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65-496: Playscapes may or may not incorporate traditional playground equipment like swings, slides, and climbers. When they do so, they may incorporate slides or climbers in a more cohesive way than typical playgrounds do—often into embankments. Playscapes may also offer a wide range of open-ended play options that allow people to be creative and use their imagination including sand or earth to sculpt and blocks or other materials to build with. The term playscape can function at similar scales as

130-408: A baseball diamond , a skating arena, a basketball court , or a tether ball . Public playground equipment installed in the play areas of parks , schools , childcare facilities, institutions, multiple family dwellings, restaurants, resorts, and recreational developments, and other areas of public use. A type of playground called a playscape is designed to provide a safe environment for play in

195-405: A native species is indigenous to a given region or ecosystem if its presence in that region is the result of only local natural evolution (though often popularised as "with no human intervention") during history . The term is equivalent to the concept of indigenous or autochthonous species. A wild organism (as opposed to a domesticated organism) is known as an introduced species within

260-501: A Standardized Document and Training System for certification of Playground Safety Inspectors. These regulations are nationwide and provide a basis for safe playground installation and maintenance practices. ASTM F1487-07 deals with specific requirements regarding issues such as play ground layout, use zones, and various test criteria for determining play ground safety. ASTM F2373 covers public use play equipment for children 6–24 months old. This information can be applied effectively only by

325-426: A central play structure with monkey bars. Playscapes have much lower injury rates than standard playgrounds. Playscapes have a fraction of the number of child injuries compared to standard playgrounds with play structures. The most frequent injury to children on playgrounds is a fracture of the upper limb resulting from falls from climbing apparatuses. The second most common cause of injury to children on playgrounds

390-423: A child's creativity and imagination with role play panels or puzzles. There is a general consensus that physical activity reduces the risk of psychological problems in children and fosters their self-esteem. The American Chief Medical Officer's report ( Department of Health , 2004), stated that a review of available research suggests that the health benefits of physical activity in children are predominantly seen in

455-407: A continued mutualistic interaction with a certain animal pollinator , and the pollinating animal may also be dependent on that plant species for a food source. Many species have adapted to very limited, unusual, or harsh conditions, such as cold climates or frequent wildfires . Others can live in diverse areas or adapt well to different surroundings. The diversity of species across many parts of

520-472: A creative and interactive way for child play and exploration. Nature playscapes are created for the enhancement of a child's curiosity, imagination, wonder, discovery, to nurture a child's connectedness and affinity for the world around them. Using native plants , rolling hills, and many trees, these playscapes may represent a natural place such as a forest. Playscapes are designed with the intent of bringing people back to nature. (See Richard Louv's Last Child in

585-501: A minimal steel framework while providing a web of nylon ropes for children to climb on. Playgrounds with equipment that children may fall off often use rubber mulch on the ground to help cushion the impact. Playgrounds are also made differently for different age groups. Often schools have a playground that is taller and more advanced for older schoolchildren and a lower playground with less risk of falling for younger children. Safety discussions do not normally include an evaluation of

650-422: A native ecological system disturbed by economic development or other events, they may be historically inaccurate, incomplete, or pay little or no attention to ecotype accuracy or type conversions. They may fail to restore the original ecological system by overlooking the basics of remediation. Attention paid to the historical distribution of native species is a crucial first step to ensure the ecological integrity of

715-434: A natural setting. Through history, children played in their villages and neighbourhoods, especially in the streets and lanes near their homes. In the 19th century, developmental psychologists such as Friedrich Fröbel proposed playgrounds as a developmental aid, or to imbue children with a sense of fair play and good manners. In Germany, a few playgrounds were erected in connection to schools. Thomas Carlyle called for

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780-414: A particular place. A native species may occur in areas other than the one under consideration. The terms endemic and native also do not imply that an organism necessarily first originated or evolved where it is currently found. Native species form communities and biological interactions with other specific flora, fauna, fungi, and other organisms. For example, some plant species can only reproduce with

