In America, most of the park and playground were built for children and it plays a major role in children lives as they grow up. It’s important for children to free play at a young age because they start to develop between the age of one to six. The playground should be designing to attracting and pleasing which can motivate them to play daily. Their learning development comes from the built environment which changes the children expectation of experiencing the real world. Playground creates a place where children can be created which is why built environment should be safe since the children own the playground space, they lack experience and do not know what is best for their safety. Children that use playgrounds have significant changes in physical, social, and psychological skills.

As a child, we all learn something valuable from someone who is older than us as a guide to our safety or success. Very often, we are tempted to ignore those who learn valuable lessons from their mistakes and have more experience than us. I learn something from my own failure which helps me to trust others. I lived in a small village in Bangladesh. Bangladesh is a very poor country because of that there are not a lot of places built for kids to have fun. There were few children playground, but it was too expensive for ordinary people to go there. According to The Daily Star newspaper “Kallyanpur slum said that as their parents were busy working during the day (in occupations such as drivers, garments workers and domestic help) and could not oversee them playing at fields outside the area. And of course, their parents cannot afford to pay for them to play at places which charged a fee,” This leads children to build their own playground to have fun because two third of the parents could not effort safe playground for their children. Those children do not know what is best for them they would do anything that seems fun in their opinion. Children do all kinds of foolish things without knowing the consequences of their action.

 

I learned something valuable from my own foolish action, but I had to pay a great price. I grew up in an environment with no playground built for children. I had to build my own playground and create an environment to have fun. I was very arrogant and naïve. I used to do the things that matter to me the most. I did all sorts of things such as skipping schools, running around, hide in the hay bunch, playing in the mud, and climbing trees. Although my mother constantly tells me not to climb trees because I might fall and hurt myself. I ignored my mom; climbing trees was my favorite. My friends and I always competed to see who can climb the tree the fastest to reach to the top of the tree. I was the youngest among all my friends, and I always was the last one to climb up the tree. One day while climbing the tree, my leg slipped, and I was about ten to fifteen feet away from the ground. I fell on the ground, stood up quickly, did not feel any pain. A few minutes later, I laid on the ground, I scared my parents and my friends, my mom rushed to the hospital, and I was hospitalized for a week. The doctor told me “you took a huge risk by climbing the tree, what if you broke your legs or hand, it could have been worse”. I was lucky that nothing bad happened. The doctor told me to never climb trees and listen to my parents. From these events, I realize that some happiness comes at a greater cost. My friends and I, our happiness were much more than the consequences of our actions. For instance, to have fun with my friends in which I climb the tree, I had to give up my safety. We did not have parks to play or a playground that was specially built for us due to that we had to make our own foolish games, which seems to be fun, but dangerous. Now I think twice before I do something reckless and I value my parent’s words because I realized that my parents want what’s best for me and my safety. I learn to trust my elders and have self-awareness from a very young age because of that accident.

The accident that happened at my earlier age affected me physically where I learned to be more self-aware from a dangerous environment. Children brain is developed at an early age. The children who spend their time at a playground can process information faster due to the children energetic state which improves their motor skills. It’s necessary for children to be involved in outdoor activities at an early age because the children are capable of resilience which can improve their cognitive skills. The playground also has a major role in keeping children healthy by running around, jumping, and dancing which helps the children to keep their body in shape and they are less likely to become sick. Based on the child’s age severity of the behavior, the children personalities of being active just defined as the performance of healthy children. Children are often physically active to play and participate in school sports, joining the club and, extra circular things because of the motivation from childhood that keeps them at an energetic stage.  Academic performance of children is very high as well as in any physical sports and games. Over the past few decades, the children spending time on the playground has dropped by twenty-five percent because of the new technologies. children often spend their time watching TV, using the computer, or playing video games. Due to that circumstance, the children suffer from a lack of physical fitness which might result in a risk of health issues as adults. It also creates a big gap in their learning abilities. They lose interest in academic activities. (Bruya.19) It becomes physically and mentally challenging for the children who do not spend time in the playground to compete with the ones that are active in outdoor activities

