Wyatt Underwood on "The Safe Child Campaign"

Outdoor playgrounds are of course a key area of focus when it comes to safety as well as educational and entertainment value, however indoor play areas also deserve a similar level of attention. Sometimes what appears to be the most obvious of common sense solutions -- keeping the floor clear so people won't trip -- often gets overlooked in the fray of everyday school or family life. A recent article by Daniel Akinson points out the fact that a leading cause of injuries that happen inside the house or classroom result from toys not being picked up. "One specific danger and one that is usually ignored are all the kids’ toys that have not been picked up," the article states. "This can definitely be a hazard if the living area is doubling as a play area." The magazine provides the following advice on how to prevent accidents that can lead to minor or at times serious injuries: • "Designate a particular area of the room in which the kids should play...

It would be hard to find a rational person who would disagree with the idea that children all over the world should have safe places to play. Organizations such as UNICEF and The Playground Builders Foundation have worked to provide children in war-torn nations with safe, accessible playgrounds. Playground Builders, a Canadian nonprofit charity, has established a business "model [that] involves the use of a generic playground design and local construction, based on a competitive value bid system," according to the organization's website. "This simplified process ensures many playgrounds throughout conflict areas can be built effectively and efficiently. These special places provide safe spaces for laughter, hope and interaction for war-entrapped children in unstable and poverty-stricken areas such as Iraq, Afghanistan and the Palestinian Territories." UNICEF's common practice is to build or rebuild schools and playgrounds in places ravaged by warfare....

Environmentally friendly playgrounds are becoming increasingly popular and prominent. As the "green" label has become a standard line in marketing throughout all kinds of business sectors, the same is evident among playground equipment manufacturers. A few examples of more sustainable playground elements include recycled tires in safety surfacing, recycled plastic benches and playground equipment recycling programs. Another common practice in recent years has been replacing asphalt surfaces with grass and natural surroundings. "There are plenty of new opportunities to transform decaying asphalt playgrounds or vacant lots into natural play areas," Richard Louv, author of “Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder” wrote in a 2007 New York Times opinion article. "Researchers at the University of Illinois, exploring people’s relationship to nature, have discovered that green outdoor spaces relieve the symptoms of attention defic...

Like warfare, severe poverty doesn't jibe with safe places for children to play together in a public setting. Nonprofits from all over the world have concentrated efforts in Haiti to address the need for playgrounds. The magnitude 7.0 earthquake in January 2010 that killed and left homeless many thousands of people drew a great deal of international attention and aid in the wake of the disaster. Prior to the earthquake, the Disasters Emergency Committee reports: • More than 70 percent of Haitians were living on less than $2 a day. • 86 percent of national capital Port au Prince residents lived in slum conditions. • 80 percent of education in Haiti was offered in often sub-par private schools because the higher- quality state system provided an inadequate number of schools. • Half of Port-au-Prince residents didn't have access to latrines and one-third had access to tap water. One example is Kids Around the World, a religiously themed group that since 1994 has built n...

Children's hospitals around the country are promoting safe play, according to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. A report published in January titled "Injury Prevention on Playgrounds, at Home and in the Neighborhood" notes endeavors by hospitals in several states. The foundation's Injury Free Coalition for Kids is the spearhead for raising awareness about safe play at children's hospitals and within the broader community. "More than half of the Injury Free coalitions built playgrounds, typically with plastic or rubber materials, a soft ground covering and other features to prevent injuries," the report states. "The purpose -- and impact -- of the playground projects went beyond just providing safe places for children to play. ... By bringing neighborhood residents into the planning and construction process, the Injury Free teams were also building community." The Comer's Children Hospital at the University of Chicago built two play...

Safety in backyard playgrounds is obviously just as necessary as at public facilities. "Ten years ago, a study conducted by the Consumer Product Safety Commission discovered more deaths occurred on backyard playground equipment than on public playgrounds," FortWayne.com recently reported. "A 2009 study from the CPSC found that 40 deaths were associated with playground equipment between 2001 to 2008, the majority of which were the result of hangings or asphyxiations." Toward preventing such tragedies, the article highlights "location," "equipment," "surfaces" and "inspection" as the keys to a consistently safe backyard play area. Playground placement is especially emphasized: "Location, location, location! A home playground's location is very important. When deciding where to put a playground, consider its accessibility." Earshot distance is a suggested gauge for determining a reasonable distance for respond...

The sunny spring and summer months have begun, making protection from ultraviolet rays a concern for those who spend time outdoors. Unfortunately, shade sails and umbrellas are often overlooked in playground designs. Umbrellas and sails provide shade for playground patrons and also keep the intense heat of direct sunlight from benches, slides, swings and other play structures. This can of course prevent burning-hot injuries to tender young skin, but it also prolongs the life of playground equipment, which takes a beating from the sun on a daily basis. Durable shade sails can be designed to accommodate irregularly shaped areas, and low points can be positioned relative to the sun's direction for optimal blockage. Beyond playground applications, shade sails are a cost-effective solution for keeping direct sunlight from most outdoor areas such as pools, barbeques, house fronts and spas. "They can be the best idea for your outdoor areas, improving the look while also offering...

