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.
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.
Including areas such as small sets of steps also creates social gathering spots and thus develops social skills and communication friendly places!
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!
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