"When you do the common things in life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world." George Washington Carver So why not do the "uncommon thing" and provide play for all children together in public playgrounds? All children need the experience of independent outdoor play. Outdoor play environments designed for self-directed play provide children with choices to build socialization skills; develop interdependence; meet challenges and overcome obstacles; cultivate self-determination and self esteem, all while enhancing their motor development. The playground is also where children learn to respect and celebrate diversity. Interaction during play can lead to understanding, valuing and respecting peers, including peers who are socially and physically different. Time spent together on the playground removes the stigma of difference and allows all children the opportunity to develop friendships. ACCESSIBLE SPACES VS. FULLY INTEGRATED SPACES There is a responsibility and a challenge for professionals to create integrated play opportunities for children of all abilities. The Americans with Disabilities Act Access Guidelines, or ADAAG "Final Rule" (2000), establishes a baseline or template for accessible playgrounds. However, designing a play environment to the "Final Rule" baseline may produce a play space where a portion of the play equipment is considered accessible, but where the fun, rigor and challenges are located in inaccessible areas. By creating fully integrated play spaces without architectural barriers, the play environment becomes a place where ALL children can be in the middle of play regardless of where that play occurs. Sensory-rich, diverse and developmentally appropriate play environments offer component structures designed for both children without disabilities and children with sensory disabilities, cognitive disabilities, and mobility impairments. THE ESSENCE OF PLAY For children, play happens in their minds. When children are cognitively capable of independent play, play encompasses the following three fundamental pieces: Children want to do fun things; Children want to be in fun places; Children want to be in the middle of play (Malkusak, Schappet, Bruya, 2002). The perception of the play space is the combination of the real space (the physical playground) in which children exist, and the imaginary world that they create while interacting with peers and siblings. This is where true excitement during play, and the developmental experiences supported by play, return children to a play space time and time again. Applying the above fundamentals in a sensory-rich, complex play environment is the means for maintaining the playing child's attention. The presentation of structures and site features that provide a rich palette of interesting intersections and a variety of materials enhance sensory experience and support child directed choices during play. Child directed choices are the outcome of intersections used to open or expand the use of a play structure. These design features prompt predictable behavior and sustain the child during play. ALTERNATE PLAY ROUTES - USING "COMMON THINGS" IN AN UNCOMMON WAY The goal is to design a play space where fun, rigorous and challenging play opportunities are intertwined with areas that are without architectural barriers. Creating spaces such as these require several steps and multiple considerations. The design element that facilitates intertwined, interactive play experiences for all children is an Alternate Play Route. Alternate Play Routes employ "common things" found on a traditional playground in an "uncommon way" Photo 1. There is a clear distinction between an Alternate Play Route and a structure that is functionally linked. According to ASTM Standards for Public Playground Equipment and for equipment not physically attached, a functionally linked play structure acts as a single unit in form or sense of function (ASTM, 2001). An Alternate Play Route is defined as one or more possible paths that have an obvious relationship with the ramped route of travel on an elevated play structure. Alternate Play Routes can be functionally linked or be part of the composite play structure joining two or more platform centers. In comparison to the ASTM Standard, an Alternate Play Route provides interaction between users of the ramped route and the users of the Alternate Play Route. This interaction typically involves children playing together by co-planning participation or deciding to compete or race. Route requirements for rigor vary for children of different abilities. Depending on the layout of the Alternate Play Route, the physical, cognitive, ethical and social domains are all stimulated during interaction between players. PURPOSE OF ALTERNATE PLAY ROUTES An Alternate Play Route is an essential playground design element used when children have become sophisticated in their play behaviors. Alternate Play Routes provide the play environment with the following: 1. Opportunities for rigor and graduated challenge in physical development. 2. Choices to manipulate, control, and make decisions to enhance cognitive development. 3. Opportunities for rule-making to enhance ethical development. 4. Facilitation of comparisons that stimulate social development through collaboration and competition. TYPES OF ALTERNATE PLAY ROUTES There are at least four types of Alternate Play Routes. Each type provides variation in format and structure to address differing levels of rigor needed by children of different abilities. Each Alternate Play Route incorporates features to elicit response in a selected developmental domain to encourage play in a way more likely to support the needs of the players. The four types of Alternate Play Routes are Changing Demand, Connector, Direct, and Hub (Table 1). Each of the four incorporates a function that provides opportunity for the child to be fully engaged in play. Changing Demand Alternate Play Rounte The Changing Demand Alternate Play Route provides rigor for children who need increased physical skill. For some players, this may mean a requirement for a type of dynamic balance. For another child, this may mean a requirement for changing movement skills while traversing an open area which is bridged by the Alternate Route. For others, the need for quick transitions from one part of the Alternate Route to another may provide the increased rigor (Figure 1). A series of components (technically considered play functionally linked by the ASTM Standards) constitute a Changing Demand Alternate Play Route. For example, a child begins with a balance beam, transitions to a lateral climb cargo net, transitions to a second balance beam and finally transitions to a series of increasing height pods (Photo 2). This increased rigor Alternate Play Route parallels a ramped route that is without architectural barriers. The combination of these two routes encourages players? interaction to include planning and rule making used in play prior to and during use of the routes. CONNECTOR ALTERNATE PLAY ROUTE Rigor in a Connector Alternate Play Route is characterized by the need for cognitive decision making, based on choices (Festinger, 1957). The choices are provided at an intersection where three or more connecting arms of the route originate at the composite structure and