845-561: A physical hierarchy, thus reducing bullying and competition based on physical strength and ability. Playscapes are not limited to public parks and schools. Select hospitals in Sweden and North America have playscapes on their facility. Hospitals use playscapes for horticultural therapy, which has proven to increase emotional, cognitive, and motor improvements and increased social participation, quality of life and well-being. Since 2006 Landscape Architects Adam White and Andrée Davies have pioneered

910-485: A precarious, high position. By contrast, the child on a low piece of equipment, designed to reduce the incidence of injuries from falls, experiences no such thrill, sense of mastery, or accomplishment. Additionally, a lack of experience with heights as a child is associated with increased acrophobia (fear of heights) in adults. The appearance of safety encourages unreasonable risk-taking in children, who might take more reasonable risks if they correctly understood that it

975-410: A result of what some experts say is overprotectiveness driven by a fear of lawsuits, playgrounds have been designed to be, or at least to appear, excessively safe. This overprotectiveness may protect the playground owner from lawsuits, but it appears to result in a decreased sense of achievement and increased fears in children. The equipment limitations result in the children receiving less value from

1040-497: A slightly higher percentage of injuries (55%) than were boys (45%). Injuries to the head and face accounted for 49% of injuries to children 0–4, while injuries to the arm and hand accounted for 49% of injuries to children ages 5–14. Approximately 15% of the injuries were classified as severe, with 3% requiring hospitalization. The most prevalent diagnoses were fractures (39%), lacerations (22%), contusions/abrasions (20%), strains/sprains (11%). For children ages 0–4, climbers (40%) had

1105-614: A trained C.P.S.I. A National Listing of Trained Playground Safety Inspectors is available for many states. A Certified Playground Safety Inspector (CPSI) is a career that was developed by the National Playground Safety Institute (NPSI) and is recognized nationally by the National Recreation and Park Association or N.R.P.A. (Some information sources offer interactive examples of playground equipment that violates CPSC guidelines.) In Australia, Standards Australia

1170-452: A wooded area or field. For many children, it is their favorite time of day when they get to be on the playground for free time or recess. It acts as a release for them from the pressures of learning during the day. They know that time on the playground is their own time. A type of playground called a playscape can provide children with the necessary feeling of ownership that Moore describes above. Playscapes can also provide parents with

1235-889: Is a place designed to provide an environment for children that facilitates play , typically outdoors. While a playground is usually designed for children, some are designed for other age groups, or people with disabilities. A playground might exclude children below (or above) a certain age. Modern playgrounds often have recreational equipment such as the seesaw , merry-go-round , swingset , slide , jungle gym , chin-up bars , sandbox , spring rider , trapeze rings, playhouses , and mazes , many of which help children develop physical coordination, strength, and flexibility, as well as providing recreation and enjoyment and supporting social and emotional development. Common in modern playgrounds are play structures that link many different pieces of equipment. Playgrounds often also have facilities for playing informal games of adult sports , such as

1300-469: Is falls from slides. Fall heights are the largest safety issue for most safety inspectors. Playscapes combat the issue of fall heights by using topography changes for children to climb and experience changes in height. Companies in Canada have made strides in reducing fall height by using topography as a main feature in their designs. Topography changes allow designers to be creative when placing components in

1365-425: Is much slower than human-caused climate change ) changes sea level, ice cover, temperature, and rainfall, driving direct changes in habitability and indirect changes through the presence of predators, competitors, food sources, and even oxygen levels . Species do naturally appear, reproduce, and endure, or become extinct, and their distribution is rarely static or confined to a particular geographic location. Moreover,

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1430-455: Is possible to break a bone on the soft surfaces under most modern equipment. Finally, the playground that is designed to appear low-risk is boring, especially to older children. As a result, they tend to seek out alternative play areas, which may be very unsafe. Risk management is an important life skill, and risk aversion in playgrounds is unhelpful in the long term. Experts studying child development such as Tim Gill have written about

