Welcome to PlaygroundInfo

Hello all!

This Blog is an experiment in providing regular people who own or manage  a playground with a place to gain an understanding of the current state of  ‘Playground Safety’.

My intent is to answer basic questions about playground upgrading so that you understand why there are new requirements for playground construction, and how known playground hazards can be eliminated without reducing the play value of your playgrounds.

I am an instructor in Playground Safety based in Canada. Canada has among the worlds most highly developed playground safety standards. I often get questions from students and owner/operators of playgrounds who are just developing their understanding of playground hazards, so this Blog is a place to delve into the issues. I do not sell anything such as equipment or surfacing, however I do consult on playground issues on a professional basis and have been teaching courses in playground safety for about ten years.

So, what IS a Playground Hazard?

A Playground hazard is a condition on a playground where a well informed adult might be able to distinguish (and change) a particular condition, a hazard, to make the playground safer when used by children. Young children are assumed to generally not be able to ‘see’ hazards. A very basic example is say a broken bottle in a playground. An adult will see this and think, “Oh, that’s not good, I should take that broken glass away”. A child might simply observe the glass but not recognize that it is a serious safety hazard. While a reasonable adult will perceive the hazard, the child may not. With the advent of computerized hospital records, conferences, and a vast number of involved adult professionals in fields such as education, child care, schools, parks departments, and the playground industry, there is now a growing body of information and understanding of a variety of preventable hazards.

But we are just now in the time of change of this understanding of hazards. This type of information is still filtering out to the millions of playground owners and operators out there.

As this Blog grows, I hope to give lots of examples of known hazards, with photographs from actual playgrounds.

Keep in mind we in the Playground Safety movement are not attempting to reduce the play value of playgrounds, but rather improve safety and reduce risk while maintaining or even improving the excitement and physical challenges all good playgrounds must have. There is a risk of injury in life. Playgrounds will not become less fun if we improve safety. They will also not become injury-free. It will cost some money to improve our playgrounds, but you know it is worth it.

Questions are welcome!