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Children’s brain is capable of capturing information into their brain at an astronomical rate. It is crucial for children to play between the age of one to six because they are training their mind to do critical thinking activities which expand their learning abilities. If the children do not receive the opportunities at a certain age, they will face limited brain power and unable to think critically. The more children spend their time in playgrounds, their brain becomes faster at collecting information and become more creative. The children under six years that were involved in “playground activities promote high levels of neuro-stimulation through systematic activities of exteroceptors.” (Palmer,1) This emphasizes the idea on how playgrounds play a huge role in children’s brain development by seeing how it promotes high levels of Neuro-stimulation. Moreover, children’s brain can become a creation of their heritable potential from their past knowledge. The built environment and the chance that the parents provide for their children can help the children to control their strength and their weakness. For instance, if the children world is dangerous and aggressive, his or her potential will remain unexpressed. Their development will be much slower than the children with safer and better social standard which provide more opportunity for the child leading to a healthier development and increase their interest to learn. (Perry, 2)

Social skills are developed differently in children that use playgrounds. The playground is one of the places for children to maximize their potential and opportunities. Children who are constantly active in playgrounds release their hidden potential and encourage the child to strive for the best. Free play helps the children to develop new skills which help them to move to the next stage. Each stage has significant roles, for example, the first stage is where children learn to develop the basis of free play in which they learn to observe. The second stage is where children learn to play by themselves with their toys, and lastly, the third stage is where children start to build their social skills by playing with other children where they share their ideas. (Brown, 25) Cooperation with peers in the playground help the children to make friends and interacting with peers also helps the children to create a social connection within their community and learn about each other. That helps the children to have higher self-esteem and confidence. Playing with children of diverse backgrounds can able a child to understand each other’s emotion as well as their culture. (Woolley) In the playground, children play all kinds of games such as playing flag football, tag, hide and seek, and imagination games which gives the playground a magical ambiance. By the age of five, children start to notice the game rules and start to accept it while cooperating with their peers. They learn to cooperate with each other by applying the rules in the game and following it. Children establish the rules and specific roles in the game. For instance, to form a palace, they need a king, queen, and guards. Children learn to negotiate with each other about who should roleplay king, queen, and guards. Self-control plays a big role in it because without the rules children cannot play successfully with their peers. (Hillary)

Children are the future of our world. Therefore, parents and architects should work together to build safe and comfort places for the children, so they can help improve the children’s physical, mental, and social skills. Each of these skills are very important for a child to be healthier. Therefore, it can be concluded that children playground is one of the crucial way that children could maximize their learning process.

 

Work cited

 

1. 1. Bruya, Lawrence D, editor. Playground Space for New Beginning. American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, 1988. (https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED291748.pdf#page=11)

 

2. Palmer, L. Developmental Brain Stimulation in School and Day Care Settings. Winona State University. (https://actg.org/sites/actg.org/files/documents/MinnesotaSMARTProject_May2004.pdf)

 

3. Perry, B., Hogan, L., Marlin, S. Curiosity, Pleasure and Play: A Neurodevelopmental Perspective. Haaeyc Advocate. June2000(http://chinadevpeds.com/resources/CuriosityPleasure Play _Perry.pdf)

4.   Brown, P. Developmental Domains and Outdoor Play Components. Children’s Institute for           Learning and Development. Spring 2001.      (https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/606f/a886fcb6819410be8 99e1b8cce6f093e4e4d.pdf)

5. Woolley, Helen, et al. Inclusion of Disabled Children in Primary School Playgrounds. National Children’s Bureau, 2005. EBSCOhost, ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e000xn a&AN=451415&site=ehost-live.

 

6. Hillary L. Burdette, MD, MS; Robert C. Whitaker, MD, MPH “Resurrecting Free Play in Young Children.” JAMA, 1 Jan. 2015, jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/485902.

 

7. “Who Are the Playgrounds for, If Not the Children?” The Daily Star, 15 Sept. 2018, www.thedailystar.net/star-weekend/child-rights/news/who-are-the-playgrounds-if-not-the-children-1633477.