Month: December 2020

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Playground Planning Playground Safety

Top Playground Safety Inspection Tips

Evaluating Playground Safety

Playground safety should be a primary factor of your project planning. Playgrounds are designed to withstand everything the environment and children can throw at them but they still need TLC to help keep them safe. When your playground is first installed it should meet every current standard but regular maintenance is needed over time to ensure playground safety measures are in place.

Don’t Ignore the Small Stuff

Little nicks and gouges in the powder coating, divots in the rubber components and other small imperfections are all side effects of regular use and exposure to the elements and infrequently may be the result of vandalism. Once or twice a year, your playground should be inspected for these issues.

Catching these problems early on prevents further damage to your structure. Catching and treating these small issues can significantly extend the life and beauty of your playground. Repair damage to metal posts using the touch-up paint provided in your playground care kit.

Hint: always check for damage at welded joints where the paint is the thinnest. Small damage to thermoplastic coated decks can be repaired using a torch but you may want to have a professional handle the repair if you aren’t handy.

Double Check for Anything out of Place

Children are creative and love to decorate their favorite things. It’s not unusual to find strings, yarn or cord tied around bars or woven through equipment. Unfortunately, these little works of art can become tangled with hands, fingers and ankles. Always remove any strings or cloth you find as even the smallest pieces can be an entanglement hazard.

You will also want to look for anything sticking up out of the ground, particularly if you use a loose fill surface like rubber mulch. From tree roots to lost toys and broken sticks anything that doesn’t belong on the playground should be regularly removed. If you’re using a loose fill surfacing, go ahead and rake it all back into place.

Evaluate Your Site for Playground Safety

Take a moment to step back and look at your entire playground safety efforts. Is everything still level? Are there any dramatic dips or pot holes? Cracked concrete, misaligned borders and puddling away from equipment can be a sign that your subbase is washing away or that tree roots may be damaging your play surface. As with any problem the sooner you identify the issue the easier and more affordable the solution will be.

This is also an opportunity to take a look up. If your playground is near trees, it’s important to keep the branches trimmed back  and away from equipment, at least 6 feet away. You should also look for damaged or dead branches that might fall onto the playground equipment or guests.

In previous blog posts we’ve discussed the importance of using proper surfacing and discussed what requirements need to be met to meet different material safety and design safety standards. For more information on playground safety, subscribe to our blog!

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Playground Planning

Safe Playground Installation: DIY or Hire a Pro?

Playground installers unloading equipment from a truck

Playground installation is arguably the most important part of planning your playground. Purchasing a playground is a major investment that signifies a commitment to the health and happiness of children in your community.

Although planning and purchasing a playground is always exciting, everyone wants to know that they received the best deal. It can be tempting to try and cut corners and maximize your budget for equipment. However, proper playground installation is well worth every penny.

DIY Playground Installation

Even most well designed structure poses a threat to safety if bolts are left untightened or misplaced. Additionally, every playground should come with a complete installation and care manual. In real world conditions, inattention to detail and simple confusion can turn a DIY install into a disaster.

Not to mention, a botched playground installation costs nearly as much or more to disassemble and re-install equipment. Sometimes, equipment even ends up damaged and has to be replaced, adding unexpected and unwanted costs.

Contractors

If you want competitive prices for your installation don’t be afraid to shop around. However, be sure you are comparing apples to apples. National Playground Construction, a BYO affiliate, has a network of crews who specialize in playground installation. Moreover, each crew member is a Certified Playground Safety Inspector.

There are many contractors across the country who are skilled commercial playground equipment installers. The services provided by specialized installation companies are not comparable to the services of inexperienced contractors or handymen.

When taking bids for your job, ask to see examples of playgrounds they have installed and ask for references. Even better, request past clients who are willing to share their experiences working with the installation team. You should always choose licensed and insured professionals with a good standing in your community. If your contractor isn’t a Certified Playground Safety Inspector, ensure that a playground inspection is completes to avoid any issues.

Playground Planning

If you choose a reputable playground design company, they should include a site plan for your project. Professional installers use this plan as a guide to ensure that your equipment is properly spaced. Each piece of playground equipment has a prescribed use zone. Use zones are areas surrounding the equipment that are considered in use during normal play.

Additionally, proper use zones ensure that children using different pieces of equipment don’t fall onto each other. Use zones greatly reducing the risk of injury, ensuring that children can’t fall from one piece of equipment onto another. A good designer can manipulate use zones and playground layout to fit more equipment safely into a smaller space.