Because of their smaller stature, toddlers face a greater number of potential hazards at the playground. A little foresight goes a long way -- parents and guardians with a sharp eye for dangerous situations will be able to prevent problems before they occur and choose the safest place for little ones to play. The no. 1 safety concern for any play area is the surfacing. If it's hard, rough or slippery, it's time to look for another playground. Rubber is best, followed by wood chips and gravel. Jaipi Sixbear, a writer for Yahoo.com's Associated Content, observed that a lack of toddler scale playground equipment is often "a hidden safety issue”. "Some toddlers may be able to handle the climb up the big slide ladder," Sixbear wrote. "What if they slip and fall from that height? While this is no problem for older kids, it could cause a serious or fatal injury for toddlers. Be sure the playground you choose has toddler scale equipment." She also w...

The National Recreation and Parks Association has led the way toward safer playgrounds for the last two decades. In 1993, the association established the National Playground Safety Institute and soon thereafter began offering certification programs for parks and recreation professionals. The "CPSI Candidate Handbook" establishes a code of professional conduct for inspectors and lists the course's main objectives: • Identify hazards on public playground equipment and the playground. • Rank the hazards according to injury potential. • Apply the knowledge to remove the hazards and establish a system of inspections. The organization has "a long-term goal of training and certifying at least one person from every community in the United States to be a CPSI," according to the NRPA website. "These inspectors will share their knowledge on the public-use playground standard of care with other people involved in playground operations within their agencies an...

Early inculcation of proper playground etiquette is the first line of defense for parents with toddlers and young children. A child with a good set of playground values is indeed less likely to hurt him or herself or others. "It is important to build safe habits in your children as soon as you begin visiting the playground," according to eHow.com's Todd Bowerman. "Good habits keep your kids safe and make your trips less stressful." The writer lists four points to teach youngsters about how to make the most of the playground experience. First on the agenda is communication. Prior to going to the playground, toddlers should be walked through the motions of using playground equipment as well as how they should interact with other children. Emphasize that pushing and shoving are never acceptable and taking turns is the way to do it. Parents should repeat these instructions often. Clear ground rules are also essential. Set specific boundaries pertaining to e...

Bourgeoning playground designs focused on sensory activities offer social interaction as well as therapeutic learning time. While all children benefit from stimulating play, research shows that those with special needs progress considerably when such play environments are integrated with their school routine. Common playground activities such as swings and trampolines inherently encourage socializing, concentration skills and physical awareness, which the steadily increasing number of children with autism and other attention-deficit conditions lack. However, parents, caregivers and educators of special needs children should note the recent advent of KidSense "sensory playgrounds," as the industry lexicon now describes them. LeAnne Cantrell, an oil drilling engineer turned sensory playground pioneer, has established the KidSense Pilot Yard on the shared campus of Pontchartrain Elementary and Tcherfuncte Middle schools in Mandeville, La. where her autistic son is a student. ...

As playgrounds grow and evolve with increasing attention paid to safety and equipment durability, it's important to note that kids with physical limitations need adequate places to play just as much, if not more, than kids without disabilities. Children who must contend with limited mobility and dexterity need much more carefully designed equipment and facilities. In recent years, awareness of making parts of everyday life more "handicapped accessible" is now commonplace in many areas of everyday life. And in the wake of the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act, through which Congress made accessible public facilities the law of the land, focus on accessible playgrounds has naturally followed suit. Creating recreational facilities accessible to all, however still remains an uphill battle in many instances. Parents of children with disabilities often have to go out of their way to make local accessible playgrounds a reality. The St. Tammany Kids Konnection Boundless Pl...

While playgrounds provide good times and an ideal place for exercise, they're also magnets for senseless vandalism and after-hours loitering. Destruction or theft of playground equipment is an enduring problem for any community, costing property owners and municipalities millions every year. Social decline factors aside, this is mainly due to the very public, easily accessible locations that recreational facilities occupy. Standard security measures such as fencing and lighting can only go so far in deterring those bent on doing damage. And because all it really takes are some tools and misguided motivation, playground crimes often prove relatively easy to perpetrate and difficult for police to solve, let alone deter. In response, the technology and strategy behind playground security has really come a long way. An elaborate, though quite pricy new system illuminates, photographs and even bombards would-be vandals or after-hours loiterers with an ultrasonic "sound barrier....

