With the increase of urban living and the loss of children's natural play spaces, there is a rising concern as to where children play. As parks, public and private schools, and even churches invest in playgrounds for children, there seems to be an ever-increasing design of cookie-cutter playgrounds pulled directly from playground catalogues with no concept of child development or how children play.

The combinations of stairs, ladder, slide, tic-tac-toe panel, and driving panel show that most playgrounds are pulled from an adult's perspective of how children should play.

Why is developmental design so important?

Do children really care what is on a playground anyway? It is not that children consciously evaluate a playground when they play on it, but it is the novelty, complexity, challenge, and affordance that not only draws children to play, but keeps them engaged again and again.

Children are compelled to play regardless of their environment, whether it supports play or not, and children will adapt their environment to accomplish their internal motivation to play.

It is speculated that during early childhood, exercise and play provide vital sensory and physiological stimulation, resulting in increased nerve connection. Experience is thought to be the chief architect of the brain.

The first rule in designing playgrounds for children is to take off your adult head and instead put on the head of a child. You know, the one you had one when you played in the mud, climbed that oak tree, and saw the world from an entirely different perspective, or when you climbed the boulders around the wooden creek bed.

Playgrounds should be designed to mimic experiences in nature that may not be possible for children in urban areas. 

Here are some good rules for designing developmental playgrounds.

Add multiple climbers that allow children to gradually challenge their motor development skills, as well as the ability to master various climbing positions. Provide various heights and views so that children can experience height and different perspectives of the play area.

Provide play panels that challenge them in various ways, such as musical instruments and moving gear or marble panels. 

Slides should be placed at different heights and with different inclines, offering children the feeling of butterflies in the stomach when they slide down the chute.

Place play events throughout the play environment that engage their vestibular system, such as swings, whirls, and rockers.

When looking at the overall aesthetic design of the play environment, some believe that you should stay away from all-themed playgrounds. These can sometimes force children to play only one way, rather than allowing them the ability to create and imagine various scenarios on their own. When children are allowed the opportunity to create, they use areas of their brain linked to creativity and problem solving.

When deciding on the type of surfacing materials under the playground, try to think of more developmental issues than just overall maintenance and upkeep. Offer children different tactile experiences and building materials they can use to create.

Unitary surfacing, such as pour-in-place rubber and rubber tiles, allow children of all abilities access to the playground. Sand strategically placed out of the route of travel allows children to dig, explore, and build.

Keep as much of the surrounding landscape as possible, including trees, shrubs, and flowers. These natural materials allow children to enhance play episodes with small loose parts, such as sticks, pebbles, and leaves.

Safety should always be a prevalent factor in playground design, but it does not have to be the only factor. Playgrounds can offer challenges and risks without hazards.

Children that are able to challenge themselves and master their internal skills are better prepared as adults to handle challenging problems and obstacles.

The better developmental designed a playground is the more it will attract children to it and continue to attract them back to it. After all, we aren't designing playgrounds for adults; we are designing playgrounds for the final use: children!

JC Boushh is a recognized expert in the field of child development, playground safety, play environment design, and early childhood brain development. He is the head designer for Design for Play, and serves as a project manager and play consultant specializing in designing for children's developmental needs through play.

Product Roundup

NEOS 360 from Playworld Systems
A version of the classic NEOS game, NEOS 360 will add excitement to electronic gaming in outdoor play spaces while improving agility, balance, fitness, and social skills. With a new circular design, NEOS 360 will have kids spinning, dashing, and moving up and down to enhance the competitive and challenging tasks of each game. Interactive sound and buttons make the NEOS 360 exhilarating and fun, while offering eight games with player options.
www.playworldsystems.com