Certified Playground Installation

NPC playground installation at Palencia Elementary School
NPC playground installation at Palencia Elementary School

Your playground installation professional will understand how to properly prepare the site, ensuring that you playground remains stable. Playgrounds installed over soil need to have a proper subbase in place before any equipment can be installed. Preparing the site and subbase requires choosing materials and processes to match your specific site. Pros know all the tricks to ensure that your playground drains properly without washing away your subbase. A fault subbase can cause your playground to shift over time.

If fact, every playground certified playground has approved safety surfacing to meet the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s guidelines. Even with loose fill surfacing, ensuring that it prevents critical head injuries requires specialized knowledge. The depth of any safety surfacing is dependent on the fall height of the equipment.

Finally, fall height is the distance a child can fall when using the highest piece of equipment. An 8 foot structure will require more safety surfacing than ground level equipment, such as balance beams. A well planned and executed playground can help you cut costs safely. By varying the surfacing depth to match the fall height of each piece of equipment, you spend only what you need to.

BYO Playground is available to help you make the most our of your playground project. Rely on dependable services from playground planning to playground installation!

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Playground Planning

Host a Costume Playground Party! Fun Themes & Safety Tips

Host a costume playground party for the children in your community this Halloween! Throwing a playground party is a great idea for schools, churches, and communities to provide a safe place to celebrate.

Whether you’re a parent, PTO member or a HOA board member, you can help make the most out of your play space by hosting a fun, interactive playground party! The best part is you don’t need a lot of preparation or special equipment. In fact, most families and organizations will already have everything they need.

Playgrounds are great places for kids to stretch their muscles and their minds. Dressing up adds an extra dimension and may encourage children to be more outgoing. Costumes are also a great way to build confidence, vocabulary, emotional, and social skills. Planning a costume playground party challenges children to practice dramatic play and use equipment as props. 

Playground Party Themes

  • Space: This theme is fun because it’s open to interpretation. Children will show up as astronauts, aliens and you’ll probably see one or two ‘space princesses.’
  • Jungle: This theme is a great way to avoid gender stereotypes and encourage truly active play.
  • Cops and Robbers: Children divide into two groups, making this perfect for more competitive children or for team activities.
  • Superhero Showdown: Superheroes are particularly popular right now. Be sure to encourage kids and parents to take an rule from the Incredibles and impose a ‘no capes’ rule.

Playground Party Safety Tips

Children enjoying a playground party in their Halloween costumes
Children enjoying a playground party in their Halloween costumes at a childcare center.

Playground safety should always be the number one priority when children are involved. Provide guidelines and let parents know these are great tips to keep in mind whenever their children hit the playground. Avoid loose clothing, ribbons, hoodies with strings and other garments that can become entangled on equipment.

Footwear

Check your shoes. Flipflops, sandals, and Crocs are a convenient choice when you’re heading out the door. However, they are major no-nos on the playground. Children should always wear closed toed footwear that fastens securely with either lace or Velcro.

Weather

Keep the weather in mind. Children overheat extremely easily, costumes should play second fiddle to comfort. Try to pick a playground party theme that matches the season. Allow children to layer during cold weather and avoiding heavy clothes during summer.

Limit Certain Types of Clothing

Dress up but skip long dresses. Children should try to wear clothes that let them jump, climb and explore. Long dresses, pants that restrict movement or clothes that just won’t stay on, should be eschewed in favor of sturdier clothing.

Keep these tips and tricks handy this Halloween season to play your own fun playground party!

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Community & Park Spaces Playground Planning

Why Kids Sports Are More Important Than Ever

An example of young children playing a kids sport

Partaking in kids sports can be one of the biggest commitments a child can make. Choosing a sport, joining a team and practicing regularly are unique experiences that can’t be replicated by other activities. Whether you and your child choose a casual ‘everybody plays’ team or a more competitive team, your entire family will be making a huge commitment of time and energy.

Why Kids Sports are Worth It

According to research, participating in kids sports seems to improve almost every aspect of a child’s physical and emotional health. Here are some noteworthy benefits.

Physical & Emotional Benefits

According to the University of Florida Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences, students who participate in sports perform better in school, have better social skills and are less likely to abuse drugs and alcohol. Studies also show that children and teens who participate in sports are less likely to suffer from depression or anxiety.

