Councillor’s ‘risky play’ approach finds support

Dunedin city councillor Lee Vandervis was correct to say children should have more avenues for risky play, an Otago academic has said.

Prof Claire Freeman, of the University of Otago’s geography department said today’s children had far less freedom than previous generations, and it was reducing their ability to handle risk.

At a council meeting on Tuesday, Cr Vandervis said the council should be looking to provide opportunities for risky play, including access to water and materials for building fires.

Prof Freeman said Cr Vandervis was correct, but ‘‘the problem is that we’ve got a society that isn’t ready to give the freedom necessary for children to experience the sorts of play that he’s talking about’’.

She had visited playgrounds overseas that provided children opportunities for risky play, Jeugdland in Amsterdam and Rio Tinto Naturescape in Perth being two good examples.

The Dutch playground provided children with pallets, hammers, saws and nails, and allowed children to build their own play structures, with low levels of supervision.

In Australia, children could make huts out of branches, dam streams with rocks, climb trees and play with mud and water.

Dunedin had many nature spaces available, but children had less access to them than previous generations, Prof Freeman said.

‘‘There’s a societal restriction on children’s freedom that’s going on, and a societal view that children shouldn’t be out and about alone and they shouldn’t be out and about in rivers ... and forests.’’

These views needed to be challenged because the narrowing of children’s experiences had de-skilled them when it came to assessing and handling risk.

While play involving access to fire and water might concern parents, it had been implemented in overseas play spaces with appropriate supervision.

‘‘Children who never experience risk, whether it be fire or water or heights, they can’t manage it.’’

Alongside a narrowing of children’s freedom came an increase in playground safety concerns.

Slides were now built to lower heights, playgrounds had signs discouraging running, and safety padding was often more expensive than the piece of play equipment installed on it.

The Dunedin North Intermediate school playground was a good example of a local playground that offered equipment with age-appropriate levels of challenge, Prof Freeman said.

The city council adopted a new play spaces plan at Tuesday’s community and culture committee meeting.

It included provisions for a wider variety of play equipment offering managed risk and challenge for different age groups, and scope for more natural play.

andrew.marshall@odt.co.nz