Ever wonder why people have fears of height? People have been pondering this question for who knows how long, maybe since man was able to climb. The author John Tierney has a genuine way of looking at it. He even has an article about it called “Can a Playground Be Too Safe?” It explains that it has been scientifically proven that children who take healthy risks early in life are not as fearful as those who don't.Lake Stevens should build a risky playground because children can overcome fears.
According to Mr. Tierney, people can overcome or head off fears before they start in the playground. For example “While some psychologists — and many parents — have worried that a child who suffered a bad fall would develop a fear of heights, studies
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In addition “Children need to encounter risks and overcome fears on the playground,” said Ellen Sandseter, a professor of psychology at Queen Maud University in Norway. “I think monkey bars and tall slides are great. As playgrounds become more and more boring, these are some of the few features that still can give children thrilling experiences with heights and high speed.” (Tierney 1) This illustrates that children need to be entertained and that parks with healthy risk can be beneficial to the kids. Why imagine you are high or going fast down a slide when you …show more content…
People who say “Rockwell’s playground is still an adventure playground—a construction site with all the splintery edges sanded down. It’s what an adventure playground looks like in a risk-averse culture. And it promotes the kind of play we think children should be doing now: not with just their bodies, but with their minds. The Imagination Playground is a much more cognitive vision of the playground. No one would confuse it with a jungle gym.” (Day 2) This shows that children to Mr.Day should be using their heads more and playgrounds should be safer, but Commissioner of parks in New York Henry Stern has a different idea. He says “His philosophy seemed reactionary at the time, but today it’s shared by some researchers who question the value of safety-first playgrounds. Even if children do suffer fewer physical injuries — and the evidence for that is debatable — the critics say that these playgrounds may stunt emotional development, leaving children with anxieties and fears that are ultimately worse than a broken bone.” (Tierney 1) Showing that kids should be doing physical activities at parks and using their imagination somewhere else. Not only-but also David Ball says “There is no clear evidence that playground safety measures have lowered the average risk on playgrounds,” said David Ball, a professor of risk management at Middlesex University in London. He noted that the risk of some injuries, like long
In article one, Tear Down the Swing Sets, Nicholas Day has given us reasons why playground designs have changed over time. One reason is child safety. Days research shows on lines 35, he has stated," But there's this sense that if you talk about it that's enough. There's this very real reluctance to get involved in anything that might at least potentially cause an injury." This example shows that playgrounds
Human's fears should not be taken lightly. Fear could do anything to one's minds, though without fear, man can be as savage as animals. In the book Lord of the Flies, William Golding presented fear of the unknown to be a powerful force in a man's mind. Fear of the unknown is a powerful force, which can turn to either insight or hysteria. The kids feared of not being rescued off of the island, so they made signal fires on top of the mountain. Then, there and gone, Roger's fear of the old rules he abided to. Also, there were the fears of the beast which confused and isolated the kids from the top of the mountain.
Playgrounds, such as the one on the campus of Washington Elementary, often limit the development of one’s imaginative skills and as a result can negatively impact the way a child thinks about certain situations. Playgrounds do not contribute to a child’s imagination which can affect their mental
Indeed, the safety of children is the main purpose of this article, so he provided us with a series of studies to confirm his argument. For example, some psychologists have shown the pattern: A child who’s hurt in a fall before the age of 9 is less likely as a teenager to have a fear of heights. They believe that if the children are allowed to go outside their safety zone, they will learn how to accept obstacles as well as hard situations. They will be stronger and more willing to confront new challenges as time goes by. Moreover, Dr. Ball said. “If children and parents believe they are in an environment which is safer than it actually is, they will take more risks." And a real example, Nayelis Serrano, a 10-year-old from the South Bronx, she used to play jungle gyms. Her experience about that game is so wonderful. She was scared it at first, but she kept continuing to the top of bar, and she won. She said. “I’d like to see it in our playground. Why not? It’s kind of dangerous, I know, but if you just think about danger you’re never going to get ahead in life.”
Change your response to the fear as you confront it. You can, for instance, learn to laugh at your fear. This is what comedian Kevin Hart learned to do, and he became
Let’s pause for a second, let’s take a look what nature has for us. It is beautiful and yet harmless. Kids’ don’t spend the sufficient time to intake the benefits of nature. Louv says, “Playtime, especially unstructured imaginative, exploratory play is increasingly recognized as an essential component of wholesome child development” (48). He is saying to let our kids free and explore on their own. It is what brings fun to their lives. Knowing what comes next it’s pretty boring. Imagination brings excitement and knowledge to the human kind.
