There are only a handful of site-based adventure playgrounds in the United States. The Adventure Playground at The Parish School in Houston, TX, is the only one based at a school.
What is an adventure playground?
Adventure playgrounds are environments where:
- Children create their own worlds and build their own play space with a variety of tools and scrap material: lumber, hammers, nails, house paint, yards of fabric, pallets, wooden crates, and plenty of time and freedom.
- Children are supported by adults trained in the professional practice of playwork, a unique approach that puts the child’s ideas and objectives first.
Think of an adventure playground as a giant, very well stocked back yard that belongs entirely to children, but with adults around to help when needed.
What does an adventure playground look like?
As you might imagine, an area that belongs to children looks very different from a typical playground or classroom.
Playworkers are trained to:
- Not clean up after children, so kids can create their own systems of organization.
- Not impose their own aesthetics on the playground, so if a child wants to paint a fort every color under the sun, then write their name on it 20 times in sharpie, it is allowed.
How is an adventure playground different from a traditional playground?
Vital to an adventure playground is a playworker’s approach to risk-taking.
Children who attend Adventure Play at The Parish School may climb trees, jump off culverts, battle with homemade swords, and dig in muddy ponds.
The only condition is that they must do these things without hurting one another and without the physical help of adults, ensuring that they have the physical and mental strength to tackle a challenge when ready.
What is the origin of adventure playgrounds?
Originally called junk playgrounds, these spaces developed in London during the city’s rebuilding after World War II. They currently number in the hundreds in the United Kingdom and Japan.
In the U.S., they are few and far between, however there is growing interest in play that provides opportunities for independence and resilience. Adventure playgrounds are coming to the fore of U.S. conversation.
Are adventure playgrounds safe?
In short, yes.
With over ten years of experience, the staff of The Parish School is often asked about safety.
With all of this stuff organized and built by children, with so much freedom, space, tools, and child-directed activity, aren’t these playgrounds rife with injury?
To answer that question, The Parish School’s Adventure Play Director, Jill Wood, teamed with Morgan Leichter Saxby, PhD candidate in Playwork at Leeds Beckett University and Co-Founder of Pop-Up Adventure Play. They combed through The Parish School’s daily clinic reports between 2010 and 2015, then made the statistics public.
What did they find?
This statistic is critical for those who equate the appearance of adventure playgrounds with injury.
Why would adventure play be safer than conventional playgrounds?
It is commonly understood among playworkers that adventure playgrounds are safer than conventional playgrounds because they are:
Staffed by experts
Adventure playgrounds are staffed by playworkers, who follow a child’s lead and differentiate between hazard and risk:
- Hazard is something that a child is unaware of and might cause injury, like a weak branch in a tree, a nail sticking out of a floorboard, a fort without proper structural integrity. The playworker’s job is to eradicate hazard through daily inspections and maintenance.
- Risk is a challenge that an individual chooses to take on and is weighed against benefit. By definition, risks are different for every person. An individual who is made nervous by new situations may find it risky to play a game of tag with unfamiliar rules or new kids. This means a capable climber may choose to scale a 10-foot wall after trying shorter challenges and needing something more demanding.
Built by children
Children build adventure playgrounds themselves. This mean they are made to a child’s physical scale and very familiar.
Children simply aren’t capable of building large structures without footholds or reliable ways to climb up. Since these areas are child-built, the ceilings of structures are lower, the building methods are slow and incremental, and the makers of the space know every inch of it very well.
Visually unique
The appearance of adventure playgrounds alert children to being more attentive and active participants.
Conventional playgrounds look very similar to one another, leading children to enter them without hesitation or heightened awareness. Adventure playgrounds are play spaces that require children to explore and figure them out.
Always changing
Adventure playgrounds are ever-evolving and adaptable, making them stimulating and challenging. The demands of a constantly changing environment lead to a process of assessment that empowers children.
By design, schoolyard and public park playgrounds purchased from catalogs are made to be unchanging. When children become bored, they create challenge. Fixed equipment playgrounds cannot accommodate that need for change, so children will use the equipment in ways it was not designed to be used.
On an adventure playground, children may and can build what they need, when they need it.
The study was published by Pop-Up Adventure Play to help people gain a better understanding of adventure playgrounds and their unique set of strengths.
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Jill Wood is the founding director of Adventure Play at The Parish School and an international advocate for child-directed play. With a background in art and library science, Jill trains playworkers across the U.S. and serves on national committees dedicated to recess and healthy play. She also leads Bayou City Play, promoting self-directed play in Houston communities.
[i] Resources about growing interest in children, risk, and resilience:
- Where The Wild Things Play Adventure playgrounds may look like junk piles but offer kids tremendous opportunities for free, unstructured play. (NPR)
- The Value Of Wild, Risky Play: Fire, Mud, Hammers And Nails An interview about risk and adventure playgrounds with “The Land” filmmaker Erin Davis. (NPR)
- Let kids take risks when they play Free, moderately risky play – without adult intervention – helps kids become healthy, resilient adults. (Boston Globe)
- 5 ways to let a little more risk into your child’s day (and why that’s a good thing) “A risk-averse childhood is full of missed adventures.” (Washington Post)
[ii] Resources related to risk, safety, and health through child-directed play:
- Almon, J. (2013) Adventure: The Value of Risk in Children’s Play, Alliance for Childhood USA
- Ball, D. (2002) Playgrounds: Risks, Benefits and Choices. Middlesex University, London
- Ball, D, Gill, T, and Spiegal, B.(2013) Managing Risk in Play Provision: Implementation Guide. Play England
- Brown, F. (2013) Play Deprivation: impact consequences and potential of playwork. Play Wales
- Brussoni, M,. L. Olsen, I. Pike, D. Sleet (2012) Risky Play and Children’s Safety: Balancing Priorities for Optimal Child Development. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. September 9. 3134-3148
- Brussoni, M. et al. (2015) “What is the Relationship between Risky Outdoor Play and Health in Children? A Systematic Review”. In the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. Jun; 12(6): 6423–6454.
- Conway, M. (2009). Developing an Adventure Playground: The Essential Elements, National Children’s Bureau, London
- Else, P. (2014) Making Sense of Play. McGraw-Hill
- Gill, T. (2007) No Fear: Growing up in a risk averse society. Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
- Fusselman, A. (2015) Savage Park: A Meditation on Play, Space, and Risk for Americans Who Are Nervous, Distracted, and Afraid to Die. Mariner Books
- Sandseter, E. (2010) Scaryfunny: A Qualitative Study of Risky Play Among Preschool Children. PhD Thesis, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology
- Slovic, P. (1987) “Perception of Risk”. In Science, New Series, Volume 236, Issue 4799, April 17, 280-285
- Woolley, H. (2011) Exploring the Relationship between Design Approach and Play