According to the President’s Council on Fitness, girls who participate in kids sports develop a better body image, self esteem, and confidence. In addition to having a healthier body and immune system, children experience better sleep cycles on average than inactive children. The best part is that children receive the benefits whether or not they excel at the sports.

Why do Children Quit Kids Sports? 

Like the initial attraction to kids sports, the reasons for quitting can vary from child to child. Remember that children live lives every bit as complex as adults, just with less control over the circumstances. Children might not understand or be able to express why they aren’t enjoying a sport anymore. When a children complain that the sport isn’t fun anymore, parents should dig deeper to discover the source of the problem.

Healthy Competition

Some children thrive on intense competition, others shy away from it. Even gifted athletes may not enjoy a hyper competitive team and less talented athletes can find a more recreational team boring if it doesn’t present a challenge. Adjusting the type of sport and league may be a way to keep a child involved in kids sports. If the first sport or team doesn’t work out, don’t give up. It may take several attempts to find the right sport and team for your child.

Many schools require students to maintain a certain grade level to participate in sports. Struggling students may be reluctant to try out for teams if they think there’s a chance of being kicked off. Sadly, students who struggle in school may need to belong to a team more than anyone. Belonging to a team gives children a sense of belonging and improved attitude. Additionally, kids spots help them develop the self-discipline they need to get better grades.

Don’t pass up an opportunity to include kids sports at your organization.

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Playground Planning

How to Foster Childhood Leadership and Teamwork

childhood-leadership

Fostering childhood leadership and teamwork is invaluable. The odds of any child becoming a professional athlete are pretty slim. However, the a child becoming a professional collaborator are pretty high. Teamwork isn’t just for the field; it’s also a life skill that children will carry with them forever. Teamwork and childhood leadership play a huge role in social competency. Additionally, children who participate in teamwork building activities are better equipped to interpret their peer’s needs. Participating in team activities gives children the opportunity to practice negotiation and leadership skills.

The good news is that childhood leadership happens naturally during group play. Parents, teachers and coaches can help children can grow this vital skill set during structured activities. One of the keys to teamwork is successful negotiation. Allowing participants to brainstorm objectives and create goals together is a great way to integrate negotiation into a structured environment. Also, groups who choose their own goals have a deeper understanding and commitment to meeting them.

Fostering Childhood Leadership in Each Child

The advantage of an adult led activity is that with proper guidance all children can take turns in leadership roles. Traditionally, coaches identify leaders among their participants and appoint a captain that they feel has the ability to lead the team through example. This narrow approach to leadership is a little out dated in today’s fast paced world. Smart coaches know everyone has a strength and each strength is important to team success.

Instead of appointing a permanent captain, select temporary captains who have strength in the skill set you’re focusing on. Even the meekest voices find it easier to speak up when they take charge of a subject they’re confident about. Natural athletes may actually benefit the most from this approach. It helps them avoid developing a ‘big fish in a small pond’ attitude that may not serve them well when they progress to more competitive divisions.

Participation

Letting participants teach each other is another good way to foster teamwork and improve performance. Teaching requires a deep understanding in childhood leadership. Someone who seems effortless may not be able to express their mechanical understanding right away. By encouraging children to really think about and dissect their actions, they’ll analyze their own performance better. Teaching encourages your players to connect cognitively with physical activities. The ability to express the how and why of their successes will improve a young athlete’s overall performance and help to develop childhood leadership and communication skills.

Team-Building

Playing team-building games is another fun way to encourage teamwork. Children of all ages love to pretend. Whether on the field or in the classroom, take time to play childhood leadership games that help your kids collaborate. Problem-solving scenario games that challenge participants to work towards a solution using limited supplies are good ways to get kids working together. Ask them to cross a makeshift river or pretend they’re stranded and have to make shelter. These are some fun active games that get teams working together outside of their normal roles.

Last of all, remember to let kids be in charge once in a while. Whether that means letting your girl scout troupe choose where to sell cookies or having your soccer team design their own uniforms, children need to feel that when it comes to their time and talent, they have equal input. Nurturing this traits will breed additional childhood leadership skills.

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Community & Park Spaces Playground Planning

How to Fight Childhood Obesity Through Play

According to the CDC, childhood obesity has more than doubled in the last 30 years while only about 29 percent of high school students exercise 60 minutes or more each day. As Americans turn more and more to indoor entertainment and recreation, children are paying the price.

