Children are natural explorers. They are designed to move. Their instinct is to play.
Children will push the boundaries of play and often make the most innocuous play a little bit ‘riskier’ to make it more fun. I began ruminating over the importance of ‘risk in play’ for children after being invited to be part of the ‘How to Survive in Winter’ series of the Big Juicy Creative Podcast. This was inspired by the trending Guardian article at the time which coincided nicely with the decline of daylight in the lead up to Winter Dreading a Dark Winter Lockdown? Think like a Norwegian. I was invited to discuss my thoughts on Winter is a Parenting Opportunity from the perspective of a lecturer in early years but also, as someone who has a passion for playing outdoors – running, biking and wild swimming in all weathers (I couldn’t resist adding a picture of my Winter dip in Loch Garten a few years ago as an intro to this Winter blogpost). As an experienced overthinker, I quickly realised that I had missed an important point, in the podcast; to highlight the opportunity Winter provides for exciting ‘risky play’. I had unfinished business and made a mental note to address this important point in the next Free to Reflect blogpost as soon as I finished work for Christmas and more time to reflect on my thoughts.
Any parent or carer of children in the early years will know, even when you think you’ve deemed a play area to be safe and removed all danger; in the blink of an eye, children will have creatively pushed random trampolines, wheelbarrows, chairs into random angles and precariously balanced their bodies into various ‘heart in the mouth’ play positions simply to feel the thrill of being ‘higher, bigger or faster’ to find the level of challenge or risk that meets their individual needs; the type of play that inevitably leaves the parent/carer thinking ‘I need to watch you like a hawk’. This is a perfectly normal, healthy, and essential part of children’s development and, believe it or not, it should be encouraged. Don’t be concerned, let me explain.
In my role as lecturer in Early Years and Childhood Practice I commonly find teaching students the concept of risky play a challenge. I enthusiastically emphasise the importance and benefits of risky, challenging play for children, but simultaneously highlight the importance of dynamic risk assessment, designed to keep our children safe and healthy. This balance between ‘taking risks and promoting safety’ develops through practice. At first thought, these two terms appear to be in direct conflict, however they are ultimately working towards the same aim (I’ll explain this in more detail shortly). Interestingly, I find many students I teach to be highly ‘risk adverse’ when it comes to children’s play.
I have observed students break out into a cold sweat at the prospect of a child in their care climbing a tree! This is over-exaggeration of course, but it highlights the true anxiety they feel of being ultimately responsible for children’s wellbeing and being accountable to parents/carers and early years settings should the child in their care get hurt through outdoor play. Therefore, the preference is to opt for a ‘better safe than sorry’ approach. This can often be found in parenting practice too where the innate instinct to protect your child from any type of play that could be deemed as ‘risky’ is found to be all encompassing. But let me explain how risk in play can actually keep children safer.
When we think about risk, we think of potential exposure to danger. Risk can be reduced by implementing effective control measures or strategies that will reduce the probability of exposure to danger. When we think about risk in children’s play, we ensure that children are not playing alongside fast traffic, not playing with small parts that could cause them to choke, removing trip hazards in playrooms etc. We cannot remove children’s exposure to risk 100% but we do enough to keep children as safe as reasonably possible. Our strategies on keeping children safe will relate to the child’s age and stage of development, giving children more freedom and responsibility to risk assess situations for themselves as they get older. What is important is we can support children to develop an awareness of risk from an early age through play.
A young
child climbing up onto a slightly raised, stable log may risk falling off due
to their developing balance and co-ordination; you have deemed the distance
they would fall as unlikely to cause any real harm to the child, other than
maybe a small bump. However, the benefits of this simple play experience provides
the child with the opportunity to test out their physical skills, take
themselves slightly out of their comfort zone, test out their ability and
limitations, develop the resilience to get back up and try again and/or feel
the thrill of achievement. This is an example of safe and supervised, risky
play. The benefits well outweigh the risk and challenge.
The best conditions
for risky play can be found outdoors, in natural play spaces (gardens,
woodlands, parks, fields, hedge ways, yards) where there is a variety of
challenging terrain for children to actively explore. Types of environment include
grassy slopes, rocky obstacles, leafy hillsides, flat open fields, stony shores
etc. Terrain that encourages a sense of freedom and supports a wide variety of
physical movement and skill including speed, balance, and co-ordination. The
availability of open-ended natural materials such as branches, pinecones,
leaves, sticks, stones and other ‘loose parts’ such as discarded planks of
wood, tyres, guttering are the perfect resources for children’s creative,
imaginative symbolic play.
