Bi-lateral Movement and the Great Outdoors!

Apologies to any experts who read this attempt to explain my theories on the importance of bi-lateral movements and the outdoors and how and why it influences my designs and 'creations'.
There have been huge leaps in the understanding of child development in recent years, particularly with the use of new technologies and this has enhanced the understanding of how the human brain develops.
Rather simplistically put, my current understanding is thus:

• The Early Years are the most essential time for brain development as this is when the brain synapses flourish and grow - rather like a huge unkempt shrub!
• At a specific point, the unused and unstimulated synapses are trimmed, leaving the brain to focus on the most developed neurological pathways - bit like a gardener pruning to make a shrub grow stronger and fuller limbs
• The brain's synapses are then coated with mylelin, a special substance which strengthens pathways and aids the transference of information around the brain
• Neurological development continues throughout childhood although there are 'windows of opportunity' where certain skills/neurological development can take place
• While brains are adaptable, scientists largely agree, that many skills have 'centres' of neurological development that can be mapped
• Bi-lateral (or cross body) movements help to stimulate neurological development and strengthen the paths of synapses across the brain's hemispheres - basically help the left and right sides of the brain to communicate effectively
• Recent studies indicate that bi-lateral movement stimulates the development of strong neurological pathways, particularly those relating to auditory development

So there you have it! If we want schools full of children who are able to listen and learn, we need lots of bi-lateral movement in those crucial Early Years! The English education system had quite a large emphasis on sitting and sitting and sitting...even though research has started to trickle through to the policy makers, it's all discounted for the easier option!
Shame really, we have the responsibility and the ability to make education and childhood so much better simply by creating environments and systems which promote movement, particularly bi-lateral movements such as crawling, stepping, climbing and dancing!
Unfortunately, in England this tend to be incorporated in highly structured lesson plans which diminishes creativity, so this is what I endeavour to include in all my design specs.
It doesn't have to cost a fortune, ideally, yes it would be wonderful to have these beautiful, enhancing spaces wherever children play...but it is possible to do this imaginatively without breaking the bank!

Trialling 'stepping stones' and steps for distance and height! Great way to get the child's brain developing...through their feet!

Yep, it gets the thumbs up!

Physical activity leads to happy, healthy and intelligent children...you have a child who has walked early (like our son pictured above) and you need to encourage as much physical activity as possible to ensure those synapses manage to develop effectively without that long crawling period which many children have. Some believe that the date when a child started to walk should be in bold on all educational records - and I would agree with them!
Walking at a young age may seem great, and lots of parents try to rush their child onto this stage, but as a parent with children who have all walked early, our son pictured above was pre-ten month walker,  and it raises alarm bells, because those children will then need extra support to encourage enough bi-lateral movements to make up for missing valuable months of crawling.

Step 2, 3, 4

No-one wants to see a child getting hurt (well a few strange people may, but were talking generally here!) and because of this, fear of them getting hurt, fear of litigation, people try to minimise risk to the point where it actually becomes harmful!
Here is an anecdote to illustrate what I mean: I remember taking some children to a local dell (that's a colloquialism for a valleyfull of trees and grass!) with a couple of their friends. Our two oldest boys, their two friends and our eldest daughter, they were all under ten at the time, and our daughter was the youngest of the group and probably about 3. I was fascinated watching them climb the trees. Our boys were straight up, like rabid squirrels while their friends dithered about on the bottom branches, they didn't have a clue where to put their feet or how to pull themselves up to the next branches. When our daughter started to join in, the eldest of their friends began to get competitive, he was 9 and struggling and a 3 year old girl was climbing the first few branches easily! So he climbed two branches up...and fell straight out! He tried again...and the same thing happened. I couldn't understand it, he was a bright, athletic looking lad, but he just could not co-ordinate his limbs to get his hands and feet doing what was needed to get up that tree. When we got home...I admit, he was a bit mucky...his Mum went white when I said we'd been climbing trees. When we got talking she admitted she'd been 'paranoid' about him having falls when he was little, she'd carried him up and down stairs until he was three and then walked him up and down to make sure he was safe. She'd made sure he'd been on climbing frames at the park, but had stood so close that he'd given up because she was just 'embarrassing' it was the first time he'd ever tried to climb a tree. As far as I know he's now hitting 19 and still unable to get past that first branch without letting go!
Now you may be wondering what this has to do with designing environments for anyone, let alone children! But I suppose it's a round-about way of illustrating the negative effects of removing all risks. By being so scared that the boy would fall and hurt himself, his Mum had removed all step-related risks from his early childhood environment and he had not built any of those very basic early skills which ensure we know how to co-ordinate our limbs for basic challenges. Now I know many would argue that tree climbing is not an essential life skill, but the basic physical skills required to co-ordinate the limbs to move in this way are transferable to many experiences.
Now I don't advocate throwing children into life threatening experiences, but by stopping them building basic skills, we actually create potential long term harm. If a child is never taught road safety, they'll run into roads and if a child never learns how to co-ordinate stepping up the kerb, they'll just trip straight over it! We do have a responsibility to build life skills, and designing an environment to include elements which build basic physical skills goes a long way to developing a child into a resourceful adult.
So when planning, try to incorporate elements incidentally, you don't need an area that is just for climbing, while everywhere else is flat as a pancake. If you have the luxury of starting from scratch, can you incorporate undulations? If you can't do, or can't afford, lots of groundwork and landscaping, how can you include these elements in the design and installation phase.
In these pictures below, you'll find examples of an area that I landscaped to include slight undulations and uneven surfacing. I'll be honest, it's hard work, but on this project, underground drainage was needed and so it was logical to form the land around the design, rather than placing installations on a flat surface. This meant that aesthetically it was possible to make the multi-levels look more dramatic, and make the children feel like giants when standing on the bridge. But it was also a good way of incorporating an uneven and challenging surface that built skills discretely.

