PLAYLINK / Free Play Network

RISK


Risk and Play

I believe the fundamental meaning of these 2 words is LEARNING. Having grown up in NZ the first Public Playground I ever saw was in Australia when I was 18 years old, it was not too bad as it had space, grass, water and sand but I was intrigued by the themed ship and traditional items such as roundabouts and see saws.I had never seen these items before except in childrens books I read as a child. A seesaw was something you made at home with a board and a log in the centre. My experience was I liked the equipment but with the knowledge I have now, I actually liked the space and the equipment was an element of that Play Space.
When I was a child we spent all of our time nr rivers, up trees, digging camps and cycling with spades attached to our bikes, climbing and hanging ropes from trees and swinging, catching frogs in the local pond (I shouldn’t mention that as we were not allowed to do this, but we did and we were not criminalised). Most urban kids in the UK and now NZ are not getting these opportunities and are learning nothing. My last visit to Australia and NZ was like a mirror image of the worst examples in the UK. Fenced off square children’s zoos with rubber matts and no space.
Where has the inspiration gone. (It has not gone its been taken away by lawyers and over zealous health and safety inspectors) This issue is an international issue and I believe “Designing in Risk” to play design is a part of change needed to counter the terrible state of many Playgrounds in the world let alone the UK. The natural environment which include basic items such as oak or beech logs, flat limestone or rounded granite boulders and in many cases trees are all fenced out of your average urban Play Ground and often rural ones too. We need to be working to change this with our philosophy in Play Design as the effect to future generations of children is frightening...

To Risk
To hope is to risk disappointment.
But risks must be taken because the greatest risk in Life is to risk nothing
The person or child who risks nothing, does nothing, sees nothing, has nothing, and becomes nothing.
Without play or risk he/she cannot learn, feel, change, grow or live.
PaulR

Posted by: Paul Redden, MD, eibeplay, 04 July 2007, 18:42

I agree with Paul that the absence of risky or challenging experiences from the diet of so many kids is frightening, but while some of the blame is attributable to parents (Dominic) the plot is thicker. Since 1990 I have acted as expert witness in court cases, many dealing with playground accidents. There i have encountered a band of experts recruited by the parents who have been prepared to express the most absurd rubbish about playground safety. A fair number of these people were ex-factory people with no knowledge of play, but some it has to be said were from the play sector and should have known better. In general there's a failure to understand that risk assessment of playgrounds is not synonymous with comparison with BSEN because BSEN is not based on risk assessment, yet risk assessment is what is required by law, not BSEN. Thus, these characters end up making mindless measurements and comparing them with BSEN to prove negligence.
This is in most cases total nonsense...
David
Posted by: david ball, prof, mdx uni, 04 July 2007, 18:42

With all this new technology, playstations, computers, more cars and so on stops children from taking risks. We all took risks when we where kids and we learned so much from this. Parents need to spend more time with kids and letting them play in the outdoors. Parents should know that its ok to fall and get hurt, it has happened to us all. Courts need to look at play and risks involved. Stupit claims from parents are preventing our kids from playing. Many play workers in Northern Ireland won't provide outdoor play activities, fear of parents claiming for a fall.
Posted by: Dominic Bonner, Play Animator, play for a change, 28 June 2007, 12:24

Taking your last points, we might think it sad or amusing that the rhetoric around children/young people is all about making them 'reslient', 'self-confident', and so forth. Yet these qualities have no meaning if at the same time, and as a matter of policy, one prevents youngsters making for themselves decisions about whether and how they will venture into new experiences - whether that be climbing higher than they did before, or deciding to stand one's ground in an argument.

Policy's translation into practice too often appears to be about mouthing catch-phrases and buzz-words, stripped of the meaning that the phrases imply.
Posted by: Benard Spiegal, Principal, PLAYLINK, 13 June 2007, 09:36