1495-471: Is responsible for the publication of the playground safety Standards AS/NS4422, AS/NZS4486.1 and AS4685 Parts 1 to 6. The University of Technology Sydney is responsible for the training and accreditation of playground inspectors. The Register of Playground Inspectors Australia lists all the individuals who have been certified to inspector playgrounds within Australia . European Standards EN 1177 specifies

1560-450: Is used equally by boys and girls. Professionals recognize that the social skills that children develop on the playground often become lifelong skill sets that are carried forward into their adulthood. Independent research concludes that playgrounds are among the most important environments for children outside the home. Most forms of play are essential for healthy development, but free, spontaneous play—the kind that occurs on playgrounds—is

1625-562: The Society for Ecological Restoration , native plant societies, Wild Ones , and Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center encourage the use of native plants. The identification of local remnant natural areas provides a basis for this work. Many books have been written on the subject of planting native plants in home gardens. The use of cultivars derived from native species is a widely disputed practice among native plant advocates. When ecological restoration projects are undertaken to restore

1690-435: The carousel , sphere, seesaw , rocket, bridge, etc. Playground design is influenced by the intended purpose and audience. Separate play areas might be offered to accommodate very young children. Single, large, open parks tend to not to be used by older schoolgirls or less aggressive children, because there is little opportunity for them to escape more aggressive children. By contrast, a park that offers multiple play areas

1755-557: The child savers sought to move children into controlled areas to limit 'delinquency'. Meanwhile, at schools and settlement houses for poorer children with limited access to education, health services and daycare, playgrounds were included to support these institutions' goal of keeping children safe and out of trouble. One of the first playgrounds in the United States was built in San Francisco 's Golden Gate Park in 1887. In 1906

1820-423: The unintended consequences of injury prevention, such as older children who do not exercise at the playground because the playground is too boring. Safety efforts sometimes paradoxically increase the likelihood and severity of injuries because of how people choose to use playground equipment. For example, older children may choose to climb on the outside of a "safe" but boring play structure, rather than using it

1885-520: The 1901 publication of a report on numbers of children being run down by cars in New York City. In tandem with the new concern about the danger of roads, educational theories of play, including by Herbert Spencer and John Dewey inspired the emergence of the reformist playground movement , which argued that playgrounds had educational value, improved attention in class, enhanced physical health, and reduced truancy. Interventionist programs such as by

1950-486: The Community Construction Fund, a flagship programme by Norfolk County Council. Safety, in the context of playgrounds, is generally understood as the prevention of injuries. Risk aversion and fear of lawsuits on the part of the adults who design playgrounds prioritizes injury prevention above other factors, such as cost or developmental benefit to the users. It is important that children gradually develop

2015-632: The Playground Association of America was founded and a year later Luther Gulick became president. It later became the National Recreation Association and then the National Recreation and Park Association . Urging the need for playgrounds, former President Theodore Roosevelt stated in 1907: In post war London the landscape architect and children's rights campaigner Lady Allen of Hurtwood introduced and popularised

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2080-500: The US National Wildlife Federation. This user-friendly text is a resource for stakeholders wanting to both view and consider elements to include in a playscape design. Many other books are available that serve as guides for playscape creation, too. The technological age has changed the ways in which children play. It is therefore up to parents, communities and schools to re-introduce to children what it means to play in

2145-534: The United States, emergency departments treat more than 200,000 children ages 14 and younger for playground-related injuries. Approximately 156,040 (75.8%) of the 1999 injuries occurred on equipment designed for public use; 46,930 (22.8%) occurred on equipment designed for home use; and 2,880 (1.4%) occurred on homemade playground equipment (primarily rope swings). From January 1990 to August 2000, CPSC received reports of 147 deaths to children younger than 15 that involved playground equipment. Girls were involved in

2210-471: The Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder , 2005). North Carolina State University Landscape Design professor, Robin C. Moore, has been designing and studying both nature playgrounds and urban playscapes for many years. His 2014 book, Nature Play and Learning Places: Creating and Managing Places Where Children Engage with Nature , was written in collaboration with Alan Cooper of

