, we are always looking for ways to give children the opportunity to engage in age-appropriate risks, that do not threaten life or limb. This helps to develop gross motor skills, spatial awareness, confidence, resilience, persistence, and independence. All things that keep our kids safer in the long term!
Even when we understand the value of structured risk, it can be hard to know where to begin. Playgrounds, which are designed to eliminate serious dangers and hazards to your child, can be a good place to start this practice. As moms, and as early-childhood educators and a playground designer, we have navigated these issues in our personal and professional lives. And we’d love to share what we’ve learned!
So let’s look at some of the benefits of risk-taking and how it might work in practice:
1. Motor Development
Risk requires that we put ourselves into situations that engage our bodies and minds in new ways. Risk-taking helps children to engage muscles, coordinate limbs and execute gross motor planning. In turn, these types of activities strengthen everything from your child’s core musculature to their upper body strength. As parents and caregivers, we learn from our child as well – let them surprise you by how capable they can be.
In order to ensure they are taking risks that test their body and strength without being exposed to true hazards, avoid clothes with loose strings. You can remove the strings in hoodies and avoid scarfs and necklaces. While playgrounds are designed to avoid edges that can catch on such strings, you’ll feel more comfortable letting your child explore when you’ve eliminated one of the main causes of playground injury.
2. Spatial Awareness
How do kids learn concepts such as “high”, “low”, “near”, “far”? How do kids learn how long their legs can stretch or how high they can reach? They learn through experience and by testing the waters. Structured risk situations allow for children to figure out what their body is capable of when navigating a play space and how those capabilities change over time.
Playground equipment, especially climbing structures, are a great place for them to develop this awareness. Typically, they are designed so that children cannot climb onto something they are not developmentally ready for, either in ability or in size. Allowing them to choose what equipment to attempt to use, without helping or discouraging them, is a great way to develop their spatial awareness.
Even if you do give them a boost onto a tall piece of equipment, rest assured that the “safety surface” (the material beneath the play structures- whether it’s mulch, sand, or rubberized surfacing) is engineered to keep kids cushioned and avoid serious injury. Even if they fall from the top of the highest piece of equipment on the playground!
For safety and peace of mind, check that the safety surface is in good condition before using a playspace. Rubberized surfacing should be soft feeling and not have major holes or cracks. Woodchips or sand should be deep enough that no more than 3 inches of the concrete bases of the play equipment is visible.
3. Confidence
How do you feel when you overcome a challenge that seemed insurmountable? Letting kids engage in risk-taking allows them to feel confident in their ability to overcome obstacles or things that seemed impossible. This confidence can carry over into tackling academic, social and even creative challenges. When we feel the urge to warn kids about playground risks (“be careful!” or “not so high!”), try to offer advice to help them approach it.
Is your toddler running on a high bridge? Recommend that they walk, and maybe hold the handrail. Teetering on a boulder or log stepper? Demonstrate how they can hold out their arms to balance their body. It’s ok if you shout “careful!” first! Just try to follow up with some actionable advice to help them grow their skills and their confidence over time!
4. Persistence and Resilience
It can be hard to see our kids experience failure. However, the experience of failing is actually one of the most beneficial things about structured risk. It allows children to learn to try again and experiment with new ways to approach a situation. Or realize that something is out of their current capacity and that that is okay.
By not pushing them to do things they are not ready for (maybe they need to take forty trips to the top of the slide before they feel ready to slide down!) and not discouraging things they do want to try (climbing a tower, or balancing on a see saw) we can encourage them to experience the growth in ability that happens over time and with practice and to bounce back from minor setbacks.
5. Independence
Within safe parameters (such as within the fencing of a playground), allow your child to explore and move away from you. This builds independence and opens up the opportunity to discuss how far is too far and what your child should do if they ever get lost.
This also applies to encouraging them to play alone on play equipment. While this increases their perception of risk (and maybe yours too!), it is actually safer. Many injuries related to slides, for example, are caused by a child sliding on an adult’s lap. The child is more likely to bounce out, or get a leg injury from catching on the side and being carried forward by the adult’s weight.
While we’ve been focusing on benefits to children, this one in particular has benefits for you too! If you’ve ever wished you could just sip your coffee on a bench instead of running around the playground, this might be your ticket to more relaxing playground visits.
As a parent or caregiver, allowing a child to engage in structured risk-taking can be a scary and daunting practice. But when a child is afforded the opportunity and space to test their limits and take risks, the benefits are endless.
About the Guest Authors:
Kiran Talvadkar and Alice Sturm grew up in DC and are now DC area moms- and lifelong friends- who love getting outdoors with their kids! Kiran is a teacher who has an MA in special education with a focus in autism and intellectual disabilities, as well as BCBA certification. Alice is a licensed Landscape Architect, and former organic farmer, specializing in ecological design and playspaces. Follow Kiran and Alice on their adventures at Nature Play Parents.