Childhood Obesity Prevention Tips

Establishing healthy play and sleep habits during childhood have lifelong benefits, but require dedicated parents, teachers and communities. To celebrate American Heart Month, we’re focusing on fitness activities for all ages.

Spend More Time Outside

You can’t run inside! Parents are understandably reluctant to let children play unsupervised outdoors, but not making time to supervise outdoor play is not a solution. Schedule time to be outside as a family and don’t skip it! If you can’t make time daily to monitor outdoor play yourself, consider forming a playgroup with other parents in your community. Although having your child join a sports team has many benefits, it can’t  replace regular, unstructured free play. Making extra time for student athletes may even reduce the risk of repetitive motion and overuse injuries by strengthening the muscles they don’t use during practice.

Fight Childhood Obesity Through Healthy Play

It’s extremely tempting to sit back and answer emails while your child plays, but don’t be afraid to get the ball rolling yourself! Bring a ball, Frisbee or other toy and try to scout out parks with an active playground community ahead of time. To fight childhood obesity, start a game of catch, kickball or any active ball game to get the fun going! As a parent you can encourage your children to make the most of the play equipment. Challenge children to beat their best time on the monkey bars, or have a race across the fitness circuit. Once the kids are playing, feel free to take a step back and let them take over. 

Make Exercise a Priority

A mother and girl fighting childhood obesity through stretching
Regular stretching is a great way to fight childhood obesity.

Leading by example is the best way to encourage childhood obesity prevention. If you’re not in great shape be sure to talk your doctor and set realistic fitness goals for yourself before you cut loose on any exercise plan. Turn cleaning into a silly song and dance marathon, make yard work family time and plan  a simple evening walk together or other gentle exercises. These will not only get your family moving but will bring you closer together. Teach each other your favorite games like hopscotch and freeze tag and get playing. It takes about 10,000 hours to master any skill, so consider setting a big goal and working towards it together.  You could become hula hoop masters, learn to pop an ollie on a skateboard or make it your goal to master Double Dutch together.

Work with Other Caregivers

Want to include more fitness in your classroom or daycare? Whether you’re a teacher or parent, don’t be afraid to become a leader! Talk about ways you can help normalize physical activity. Regular breaks in learning that encourage movement help improve focus, retention and serve as a natural mood elevator.  Why not hop to the lunch room or take the scenic route to computer class? Adding a little more activity into daily routines can make a big difference. 

Get Enough Rest

It goes without saying that sleep is important to healthy growth and development, however, it’s not always a top priority. In recent years, a growing body of research has linked sleep deprivation to higher body mass. Unfortunately, children are almost as likely as adults to go without adequate sleep.  This may result in fatigue and lethargy, which may make it harder to get your kids off the couch. To help them get enough sleep, set and stick to a bedtime, create a healthy sleep routine and turn off television and computer screens at least an hour before bedtime.

Learn More About Childhood Obesity

Call one of our knowledgeable consultants at 800-853-5316 to learn about preventing childhood obesity through play!

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Community & Park Spaces

How to Make Fitness Fun For the Whole Family

family-bike-ride

Fitting a regular fitness routine into your busy schedule can seem impossible. With most parents working 40 or more hours a week it’s hard to find ways to worry about fitness. The reality is that America’s families are struggling to stay fit. Teaching children to find time to be active is more easily accomplished when you lead by example. How can you find time to get your children to their sporting activities while making time for your own? Forget about exercising and have fun!

Make Fitness Fun

Families should have a collective lifestyle. If togetherness means spending every evening and weekend enjoying a Netflix marathon, fitness habits take a back seat. It’s much harder working together to build a life that revolves around being active and healthy.

Every family needs to make together time a priority. Coupling that with fun, high energy fitness will help families stay active together and teach kids that play isn’t just for children. Currently, only 30% of children between the ages of 6 and 17 get 20 minutes or more of vigorous exercise daily. Although, a full 60 minutes of daily exercise is recommended. For most people, exercise is a chore, but play is a biologically vital activity. Getting off the couch and replacing an hour of screen time with play time will benefit your entire family.

Visit Your Local Park

Scout out a local park that has a baseball field or big open space and coordinate a regular kickball game with other parents. Many parks will even allow you to reserve spaces, so don’t be afraid to call ahead! Make sure your goal is clear, everybody plays and everybody has fun! Teaching your kids the difference between living an active life full of play and ‘exercise’ is sure to be priceless.