2275-400: The amelioration of risk factors for disease, avoidance of weight gain, achieving a peak bone mass and mental well-being. Exercise programmes "may have short term beneficial effects on self esteem in children and adolescents" although high-quality trials are lacking. Commentators argue that the quality of a child's exercise experience can affect their self-esteem. Ajzen TPB (1991) promotes

2340-579: The assurance of their child's safety and wellbeing, which may not be prevalent in an open field or wooded area. In the UK, several organisations exist that help provide funding for schools and local authorities to construct playgrounds. These include the Biffa Award, which provides funding under the Small Grants Scheme; Funding Central, which offers support for voluntary organisations and social enterprises; and

2405-858: The award for the 'UK's Best Play Space' at the Horticultural Week Awards and were shortlisted for December's BALI Construction Awards and the UK Landscape Architects Design Awards. In 2007 and they were reported as ‘ahead of the game’ in their profession by the Sunday Telegraph, and in June 2009 they were profiled in The Times for their recently completed Lyric Theatre Roof Terrace Garden in Hammersmith, London. Nature playgrounds use natural landscapes, natural vegetation, and materials in

2470-515: The concept of the ’junk playground’ - where the equipment was constructed from the recycled junk and rubble left over from the Blitz . She campaigned for facilities for children growing up in the new high-rise developments in Britain's cities and wrote a series of illustrated books on the subject of playgrounds, and at least one book on adventure playgrounds, spaces for free creativity by children, which helped

2535-491: The distinction between native and non-native as being tied to a local occurrence during historical times has been criticised as lacking perspective, and a case was made for more graded categorisations such as that of prehistoric natives , which occurred in a region during prehistory but have since suffered local extinction there due to human involvement. A native species in a location is not necessarily also endemic to that location. Endemic species are exclusively found in

2600-466: The establishment of public playgrounds within industrial cities such as Manchester , England, in Past and Present (1843), saying that "every toiling Manchester" ought to have "a hundred acres or so of free greenfield, with trees on it, conquered, for its little children to disport in". Manchester became the site of the first purpose-built public-access playground, which opened in a park in 1859. However, it

2665-436: The growth and development of children both mentally and physically. Cognitive development , focus, attention span and social skills are all improved. Playscapes are not intimidating regardless of ability or fitness level. Playscapes have no central location, or prescribed area of play. They are open-ended spaces that entice children to use their imagination and creativity. Playscapes do not prescribe in an area that encourages

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2730-910: The highest incidence rates, followed by slides (33%). For children ages 5–14, climbing equipment (56%) had the highest incidence rates, followed by swings (24%). Most injuries on public playground equipment were associated with climbing equipment (53%), swings (19%), and slides (17%). Falls to the surface was a contributing factor in 79% of all injuries. On home equipment, 81% were associated with falls. In 1995, playground-related injuries among children ages 14 and younger cost an estimated $ 1.2 billion. On public playgrounds, more injuries occur on climbers than on any other equipment. On home playgrounds, swings are responsible for most injuries. Playgrounds in low-income areas have more maintenance-related hazards than playgrounds in high-income areas. For example, playgrounds in low-income areas had significantly more trash, rusty play equipment, and damaged fall surfaces. As

2795-466: The idea spread worldwide. Playgrounds were an integral part of urban culture in the USSR . In the 1970s and 1980s, there were playgrounds in almost every park in many Soviet cities. Playground apparatus was reasonably standard all over the country; most of them consisted of metallic bars with relatively few wooden parts, and were manufactured in state-owned factories. Some of the most common constructions were

2860-557: The main concern when building with wood material. Wet weather is also a threat to children playing on wooden structures. Most woods are treated and do not wear terribly fast, but with enough rain, wooden playgrounds can become slippery and dangerous for children to be on. In the United States, the Consumer Product Safety Commission and the American National Standards Institute have created

2925-419: The most beneficial type of play. Exciting, engaging and challenging playground equipment is important to keep children happy while still developing their learning abilities. These should be developed in order to suit different groups of children for different stages of learning, such as specialist playground equipment for nursery & pre-school children teaching them basic numeracy & vocabulary, to building

