Title: PLAYGROUND DESIGN IS NOT JUST CHILD’S PLAY: CONSIDERING AFFORDANCES IN INFANT DEVELOPMENT
Name: Kristian Ring
Primary Presenters: Kristian Ring
College of Health Sciences
Clinical Doctorate
Faculty Sponsor(s): Victoria Moerchen
BACKGROUND: Municipalities and childcare facilities invest substantial resources in playground design and construction. A recent interest in infant playgrounds has exposed the lack of existing guidelines for architectural design of these play spaces. To engineer playgrounds to support very early development, it is necessary to study and understand HOW specific elements of a space are influencing the behaviors of children playing in them.
PURPOSE: Preliminary review of existing research to inform playground design for infants.
METHODS: Focused literature search for peer-reviewed articles using search terms: “infant”, “toddler”, “play”, “playground”, “design”, “affordance”, “motor”, “development.” Articles were included if they discussed playground design or affordances. Articles were excluded if published before 2006, or did not reference children under the age of 5 years. 28 articles were extracted and reviewed to identify critical elements for the design of infant play spaces.
RESULTS: Several studies identified ‘natural’ elements including green space, boulders, stumps, logs, and climbing trees as increasing the volume and intensity of physical activity among users. Natural elements also afford better access for children of all ability levels than traditional structures. The studies that examined infant play spaces were limited to elements of the home environment rather than constructed spaces. Of interest was that infants were more active when not engaged with peers or caregivers.
CONCLUSIONS: The guidance available to playground contractors for design of infant playgrounds seems largely based on correlational studies of the relationships between playground design elements and motor behavior among children ages 3 and up. The paucity of studies of infant playgrounds reflects the novelty of space designed specifically for this young age group. Starting with a focus on affordances or the ability of an infant to recognize how an object provides an opportunity for action may effectively inform preliminary infant playground design.
Kristian, Margaret and Arturo, that is very interesting that naturalistic settings facilitate greater physical activity. They also seem more aesthetically appealing and perhaps allow for greater innovation in play versus having the equipment dictate how it is used. It is also interesting that you did not find any literature on children younger than 5 y.o. I wonder if that is because they free-play less? (or more?). Very interesting study!
Dr. Huddleston: You bring up some important points! We did actually include one study that found a naturalistic setting affects the free play behavior of young toddlers (1-3 years) in a similar way – this was carried out in an enclosed courtyard area with special safety considerations for the age group. Even infants engage in ‘free play’ when the caregiver stands back and lets them operate within a space where they’re not going to hurt themselves – in fact, they are more active when given this kind of space to explore for themselves. I think those SAFETY considerations limit the kinds of spaces we can allow young kids this kind of freedom in, hence the dominance of lab-based studies for infants and new walkers. This aspect was actually beyond the scope of our research question here, but would be important to explore in designing play spaces for these populations.