Parrish, A. M., Yeatman, H., Iverson, D., & Russell, K. (2012). Using interviews and peer pairs to better understand how school environments affect young children's playground physical activity levels: a qualitative study. Health Educ Res, 27(2), 269-280. doi: 10.1093/her/cyr049
In modern Western countries, adults take the responsibility of managing children’ behaviours, activities and the environment as protecting children from significant injuries. Also, parents are likely to pay more attention to protect their children from external injuries such as traffic accidents, stranger’s dangerous, personal accidents and other factors (Wyver et al., 2010, p.264). Under these kinds of protections, children lose many opportunities for free play and lead to the increase of childhood obesity as well as inactivity health issues (Wyver et al., 2010, p. 263). Beside the protection from parents, the features in the childhood environment are less risky for children to play with. For example, some Western countries such as the United Kingdom uses the rubber playground to reduce the rates of children injuries (Wyver et al., 2010, p. 265). The surplus safety from both parents and environment minimises children’s chances and experiences of encountering risks. In some way, the surplus safety infringes children’s right of play and silences their voices on their lives. Wyver et al. (2010, p. 263) argue that the surplus safety is negative to children from both legitimate anger and child development anger. Surplus safety may not substantially build the child-friendly
Imagination is a concept of the human mind that varies between people of different ages to the different expectations and perspective of each individual. In The Little Prince by Antonie de Saint – Exupéry and The Educated Imagination, “The Motive for Metaphor” by Northrop Frye, the two writings mention about the importance of imagination and how imagination differs between adults and young people such as kids and youth. Perspective is an important concept of imagination because due to perspective, the Little Prince in The Little Prince could understand something the adults could not, which is the boa drawing. In “The Motive for Metaphor”, Frye mentioned, “Then there’s a level of imagination, which produces the literary language of poems and plays and novels.” (Frye 6) This quotation indicates how Frye, as an
Did you know that 147 kids DIED because of playground related injuries between nineteen ninety nine and two-thousand and one? Recess isn't a priority and shouldn’t be. Most schools can't afford a monitor to watch the kids , kids get injuries , and seventy percent of kids play sports or do other athletic activities like dance or cheerleading after school.
It was only those who had been crawling for a minimum of eight weeks who showed any acceleration in heart rate (the measure employed by the researchers to determine fearful responses). A follow-up study was initiated that saw infants being given 40 hours of training in a walker to help them move themselves. Compared to a control group who received no such training, the researchers claim to have found “firm support for the conclusion that experiences with self-produced locomotion contribute to the development of fear of heights” (Bertenthal and Campos, 2009, p.
A specific playground was selected, to be the Pembroke playground, due to its recent refurbishment of the floor surface and new equipment which also gave me the opportunity to learn the process from the restorers of the site themselves. At M Quip Co. Ltd., the whole construction process was explained from the formation to the placing of the Styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) tiles used for the safety surfacing of the selected playground.
Some of the equipment might be out of date or might be on the verge of breaking or rotting. Parks we have should be upgraded with better equipment that is higher quality. The slides we have could be more stable. Some children might not want to go down such a small slide. Others might not want to go down such a big slide.
Walking past a public park is like walking through a zoo. You could feel the energy these kids have. The noise, the excitement, and the laughter in these kids are extraordinary. You will never see the joy on a kids face once they are in the park. Even the ice cream truck cant get the kids attention. Why is the slide or swing so enjoyable to a kid. I was once a kid and I still don't know why I enjoyed it. It's just a relationship that just happens between a child and a public park. Public parks are a fun, relaxing and enjoyable place for a kid, until its time to go home.
To learn and experience something new and out of your norm can be a pretty scary thing, almost like being in a foreign country and not knowing your surroundings; what do you do? You panic! I can remember clearly an event during my childhood, it was one of the hardest thing I've ever had to do, and that was learning how to rock climb. All my friend’s parents would take them to a nearby gym after school. It was a gym for kids and rock climbing was the cool thing to do. I wanted to go so badly and feel cool, just like my friends, but I was always afraid of heights. Never liked heights as a child, and when I was growing up I was left with that fear. One day I decided to face my fears, and thought to myself that rock climbing was an important skill to have under my belt. Also I thought this was a step closer to overcome my fear and rock climbing was the perfect way to get over that fear. I also knew this would be a great experience and will help me become physically and mentally stronger. What I didn’t realize was that learning to rock climb would also boost my self-esteem and to make me believe in myself more. I always felt on edge when I was faced with a new situation. It made me feel uncomfortable and not quite myself, it still does sometimes. But I knew with my very first rock climbing lesson there weren’t any more excuses! I simply had to face my fear and just do it. There was no going back.