2990-416: The notion that children's self-esteem is enhanced through the encouragement of physical mastery and self-development. It can be seen that playgrounds provide an ideal opportunity for children to master physical skills, such as learning to swing, balance and climb. Personal development may be gained through the enhancement of skills, such as playing, communicating and cooperating with other children and adults in

3055-660: The outdoors. Play components may include earth shapes (sculptures), environmental art, indigenous vegetation (trees, shrubs, grasses, flowers, lichens, mosses), boulders or other rock structures, dirt and sand, natural fences (stone, willow, wooden), textured pathways, and natural water features. Moore, R.C. (2014). Nature play and learning places: Creating and managing places where children engage with nature. (With A. Cooper) Raleigh, NC: Natural Learning Initiative and Reston, VA: National Wildlife Federation. Frost, J.L. (1992). Play and playscapes. Clifton Park, NY: Delmar. Playground A playground , playpark , or play area

3120-436: The over-protective bias in provision for children, particularly with playgrounds. Instead of a constructed playground, allowing children to play in a natural environment such as open land or a park is sometimes recommended; children gain a better sense of balance playing on uneven ground, and learn to interpret the complexity and signals of nature more effectively. Playgrounds can be: Native plant In biogeography ,

3185-399: The play time. The enclosed, padded, constrained, low structures prevent the child from taking risks and developing a sense of mastery over his or her environment. Successfully taking a risk is empowering to children. For example, a child climbing to the top of a tall jungle gym feels happy about successfully managing the challenging climb to the top, and he experiences the thrill of being in

3250-773: The playground. It can also be seen that public and private playgrounds act as a preventative health measure amongst young people because they promote physical activity at a stage in children's lives when they are active and not yet at risk from opting out of physical activity. Children have devised many playground games and pastimes. But because playgrounds are usually subject to adult supervision and oversight, young children's street culture often struggles to fully thrive there. Research by Robin Moore concluded shown that playgrounds need to be balanced with marginal areas that (to adults) appear to be derelict or wasteground but to children they are areas that they can claim for themselves, ideally

3315-404: The playscape approach to play space design in the UK. They have won a number of design and community engagement awards each year for their work; these have included: RHS Gold Medal and BBC Peoples Choice Award, Landscape Institute Communication & Presentation Award, Horticultural Weekly Award and Children and Young Peoples Services Award for genuine community design engagement. In 2009 they won

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3380-571: The playscape. Playscapes offer a wide range of benefits such as increasing physical activity, fine and gross motor skills & cognitive development. They are also used in horticultural therapy for rehabilitation of mental and/or physical ailment. They increase participation rates and decrease absenteeism , decrease bullying , decrease injury rates, increase focus and attention span and help with social skills in schools. Playscapes have shown to increase children's level of physical activity, and motor ability. Playscapes are found to be very beneficial in

3445-509: The post-installation inspections recommended by EN 1176. Because the majority of playground injuries are due to falls from equipment, injury prevention efforts are primarily directed at reducing the likelihood of a child falling and reducing the likelihood of a severe injury if the child does fall. This is done by: How effective these strategies are at preventing injuries is debated by experts, because when playgrounds are made from padded materials, children often take more risks. Each year in

3510-698: The project. For example, to prevent erosion of the recontoured sand dunes at the western edge of the Los Angeles International Airport in 1975, landscapers stabilized the backdunes with a "natural" seed mix (Mattoni 1989a). Unfortunately, the seed mix was representative of coastal sage scrub , an exogenous plant community, instead of the native dune scrub community. As a result, the El Segundo blue butterfly (Euphilotes battoides allyni) became an endangered species. The El Segundo blue butterfly population, which had once extended over 3200 acres along

3575-496: The regions where it was anthropogenically introduced. If an introduced species causes substantial ecological, environmental, and/or economic damage, it may be regarded more specifically as an invasive species . The notion of nativity is often a blurred concept, as it is a function of both time and political boundaries. Over long periods of time, local conditions and migratory patterns are constantly changing as tectonic plates move, join, and split. Natural climate change (which