It may look simple to an adult, but the gradient to the hill onto that platform was actually too challenging for some children when the area first opened and they need to walk around to the other side to access the area! After a couple of weeks of using the area, all the children had built the skills to negotiate the incline safety.

Including a demarcation that ran around the bark chipped area (small section shown above) was one of the biggest concerns of the staff, however, the design brief included adding as many steps and levels as possible in order to develop the children's bi-lateral movements. Obviously, these pictures were taken several months after the project had been finished (beginning to look 'lived in' eh?) at this point the demarcation had become one of the children's favourite bits, they used it as benches, for balancing, for jumping over and on and off!

The above picture shows 'child sized' steps, with each rise and tread made to fit children's feet, this simple adaptation helps keep an area challenging, while minimising risks. When the children's feet actually fit on the steps, they can easily negotiate the space...although adults do need to think about how they negotiate them!
Including areas such as small sets of steps also creates social gathering spots and thus develops social skills and communication friendly places!

Ramps add another physical challenge, as well as helping an area become inclusive for all users, including banisters means even unsteady walkers can move on and off the area independently.

Positioning of equipment must be considered carefully in the planning stage, it sounds obvious, but quite frequently, Early Years equipment is not scaled to fit, these were made so that young children could move across them without having to over-stretch. Commercially produced stepping stones are often distanced to the span of an infant child's legs, this causes many accidents, and makes a useful resource a hazard.

The above pictures are all taken from the same Early Years project in Lancashire. Designed, bespoke hand made and installed by Appleyard Design.

Next post I will bore you senseless again and be going on about bi-lateral movements in more depth. Think I've said enough for one day here!

Child-led Environments!

One of the biggest mistakes you can make in designing a play-space for children is to view it from an adults perspective. That themed playhouse or pirate ship just looks fantastic to your eyes and you can't resist buying it...but is it really what the children NEED?
Sure, they'll WANT almost every picture you show them, but that doesn't make it an essential for long term development, durability or enjoyment. If you've ever read the 'My Naughty Little Sister' story where she plays with the push horse as a pram and the oven as a coal train will know what I mean!
What you really do need is a space that can be as large as the child's imagination. By making it a 'specific' space, you are confining the child and limiting their choices. When what you really want a space to do is empower the child, not confine them!
So opt for a design that is based soundly on the principles of child development, make sure EVERYTHING is there for a good reason, not just to waste money, or to be on the tip by next summer. So always have these questions in mind - why is this included? what will it do to enhance the child's experience? will it still have play value in 5 years time?
You need equipment that promotes bi-lateral movement, this is an essential and I'll include a post that focuses just on this at a later date for people who are unsure of why this is so important. So consider how can you include elements to promote problem solving and creativity, how can you include focal points because these create talking points.
It should be aesthetically pleasing, because why should children be patronised? We all like to be in nice places, it enhances the self-esteem to know people value us and helps build respect...we want to keep beautiful places beautiful.
I have been to places where they have spent a fortune on planters, sounds reasonable, children engaging with planting and growing is fantastic! But the wood is unsuitable for purpose being flimsy with splinters and it rots within a couple of years and the fittings are not to safety standard and can easily be tampered with. After a couple of winters, they're more of a hazard than a resource and you see this all the time in outdoor equipment. So before you buy, or design, think it through and decide what is really going to help your child or children learn and develop while they're having fun!

image from an Appleyard Designed and installed play area in Lancashire.

 Hand made sculptures were added to create a focal point, with beaten copper leaves to change with time and seasons.

Planning Playscapes!

Creating challenging landscapes goes beyond installing 'pieces'. It's essential that a site survey is first carried out, so that any obstacles can be worked around and 'problems' considered. Every site has its own unique characteristics, and these must dictate the design. I would always recommend that all ideas start with the users, it needs to be their area if they are to appreciate and enjoy it! So in play-area planning, always talk to your children first...what do they want? Even young children can express ideas, they may not always be verbal, but if you watch children playing, you'll begin to notice that different children do follow different play routines. Even little babies will show preferences, some love crawling through sand, whereas others will become traumatised as soon as the stuff touches their hands!

Then chat with adults, list their ideals, but beware, quite often people will have a fixed ideal space in their heads and this is often based on their own experiences of outdoor play! For many adults in England, this just means  a park playground; concrete spaces with metal swings, slides and climbing frames. A space that builds some physical skills, but little else and certainly not a place that is aesthetically pleasing, or that feeds the soul!

So if you take a stepped approach:

1. Survey the site - be methodical, you need to measure and map it out FULLY to scale, including all natural and man-made features. Make sure you get the angles and scale correct. Ask yourself important question, such as where is the drainage? What EXACTLY is under that surface? Where are the utility pipes, grids, drainage pipes? What are the options?

2. Talk to the children and collect their ideas

3. Talk to the adults, what do they need from the space?

Then you'll have the basics to start a design and this is where the hard work starts! Planning is the biggest job in any project, especially if you want to make sure it is both challenging AND developmentally appropriate. You need to know your legislation - what are the recommendations for the DDA? What about critical fall heights? Recommendations on spaces between boards and posts to avoid finger traps? It's no good landscaping and installing a piece of equipment, to then find out it breaches safety standards or isn't in line with recommendations! You'd be surprised how many catalogue pieces from large, reputable manufacturers actually do this! Scary actually!

images from an Appleyard Designed and installed Early Years play area in Lancashire