Eighty-seven percent of the time, the conventional equipment (monkey bars, swings, slides and climbing structures) remained empty. When the children played on or around the equipment, they used it for its intended purpose only three percent of the time.

"This is an interesting statistic, given the equipment is usually the most expensive part of an outdoor play space budget," Prof. Herrington observed.

Fifty-seven per cent of the early childhood educators indicated the equipment needed to be more challenging, suggesting kids want places where they can hide, play with dirt and be creative.

Prof. Herrington noted landscape architects are under a lot of pressure to install traditional equipment, because it's easier and more recognizably accepted by adults. She suggests the way children move, and the way in which structures feed their imaginations should be a priority in design, but designers succumb to pressures to make play spaces, stable, orderly and clean?EUR??,,????'?????<