3640-463: The requirements for surfaces used in playgrounds. For each material type and height of equipment it specifies a minimum depth of material required. EN 1176 covers playground equipment standards. In the UK, playground inspectors can sit the examinations of the Register of Play Inspectors International at the three required levels - routine, operational and annual. Annual inspectors are able to undertake

3705-429: The skill of risk assessment , and a completely safe environment does not allow that. Sometimes the safety of playgrounds is disputed in school or among regulators. Over at least the last twenty years, the kinds of equipment to be found in playgrounds has changed, often towards safer equipment built with plastic. For example, an older jungle gym might be constructed entirely from steel bars, while newer ones tend to have

3770-411: The slide independently, then this injury would not happen, because when the shoe caught, the child would have stopped sliding rather than being propelled down the slide by the adult's weight. Also concerning the safety of playgrounds is the material in which they are built. Wooden playgrounds act as a more natural environment for the children to play but can cause even more minor injuries. Slivers are

3835-440: The term playground —describing an entire play area or a large part of the play area designated for a certain age group. It may also be applied at a larger scale to describe play landscapes that are organised in non-traditional ways (e.g. along greenways). Playscapes may be defined by clear boundaries or through their shaping of the landscape to encourage play and interaction. Landscape architects and designers are increasingly using

3900-620: The term playscape to refer to a play landscape his firm Eckbo, Dean Austin Landscape Architects designed for the Longwood urban renewal project in Cleveland, Ohio: “The central play park became a playscape: a bowl of contoured grassy mounds and hollows, bordered with sheltering specimen trees, and incorporating a little grove of steel poplars, a family of concrete turtles, a fantastic village, contoured sand pit, saddle slide, jumping platform, and

3965-591: The term to refer to areas of cities that encourage interaction and enjoyment for all ages. The term was probably first used in the mid-twentieth century. It is possibly first attributable to the National Institute for Architectural Education in 1957. The landscape architect Garrett Eckbo was among those who used the term playscape to describe his work. In a Spring 1960 article in Landscape Architecture (now Landscape Architecture Magazine), Eckbo used

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4030-560: The terraced tile wading pool developed around William McVey’s abstract sculpture…” The term was associated in the 1960s with the New York-based Playground Corporation of America. It is mentioned by Joe Frost in his 1992 book, Play and Playscapes , referring to attempts to replace or add on to the rubberized surface, metal and plastic of traditional playgrounds. Playscapes are designed to eliminate fall heights. Playscapes have rolling hills and fallen logs rather than

4095-421: The way the designers intended. Similarly, rather than letting young children play on playground slides by themselves, some injury-averse parents seat the children on the adult's lap and go down the slide together. This seems safer at first glance, but if the child's shoe catches on the edge of the slide, this arrangement frequently results in the child's leg being broken. If the child had been permitted to use

4160-1040: The world exists only because bioregions are separated by barriers, particularly large rivers , seas , oceans , mountains , and deserts . Humans can introduce species that have never met in their evolutionary history, on varying time scales ranging from days to decades (Long, 1981; Vermeij, 1991). Humans are moving species across the globe at an unprecedented rate. Those working to address invasive species view this as an increased risk to native species. As humans introduce species to new locations for cultivation, or transport them by accident, some of them may become invasive species, damaging native communities. Invasive species can have profound effects on ecosystems by changing ecosystem structure, function, species abundance , and community composition. Besides ecological damage, these species can also damage agriculture, infrastructure, and cultural assets. Government agencies and environmental groups are directing increasing resources to addressing these species. Native plant organizations such as

4225-659: Was only in the early 20th century, as the street lost its role as the default public space and became planned for use by motor cars, that momentum built to remove children from the new dangers and confine them to segregated areas to play. In the United States, organisations such as the National Highway Protective Society highlighted the numbers killed by automobiles, and urged the creation of playgrounds, aiming to free streets for vehicles rather than children's play. The Outdoor Recreation League provided funds to erect playgrounds on parkland, especially following

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