Fitness for Different Ages

Depending on the age ranges, you can adjust the game play to make things a little more fair. Here are some easy alterations that you can blend together or you can make up your own.

10 Year and Under:

  • Toddlers run bases and adults kick
  • Pair adults and kids to play bases
  • Designated hitters

10 Years and Up:

  • Adults (over 16) vs kids
  • 50/50 adult child split
  • Adults in the outfield kids in the infield

Fitness For Groups

Since, we’re talking about turning one classic playground game into a family activity, why not explore a couple more? If you can’t get enough families to join your kickball game, don’t be discouraged! Pick an activity and make a goal around it.

It takes approximately 10,000 hours to master something and that’s time you’ll spend having fun, getting fit and being together. So this year, let’s master Double Dutch, perfect the talent of badminton, become the elite team of capture the flag or have a household hula hoop contest. You’ll soon discover that the more you play together, the more open everyone will become to spontaneous play.

Finally, reach out for more information if you’re a park or community space looking to promote fitness for families!

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Playground Equipment Playground Planning

How to Design a Kids Fitness Circuit Worthy of Ninja Warrior

Kids Fitness Circuits combine state of the art equipment with clever design strategies that encourage children to be physically fit. Often, customers wish to purchase or design a custom play structure. Their main goal is to get kids outside and keep them safely entertained. What many don’t realize is that a cleverly designed play structure encourages children to push their physical limits. Other benefits include helping kids become more confident, fit and spatially aware. Kids fitness circuits are perfect for updating an existing playground with more challenging activities.

Kids Fitness Circuit Benefits

The short answer is that a kids fitness circuit can be anything that you want it to be. You can create a dedicated obstacle course style structure or implement circuit design principles into a more traditional play structure. A lot will depend on your vision, budget, who you’re building the playground for, and the space you have available.

Circuits that allow side by side play or circuit races, are great for elementary schools and larger parks. Smaller playgrounds can include a few challenging climbers and overheads that encourage children to take on more difficult tasks. Unlike other play structures, kids fitness circuits don’t focus on slides and platforms but rather on laying out individual elements in such a way that it encourages more stamina, greater strength and balance.

Improve Strength

Total body strength is the keystone of kids fitness. Encouraging greater strength requires presenting children with a variety of climbers and overheads that challenge children at different fitness levels. Incorporating a variety of hand holds and climbing objectives work different muscle groups and require various levels of coordination. Climbers allow children to develop upper and lower body strength but are less taxing than other equipment.

The most challenging strength building equipment on a playground will always be overhead climbers. Horizontal ladders and ring races challenge children to move across the structure using a swinging, right-left hand motion. Additionally, track riders and twisters encourage them to build momentum and glide. This helps children just learning to use this type of equipment build endurance and confidence.

Better Balance

The most obvious equipment for promoting balance is a traditional balance beam but contemporary playgrounds offer so much more. From spring loaded beams, to moving stepping stone style paths, balance play activities are more varied than ever before. These activities don’t require much upper body strength, they are still some of the most rewarding equipment on the playground.

Coordination and Endurance

Kids fitness circuits can consist of one large structure or several pieces of equipment strung together. However, individual elements are laid out in relation to one another is what really determines how challenging the playground is. The key to creating a fun and engaging kids fitness circuit is planning transitions between obstacles. Your fitness circuit is more challenging by stringing similar activities together. Or make them less challenging by transitioning between dissimilar activities (e.g., upper body followed by lower body).

Moreover, the type of transition between obstacles is another key element in design. When equipment transitions from one type of play to another, children are challenged to keep going, or start again if they stop. Structures that offer larger breaks between activities allow for more break time in between. There is no right or wrong type of transition, although the best playgrounds have both.

Children are naturally drawn to swinging, spinning and sliding so activities. These can be anything from spacewalks, cargo nets or fireman’s poles. Placing more transitional activities into more challenging activities is enough to keep children striving to master the most challenging equipment. Ask about a kids fitness circuit for your space today!

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Playground Safety Uncategorized

Avoiding Heart Disease in Children and Adults

Heart disease is the number one cause of death and disability in America today. According to the CDC, it’s also one of the most preventable causes of death in our country. Simple changes in your daily routine can help prevent you from becoming one of the 200,000 preventable deaths from heart disease each year.