Playground Grass by ForeverLawn
Meet the new generation of playground surfaces. Playground Grass by ForeverLawn is lush, beautiful synthetic grass that is safe for kids to play on, soft to fall on, and cost-effective. This playground surface is ASTM 1292 safety rated to fall heights of 12 feet, is ADA accessible, and has antimicrobial protection available for a cleaner, safer environment. No more complaints about dirt on the kids and their clothes. No more abrasive sand tracked into the facility. No more raking of mulch, sand or rubber to maintain your safety rating. 
www.playgroundgrass.com

Detailed Play PRO
Detailed Play PRO offers a complete line of playground equipment play structures for schools, including plastic play structures, early childhood play structures, and larger metal play systems. These world-class units have punched steel decks and stairs with PVC finish, galvanized 3.5" diameter steel tubing with powder-coated finish in your choice of color and rotationally molded plastic slides, hoods, roofs, and polyethylene wall panels, all in your choice of color. The products are designed for constant use by children ages 2-12.
www.detailedplaypro.com

Play On! from GameTime
The purpose of Play On! is to help  use playgrounds to promote physical activity, develop wellness habits, and meet national standards for physical fitness – all in the context of fun. GameTime is committed to developing healthy habits in America's youth because they know the most reliable way to become a healthy adult is to be an active and healthy child. The program captures the expertise of many, reflects current thinking and practice, and represents a comprehensive list of playground activities for children available. 
www.gametime.com

BigToys
BigToys builds innovative, earth-friendly commercial play structures that provide children and communities with safe, positive, developmentally appropriate, and fun play experiences. BigToys is leading a green transformation of the commercial playground industry by delivering accessible, earth-friendly, PVC and phthalate-free structures crafted from recycled steel and plastic or sustainably harvested wood. BigToys defines green with a cradle-to-cradle promise: they divert source material from landfills, recycle nearly all of their manufacturing waste, and take back structures when they finally reach the end of their long life.
www.bigtoys.com

Kids Hoops from Future Pro
Unique fun for the young! Future Pro offers the Kids Hoops game to help youngsters develop hand-to-eye coordination, encourage interactive play, and practice counting skills. Give children instruction or let the kids create their own games with the four numbered exit holes. Basket is sturdy, all-weather, one-piece molded polyethylene on a galvanized mounting pole. Future Pro also offers an indoor version on a portable base with interchangeable game accessories.
www.futureproinc.com

Prime Play's PlayActive
Prime Play PlayActive obstacle play systems are designed for the health industry to promote an active lifestyle for children. Each system allows adults to participate with children to establish a healthy and active lifestyle in early childhood. Participants are entertained for hours as they make their way though hundreds of interactive play features, including horizontal rollers, bumper blasts, tube crawls, and climbing walls. Each PlayActive system includes interior activity descriptions showing participants which areas of the body they are exercising and scale of difficulty.
www.primeplay.com

VeggieTales Fun Center 101 from Wow Playgrounds
Just released is the new VeggieTales Fun Center 101, a unique and wonderfully playful themed playground from WOW Playgrounds, focused on children ages 2-6, with lots of slides, climbing decks, imaginative play panels, and more than 20 play events to keep the kids coming back again and again with challenges and good healthy recreation and fun play. Priced very competitively, the unit assembles in just a few hours and will provide endless enjoyment and play from the lessons learned in the classroom brought out to the playground – and with close interplay with the VeggieTales characters.
www.wowplaygrounds.com

EcoPlay Playgrounds from Safeplay Systems
Safeplay Systems custom designs, manufactures and sells play structures made from recycled post-consumer HDPE plastic – milk jugs. A single EcoPlay Playground keeps an average of 30,000 milk jugs out of landfill. EcoPlay Playgrounds exemplify a philosophy of "sustainable design for healthy living." Not only are the play structures made of recycled material, they also can be re-recycled (sustainable design) and do not contain PVC, fiberglass, or toxins of any kind. EcoPlay Playground structures require minimum maintenance, are impermeable to water, cannot be eaten by insects, never need painting or sealing, and won't splinter, crack, rust, swell or degrade in any way.
www.safeplaysystems.com