The Risks of Riskless Play

Shortly after my son Will began to walk he started taking short trail runs with me. Trails in our area are hilly, with lots of rocks and tree roots. There is an endless supply of tripping hazards and no shortage of things to scrape a knee or elbow, twist an ankle, or even possibly bang one’s head. When I first started running trails, I sometimes emerged from the woods with a bloody knee or hand or a sore ankle.

When Will started running with me, he wasn’t immune to the hazards of trail running. He would trip on roots and rocks. He would sometimes take a nosedive when he ran to fast down a steep hill. There were more than a few scraped knees and forearms and plenty of running pants that acquired holes in the knees. There were a few bouts of crying after a good fall.

But before long Will was a very capable trail runner, even on difficult and technical terrain. When we came to a steep hill to descend, he would remind ME to “take small steps, and control my speed.” He taught his younger brother, Lucas, how to navigate rocky and rooty trails without tripping. Today, both of my guys are mountain goats on the trails. At ages 6 and 9 years old, they are fast, competent, and confident runners and climbers.

Sadly, too few kids today get the chance to develop the kind of physical competence and confidence that Will and Lucas have because we are engineering the risk (and fun) out of play and our playgrounds. Slides and swings are getting much shorter. Merry-go-rounds, teetertotters, and spring riders are disappearing. The de-risking of play is robbing kids of the opportunity to become capable climbers, jumpers, and runners. It is depriving our kids of the experiences necessary to become proficient assessors and evaluators of physical risks in natural and constructed environments.

There is some promising news, however. Lenore Skenazy, founder of the Free-Range Kids movement, reports in Reason Magazine that insurance companies in Germany are now encouraging playgrounds to reintroduce risk,

Germany is adding greater risk to its playgrounds. Some of its climbing structures are now three stories high. And who is requesting this?

Insurance companies. They want kids to grow up "risk competent." Ironically, "safety" culture is stunting kids' risk assessing abilities, in their estimation.

The idea for letting kids develop some basic climbing competency has grown in popularity in Germany. An influential 2004 study had found that "children who had improved their motor skills in playgrounds at an early age were less likely to suffer accidents as they got older," according to The Guardian.

Let’s hope that this new attitude towards risks for kids crosses the Atlantic. Sadly, I doubt that in our litigious society it will. The grand old pipe swing at the beach at our local park was replaced last summer with a new swing that is about half its size and about a quarter of the fun. At the beginning of this academic year, the Gaga Pit at the boys’ elementary school was ruled off limits to all kids until the spring of next year after a couple kids got into a minor shoving match during a game. We recently learned in an email from the principal that the playground at their elementary school is slated for replacement. I will be shocked if the monkey bars and larger swings and slides are part of the new playground equipment.

At the Craft of Play, we are committed to designing and building playscapes and play equipment that encourage kids to take risks and challenge themselves. We believe that the only way for kids to become competent and confident and prudent risk assessors is to create the conditions for them to take some real risks.