Heart Disease Prevention Tips

Remember that change can be hard and the occasional slip up is to be expected. The most important thing is to give yourself time to adjust to your new lifestyle. Try the following steps to get started.

Get Your Heart Rate Up

Adults need at least two and a half hours of moderate intensity exercise each week. You should break a sweat and raise your heart rate and maintain that level of activity for at least 10 minutes at a time. If you’re unsure how to start a healthy exercise program, work with your doctor to ensure your progress is safe and sustainable. Children require at least an hour of physical activity each day.

Don’t assume that your kids are getting enough exercise at recess or during PE. The majority of high school students are not enrolled in any kind of physical education program. If you have an elementary age student talk to their teacher, coach and playground attendants about their activity. Even if your child is involved in sports, set aside time to practice fitness activities as a family.

Get creative and accommodate everyone’s speed and fitness levels. Small children might not be able to keep up with parents on a bike. However, they can ride along as you jog. If your children ride their bikes too fast for you to keep up on foot but are too slow for you to ride along try roller skating alongside them.

Eat Well

Even if you work 40 hours a week, you can make healthy and delicious meals at home or make smart choices when dining out. One simple guideline for planning a quick and healthy meal is to choose meals that use fewer ingredients, cook quickly, contain lean meats and green vegetables.

If you do have a picky eater, don’t require them to clean their plate. Instead, consider requiring them to take a a ‘no thank you’ bite of each food. Spend a few weeks double checking your portions by weighing and measuring each serving. It won’t take long for you to be able recognize the proper portion sizes. Also, give yourself the opportunity to recognize when you’re about to consume a second serving.

Drink Wisely

Many Americans don’t realize how many liquid calories they consume each day. Although fruit drinks, smoothies and health drinks may seem like a great way to squeeze in extra servings of fruits and vegetables, they may not be as satisfying as whole foods. Treat these drinks like real servings, measuring them out and planning them into your daily meals. Don’t let them become the unnoticed extra calories that throw your healthy lifestyle out of whack.

One good way to reduce the consumption of unhealthy calories is to eliminate sodas, fruit punches and other sugary drinks from your diet. As tasty as these treats are they provide no health benefit and aren’t hydrating due to the high levels of caffeine, sugar, and salt they typically contain.

Although you can drink a greater volume of soda for 100 calories than nutrient dense liquids like milk, you will find that you get more bang for your buck when choosing the healthier option. Most of the liquids you consume should be water. By the time you feel thirsty, your body has already entered the first stage of dehydration.

Heart Disease Learning Resources

If you want to learn more about heart disease, refer to the following resources:

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Playground Equipment Playground Planning

Why Creating an Inclusive Play Environment Is So Important

Girl in a wheelchair playing with other children on a playground

Creating an inclusive play environment gives children the opportunity to grow and learn together. This environment must be fostered in the classroom and out. Providing accessible playground equipment is a vital part of creating a completely inclusive environment.

Moreover, when you include a playground that promotes inclusion, your students will have fun and socialize freely. Multiple inclusive play elements, like Adaptive Swing Seats, a Music Center, and play panels, give children the freedom to choose.

Inclusive Play Encourages Children of All Abilities

An example of an inclusive play and wheelchair accessible environment.
Inclusive play encourages understanding and connection between children of different abilities.

Dr. Jenene Burke, Expert of Inclusive Education, offers expert insight into this topic. When children make clear choices about play, you should support, encourage, and permit their determination where possible.

“Enjoyment of play by some children with impairments can be difficult to identify because of their communication differences. Children might, however, communicate the same feelings of fun and pleasure but in different.” The way children socialize represent their individual communication strengths.

Additionally, when you design your playground or look to make additions or renovations, ask yourself these questions. Is your playground structure and surrounding area design inclusive? Is it boundless or does it include an access ramp? Does the structure have an ADA Transfer Station and include multiple play events on all levels?

Most importantly, creating an inclusive play environment is not only about meeting ADA requirements. It allows children to succeed in and out of the classroom, now and in the future. Furthermore, according to ThoughtCo, “inclusive play fosters belief that children with disabilities do better in general education settings. Best practices in special education provide the most success for general education as well as special education students.”

Finally, learn more about how to promote fair play at your school or organization! Reach out for information on accessible playground equipment for your space. BYO Playground offers wheelchair ramps, wheelchair swings, and more. No child should be left to watch from the sidelines. That’s why we believe in inclusive play!