Sometimes the more a play space looks, feels, and smells like an overgrown hedge way or abandoned scrap yard sometimes the more appealing it is to children. What is important is that children feel empowered to move freely, design and construct their own play spaces, with the sensitive guidance of adults as necessary, and achieve a sense of ownership of their play space. Be prepared though, these play spaces are very likely to be less manicured, but do not be fooled, amongst the disorder, these spaces are likely to be the exciting, adventurous worlds of imagination and discovery for children. A shout out to my outdoor-orientated colleague, Alastair Davidson who explains the importance of children creating their own play spaces in the guest blogpost he wrote for Thrive Outdoors Spaces - A Practitioners Guide
Winter is a
perfect time for risky play. Children playing in the rain, wind and snow gives
them the opportunity to experience the elements and engage in thrilling ‘risky’
play – sledging and skidding on icy puddles is perfect example of risk in play.
Children experience the ‘whooping’ thrill of sledging too fast down the bumpy
hill or the precarious challenge of sliding on ice, trying hard not to fall, followed by
infectious laughter. Yes, there is likelihood of tears at some point possibly
due to frozen hands and wet gloves; wet feet and numb toes but the benefits for
children outweigh the minor bumps and scrapes that may occur – these are normal
part of childhood! I’m sure you too can recall similar childhood play memories. There are so many amazing examples of quality outdoor play practice
across all seasons and weathers in Scotland, take a look at this short poetic clip
on children playing in Winter conditions and their opportunities for risky
play: Kindergarten - the Nordic Way
As you can
see, children test their physical skills and agility, to learn to persevere, to
build physical and emotional resilience (fall over, pick themselves up, brush
themselves down, keep calm and carry on!). Children develop proprioception (the
awareness of the body’s position and movement in space) and further develop the
vestibular system (balance and co-ordination). But more importantly to children,
sledging and skating with their friends is great fun!
Taking a risk adverse approach to play can potentially have a detrimental effect on children’s wellbeing and development. As a result, this can curtail children’s opportunity to play freely in the outdoors and miss out on the experiences previously discussed. If children are not exposed to safe, supervised risk in play such as opportunities to climb trees, run fast down hills, sledge down slopes, throw snowballs, play with sticks, jump off logs, play in mud and splash in puddles, then they will be less equipped to identify risk independently and keep themselves safe. If they are not given opportunity to test their physical abilities and limits, appropriately supported by adults or their peers, then they will be less awareness of what their body can do in play. This could result in children being less equipped to keep themselves safe in the outdoors when you are not around to watch them. Especially when they start to experience peer pressure and conformity in older childhood, and be possibly less equipped as a result, to think about the bigger risks they may be exposed to and consequences of their actions when they are allowed more freedom to roam. In this Guardian article 2019 Mollycoddling our children were fuelling mental illness in teenagers Jonathan Haidt identifies the social and emotional effects of overprotecting children from the normal stressors in life, in particular the link to the rise of anxiety and depression in our young people today. I have mixed feelings about this article however, it is worth a read to get your perspective?
Children should be encouraged to go outdoors all year, experience the changing seasons including the cold, wet and snowy days – I would argue it makes play more fun! Dressing for the weather is the key. Tip - dress children in warm layers appropriate to the weather conditions, 2-piece waterproofs work best in snowy, cold, wet weather (quick access for the inevitable emergency pee behind the tree), lined-boots keeps toes toasty and water-proof gloves are essential if you want your children to last more than 2minutes playing outdoors in the wet snow. Getting a bit wet and cold helps builds children’s resilience! Children who learn to be physically and emotionally resilient are better able to deal with future challenge and adversity as they grow and develop. Of course, all of this is supported through sensitive interaction of adults, knowing if and when to step in with the required assistance.
Finally, the
language we use as adults around children during play is important. How we talk
to children should not make them feel that we don’t trust them to assess the
risk or have confidence in them to make the right decision when keeping themselves
safe. Use your language to encourage children to think about safety for
themselves rather than telling them what is safe and what is not. For example,
instead of saying ‘Be careful, you are going to fall if you climb on that!’ try
instead ‘That branch is wet, could it be a bit slippery? What do you think?’
Support children to develop independent risk assessment skills, however, be
prepared to step in quickly, if the risk the child is willing to take, is
inappropriate.
On that
final note I will draw this blogpost to a close. I hope I have sufficiently
championed the benefits of risky play for children but more importantly to get
outdoors in Winter and share the thrilling, risk-taking experience of skating
on icy puddles and sledging on snowy slopes alongside your own children. We are
never too old to play or to find out what our body can do by engaging in thrilling,
scream-inducing risky play. I will continue to model this play behaviour and practice what I preach. I will leave you with a picture of my most recent risky play experience… problem-solving ways to cross a burn while keeping my feet dry and warm!
Enjoy the
festive with family and let us all look forward to a happier New Year 2021.
Emma.
23rd December 2020