It's amazingly unfortunate how far some people will go to do damage to a playground. Police blotters in communities all over the world, affluent and underprivileged alike, tell the tale. Countless horror stories fill the record with news blurbs that frame playgrounds as crime scenes, such as this Aug. 2 report by WOKV television in Jacksonville, Fla. in which a 20-year-old man was found with a "life-threatening" gunshot wound and "the playground was closed off with crime scene tape as investigators searched for clues." In line with the absence of solid, enforceable playground design and equipment standards, crime statistics on schoolyards and public recreation facilities simply aren't kept by any level of government. So the research is scattered and purely anecdotal, except for a recent "experimental" attempt by the U.K. The children's British Crime Survey published in June recorded more than 2 million incidents of theft and violence agai...

Within the last generation, youth physical fitness has gained significant ground in the political sphere. It's a given that promoting healthy living and physical activity is an important function of children's education. But only until fairly recently, there wasn't much of a support structure in government or elsewhere to actually fund and implement effective policies. So as childhood obesity rates steadily increase disproportionately in low-income communities, fueling demands for government action from the public and press, enter a big bowl of federal and non-governmental alphabet soup -- HHS, ACF, OHS, AAPAR, NASPE, and most notably, an eclectic organization with a name that's even too long for a complete acronym. Head Start Body Start National Center for Physical Development and Outdoor Play, or HSBS in the interest of breath-saving, "aims to increase physical activity, outdoor play, and healthy eating among Head Start and Early Head Start children, famil...

The news these days is full of accounts based on alarming statistics regarding American kids' sinking levels of physical fitness and correspondingly skyrocketing obesity rates. The best are the CDC figures -- exponentially increasing numbers of kids are obese; annual health costs resulting from obesity total billions of dollars and shorter life expectancies. "Childhood Obesity" is now a common form of medical speak for the at least pudgy, if not downright health-threatening condition that continues to scream for awareness from parents, educators and anyone who cares about young people. One very notable person who fits that description is the First Lady. In April Michelle Obama debuted the "Let's Move" campaign to challenge poor diet and lack of exercise. On the dietary front, the World Health Organization has taken aim at junk food. The United Nations' health advocate comprised of 193 member states points to the global gain in cases of childhood ...

Because good playgrounds are costly, those interested in building new or improving existing locations should take note of successful fundraising techniques. As the recession crimps municipal and non-profit budgets, times like these call for privately organized fundraising committees to lead the way toward playground improvement and development. Despite the economic downturn, there are still significant government grants available to make playgrounds newer, better and safer. In addition to the feds and states, corporations and private foundations are a great source of grant funding for community development projects. In the last two decades, the Fortune 500 has stepped up significantly. Companies such as Nike, Home Depot and many others have contributed hundreds of millions of tax-deductible dollars and product donations to many youth-oriented causes. This is because in addition to community development and recreation grants, the educational and physical activity aspects of play...

Since colonial times parks have been a staple feature of American cities, following European urban planning traditions. But it wasn't until the early-20th century that playgrounds, and America's urban landscape in general, began to shift into what's recognizable to present-day city dwellers. As eastern cities teemed with immigrants and a surging youth population, the need for designated public play spaces became more and more apparent. Private philanthropic organizations such as the Outdoor Recreation League of New York City and the National Playground Association took the lead in establishing the first public recreation areas on public park land. New York City parks were the first to incorporate the first generation of modern playground equipment, with Seward Park in 1903 accounting for the first American playground built by a city government. The Manhattan park's design, complete with slides, seesaws and other now familiar amenities, serves as a flagship model for ...

Durable equipment is the most important thing to consider when designing and putting together a playground, whether it’s for a backyard or a large municipal park. Lesser quality slides, swing sets and any other contraptions tempt with lower costs, but why risk the safety risks and very possible mechanical breakdowns that are all too common? Here are some recommendations for properly designed playground structures that will last and prove to be a wise long-term investment: Residential: Small wooden structures Day Care: Small structures made entirely of plastic Churches or Small Schools: 3.5-inch extruded steel posts, lighter gauge side panels, or more substantial wooden structures Public Use - Small Towns: Smaller size play units using 5-inch extruded steel posts, or more substantial sized play units using 3.5-inch extruded steel posts Public Use - Urban Areas: 5-inch extruded steel post, or 5-inch pipe, heavier gauge side panels Since heavy use will really put playg...

Safety and design experts had a lot to say about the latest generation of playground equipment at a recent National Recreation and Parks (NRPA) trade show in Salt Lake City. A common observation was that manufacturers not only are cutting back by using cheaper materials, but they also are reducing the overall size of products such as slides and climbing structures. This is being done simply to reduce overhead costs, instead of providing playgrounds with the best possible products. The unfortunate end result here is a less exciting and enjoyable playground experience for today’s generation of youngsters, who as it is spend far too much time indoors in front of screens within walking distance of the refrigerator. With the considerable rise in childhood obesity and health problems compared to generations past, playground activities and equipment should be as fun as appealing ever, not scaled down and cut back. Sure, today’s playground gear may be softer and significantly safer, but c...