form the alternate route via an intersection. The intersection is located away from the composite structure somewhere in the space over which the route travels. The Connector Alternate Play Route is constructed of elements that employ the same physical skill and level of difficulty leading to an intersection (Figure 2). Choice occurs at a single intersection where three or more arms of the route come together. Choice can also occur in multiple intersections along the Connector. DIRECT ALTERNATE PLAY ROUTE The rigor provided by the Direct Alternate Play Route is in the demand to develop an ethical system which accounts for the good of all, rather than the exclusive benefit of one. Making rules governing dramatic play is frequently observed among children who have started demonstrating sophisticated play behaviors. Children, usually in pairs or small groups, talk about what to do before they do it. They plan their play prior to the actual participation, using rules to govern the parameters of their play (Photo 3). Trial and error in play attempts set the rules. Through this process, children learn that what is fair to one may not be fair to the other (Wilson, 1993). The outcome of these trial and error planning sessions is the understanding that the rules should provide equity between the children to allow each a chance at equal participation and increase the fun for all. This understanding of rules becomes the application basis for their system of right and wrong - their ethical system. The rules are used as a way to set structure and, eventually, to discover that the structure works for all the children participating in the planning play behavior. When the alternate route is observed as a Direct Alternate Play Route, the play behaviors used by the children to plan may become collaborative in an attempt to make each route equal. The distances are easily determined to be equal, but the difficulty of transverse is easily observed as unequal. Rule making by children during planning helps each planner understand the advantage or disadvantage of one participant over the other. This occurs through motor pattern selection differences, transition differences between parts of the alternate routes, or the equivalent of delayed starts (Photo 4). The Direct Alternate Play Route usually runs side-by-side with the ramp route. In this configuration, it is easy for children to discuss their play and adjust the rules to meet their needs. While moving through a Direct Alternate Play Route, conversations between children using the ramp route may take place with children using the alternate route. The Direct Alternate Play Route, in nearly all design layouts, exits at the same platform as the ramped route, providing close proximity between players (Figure 3). HUB ALTERNATE PLAY ROUTE The Hub Alternate Play Route meets the needs of players by increasing the rigor of social interaction. Play planning occurs in groups of three or more and requires increased skill of reading non-verbal communication and responding to others in appropriate ways. Competence in social settings helps the child determine their role in the play group and amongst their peers. Characteristically, a Hub Alternate Play Route must include a play link between an adjacent platform center and the Hub component. This feature within the Hub Alternate Play Route serves to foster a sense of physical and social proximity between children while playing, even though there is a tangible separation. The Hub Alternate Play Route is designed to provide a gathering place away from the composite structure. The difference between a Hub and other Alternate Play Routes is in the use of a central gathering place that provides a stopover for users (Figure 4). This gathering place component is usually transformed by the children into a center for social interaction planning. Connected, but away from the composite structure, the children have an additional place for meeting and planning. The feeling of separation and remoteness increases the demand on abilities related to social interaction with peers. DESIGN CRITERIA RATIOS Since Alternate Play Routes provide a significant number of rigorous activities, in addition to ramp route of travel on the composite structure, the necessity for their inclusion is essential. The easiest way to accomplish this is to use the four Alternate Play Routes in approximate proportion to the number of platform centers on a fully integrated composite structure. The distribution of the types of Alternate Play Routes should also be considered. As the magnitude of the composite structure increases, the variety and number of Alternate Play Routes should proportionally increase. RULES FOR ALTERNATE PLAY ROUTES Where groups of children gather in play environments designed to support sophisticated play behaviors like planning, rule making, collaboration and competing, multiple Alternate Play Routes are essential to provide support of the child's developmental needs. A series of Alternate Play Route Rules help to accomplish routes which serve the developmental needs of children. The following rules govern the design of Alternate Play Routes. Rule #1: An Alternate Play Route must have an obvious relationship with the ramped route of travel on a composite structure. Alternate Play Routes can be functionally linked or be part of the composite structure joining two or more platform centers. Rule #2: A minimum ratio of one Alternate Play Route per platform center is desirable. The carrying capacity for an Alternate Play Route varies from a low of 2-3 children for a Direct Alternate Play Route to 6-10 children for a Hub Alternate Play Route. Rule #3: Alternate Play Routes must provide a variety of developmental play benefits for children. This means inclusion of three or four types of Alternate Play Routes on a composite structure design. Combined Alternate Play Routes increase the ability to serve the needs of children in all domains simultaneously. As an example, a combination of two or three of the four alternate routes provide a combined alternate route. Intertwining demands by combining alternate route types is another way to serve the needs of the whole child. So do the "uncommon thing" and provide play for ALL children together in public playgrounds. By designing an outdoor play environment that applies common conventions of traditional playgrounds in an uncommon or unconventional manner, children are given new opportunities to make the choices that lead to social, emotional, mental and physical growth. All children need the experience of independent outdoor play. A playground that includes Alternate Play Routes not only adds to the fun, rigor and challenge of the play space, but provides the necessary means to bring together children of all abilities in a common place of play. About the Authors: Jean Schappet is the Creative Director and co-founder of Boundless Playgrounds.. She is expert in designing playgrounds that are fully accessible, developmentally appropriate, fun and safe. Antonio Malkusak, ASLA, is the Director of Design for Boundless Playgrounds. He has over 17 years of experience in the field of parks and recreation. Lawrence D. Bruya, Ph.D. is a full professor at Washington State University (WSU). He has written extensively about child development and playgrond design.