Tag Archives: Playground Safety

S.A.F.E. Supervision

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2013

NPPS strongly urges parents and adults to take an active role in playground supervision. Adults should always be present when children are playing at a local park, a school playground, child care center, or on the equipment in your backyard.Supervision is a critical component to the safety of children. Supervision can assist in ensuring safety and preventing injuries. Play areas need to be designed so that supervisors can see all areas. NPPS recommends that supervisors follow theABCs™ of Supervision. Supervisors need toAnticipate preventable problems and hazardous situations. Adult Behavior means being alert and attentive. Despite the type or Context of the play area, whenever children are on the playground, adults should be present.NPPS has a resource kit to help schools and early childhood centers develop a supervision plan. The Supervision Kit includes a manual design to help you develop your supervision plan, a SAFE Supervision training video, and a fanny pack.

Source: National Program for Playground Safety

Available at: http://www.playgroundsafety.org/safe/supervision?utm_source=SECA+Members&utm_campaign=c30fb8b328-April_2013_member_email4_3_2013&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_58af74a8d5-c30fb8b328-53237277

Online Technical Assistance and Training for Play Area Accessibility

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Welcome to the Online Training on the Play Area Accessibility Guidelines.

This online training is brought to you by the United States Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board (Access Board) to provide training for designers and operators in using the accessibility guidelines for play areas. Additionally, this training can be a resource for parents, teachers, and others interested in play area accessibility.

Source: U.S. Access Board

Available at: http://www.access-board.gov/play/course/section1/1-1.htm

Head Start Body Start Intervention Has Increased Physical Activity Levels For More Than 28,000 Children

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11/9/11

More than 1,500 grants to improve Head Start centers’ outdoor play spaces and educate staff, children and their families about the value of physical activity and playing outdoors, have led to a dramatic increase in the outdoor activity levels of more than 28,000 preschool children over the past three years, say officials from Head Start Body Start National Center for Physical Development and Outdoor Play (HSBS), an initiative of the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (AAHPERD). Outdoor play helps young children to connect with the natural world, while tapping into many health benefits, including increased moderate to vigorous activity, vitamin D exposure, increased immunity and better sleep as well as playing more creatively.

In a report summarizing the initiative’s first three years of operation, HSBS officials announced that some 28,310 children at 1,547 Head Start centers around the country benefited from having new playground equipment or enhanced outdoor play spaces as a result of the HSBS grants.  And upwards of 75 percent of the parents of those children and staff members reported that the grants increased the amount of time that the children spent playing outdoors. Overall, HSBS found that physical activity among children at the centers increased by 17 percent.

Source: Head Start Body Start

Available at: http://www.aahperd.org/headstartbodystart/news/pressReleases/head-start-body-start-intervention-has-increased-physical-activity-levels-for-more-than-twenty-eight-thousand-children.cfm

Can a Playground Be Too Safe?

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7/18/11

When seesaws and tall slides and other perils were disappearing from New York’s playgrounds, Henry Stern drew a line in the sandbox. As the city’s parks commissioner in the 1990s, he issued an edict concerning the 10-foot-high jungle gym near his childhood home in northern Manhattan.

“I grew up on the monkey bars in Fort Tryon Park, and I never forgot how good it felt to get to the top of them,” Mr. Stern said. “I didn’t want to see that playground bowdlerized. I said that as long as I was parks commissioner, those monkey bars were going to stay.”

Source: New York Times

Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/19/science/19tierney.html?ref=education