Remember when you were a child, what were your favoriteoutdoor play settings? They probably included water, trees, dirt, places to build, places to hide and places where you were in control-out of parental view!

Today safety, security and liability have become major factors in determining the quality of outdoor children?EUR??,,????'???s play environments and play programs. While the safety and security of our children, whether in supervised or unsupervised play environments, justifiably deserves careful attention, the goals of safety and security must be balanced with the goal of providing stimulating and challenging environments for children?EUR??,,????'???s play and development. The concepts of healthy, safe and stimulating play areas need not be at odds with one another.

Hazard vs. Challenge

A basic definition of ?EUR??,,????'??hazard?EUR??,,????'?? and ?EUR??,,????'??challenge?EUR??,,????'?? must be understood when creating a play environment. Children will use equipment and the parts of the environment in all possible ways regardless of design intentions. Since the idea of play is to explore and maximize the potential of any play setting, children will test its use to the limits of their ability.

Such testing teaches children new skills. Children will run up slides, jump out of swings, and climb trees. A well designed play environment will reflect an understanding of children?EUR??,,????'???s behavior and provides for risk taking without hazard.

Expanding the use of the Outdoor Environment

Children learn from exploring and manipulating the environment. The quality of learning can be positively influenced by the quality of the environment. A well designed and diversified outdoor environment provides many opportunities for learning in areas such as:

Motor Skill Development. A play environment should always present one more challenge beyond what a child is physically able to accomplish at one time.

Decision Making. The environment should provide children with opportunities to make decisions about their own activities.

Learning about properties and relationships among physical objects, space and self. Children must be able to actively manipulate the environment, transform it, dismantle it and re-create it in order to learn about the nature of the world.

Fantasy Play. The environment is resource for imaginative and cooperative play?EUR??,,????'??+it provides a ?EUR??,,????'??stage?EUR??,,????'?? and ?EUR??,,????'??props.?EUR??,,????'??

Interpersonal Interaction. Settings must support positive socialization between able-bodied and disabled children, between different ethnic groups, between girls and boys and between children and adults.

Creating A Site Master Plan

Each school, day-care facility, park or recreation area should have a master plan for their outdoor play environment in order to guide development. Landscape Architects must work with program planners closely to tie in all play concepts. The outside should reflect the programs philosophy and curriculum just as does the indoor environment.

The play area is more than just the play equipment. The entire site with its trees, bushes, topography, landscape, shelter, storage areas, game areas, restrooms, paths, walls and drinking fountains are part of a child?EUR??,,????'???s play environment. Consideration should be given to providing spaces for a wide variety of active and quiet activities as well as accessibility for children with disabilities.

Administrators, staff, maintenance personnel, parents and children should be involved in setting goals for the site based on program activities and curriculum. The master plan should specify a range of design elements which meet the goals and support the activities. A phased development plan can be created so the improvements which are highest priority or which have the greatest impact can be staged as funds become available.

When creating a master plan, the following elements should be taken into account: entrances; pathways; signage; fences; manufacutured play equipment; sports/multi-purpose game areas; groundcovers/surfacing; landforms/topography/drainage; trees/vegitation; gardens; wildlife (bugs, frogs, birds); water play; sand play; loose parts; staging areas; outdoor class rooms/working places and storage.

Choosing Appropriate Play Equipment

Although a good play setting is more than play equipment, the equipment often becomes a focal point. Existing equipment, or equipment being considered for specification, should be evaluated along with the following dimensions:

Play value: the degree to which a variety of play behavior is stimulated.

Programming potential: the degree to which equipment can be used as a resource in the curriculum.

Safety: conformance to the Consumer Product Safety Commission and the Play for All Guidelines.

Accessibility: ways for children of differing abilities to use the setting.

Compatibility with the Master Plan

Maintenance: is the structural material compatible to the climate; are maintenance requirements made clear by the manufacturer, is there a maintenance checklist for the equipment.

Each surfacing material requires different depths, contaimnents, and care ?EUR??,,????'??? get good advice before installation.

Price performance: value for money; how many play events are on the equipment; how many children can use it; what is the life of the equipment; is it guaranteed by the manufacturer in writing; are there local service representatives.

Good Play Equipment Has The Following Characteristics:

Sensory Variety. Primary dimensions are heat, light, resiliency, texture, color and sound; hot-cool-cold; light-shade-dark; rough-smooth; hard-soft; noisy-quiet.

Sensory Complexity. Spatial concepts such as over-under, in-out, up-down, right-left, spatial depth and directionality. Small children and children with physical disabilities have few opportunities to get ?EUR??,,????'??above the action.?EUR??,,????'?? Equipment should provide an opportunity to slide, crawl, tumble or pull themselves to an ?EUR??,,????'??overview?EUR??,,????'?? level.

Large Muscle Activity. Most desirable large muscle activity includes climbing, swinging, bouncing, sliding, balancing, jumping, crawling, hoping, skipping, twirling/shinning, rolling, knee walking, pulling, sliding on the same level, pushing and lifting.

Movement. Movement stimulates kinesthetic sense and is an end in itself.

Linkage and Flow. Continuity of physical support is very important, each main play ?EUR??,,????'??circuit?EUR??,,????'?? should provide a range of choice of ?EUR??,,????'??sub-circuits?EUR??,,????'?? to maintain interest and to avoid the potential boredom of ?EUR??,,????'??one way to go?EUR??,,????'?? systems.

Programming. Degree to which the equipment could be used as a stage set by play leaders for creative programs (circus setting, village set, space ship).

Motor Challenge. Equipment settings should provide for physical challenges that are not based on height. Most serious playground injury is caused by falls from inappropriate equipment height. Challenges should be graduated for children of differing abilities, upper body development activities, for example, would include, turning bars, chining bars, parallel bars, ring treks, track rides and horizontal ladder.

Differentiation. Equipment settings must provide a variety of activity options such as quiet areas away ) from the main action.

Proper Surfacing under Equipment

The most important design parameters to mitigate the risk of serious injury are ?EUR??,,????'??distance of fall?EUR??,,????'?? and ?EUR??,,????'??resiliency of landing surface.?EUR??,,????'?? Sand, peagravel, chopped tire or rubber surfacing when properly installed will not stop accidents but can diminish the severity of an injury caused by a fall.

Each surfacing material has its advantages and disadvantages. It is critical to have fall-absorbing material under all play elements. Provide an adequate (eight-foot) free-fall-zone around the play structure. Each surfacing material requires different depths, containments, and care?EUR??,,????'??+get good advice before installation.

Conclusion

For designers of children?EUR??,,????'???s play and learning environments, the challenge is not a major lawsuit for a broken arm or astronomical insurance premiums, but the responsibility for raising a generation of young people who have the opportunity to play in healthy and stimulating surroundings. Through careful design, creative programming, good maintenance, qualified play leadership and c supervision it is possible to support and promote healthy, safe and stimulating play environments for all our children.

Susan M. Goltsman, ASLA, is a ?EUR??,,????'??? partner in the firm of Moore, lacofano, Goltsman. She is co-founder of PLAE, Inc., and for the past 15 years has created programs of special environments for the development of children. She teaches urban studies at Stanford University. Goltsman is also a board member of the California Council of Landscape Architects . (CCLA), and the Northern California Chapter of the ASLA.