Playground safety

Four key areas to significantly reduce the risk of injury

1) Supervision

Play time for children is not break time for employees.

• Outside play time is a great change of scenery for the teachers and the children
• It should not be thought of as rest time for teachers
• Children are more excited and active when outside which increases the chances of injury
• If adult supervision decreases as child excitability increases…Accidents happen!
• Each play area should have an adult supervisor
• Playgrounds should not be set up with teacher sitting areas as this tends to minimize the importance of the need for supervision
• Caregivers should watch for child behavior that tends to lead to injuries
  • Running
  • Not paying attention to nearby swings
  • Arguing over toys
  • Children pushing other children
  • Line battle
  • Etc.
• Teacher supervisors must pay attention to keeping toddler children out of areas where older children are playing.  A common playground injury includes children running into other children when a child less experienced in walking cannot get out of the way of a running 3 or 4 year old.
• Prior to heading to the playground a quick clothing check should take place.  Things to look for: necklaces, drawstrings, earrings, loose belts, and un-tied shoes.
• Supervise child traffic at the end of the slides and in front of swing sets.
• Enforce proper use of equipment, for example: children should not be allowed to climb up the sliding surface
• Teachers should be stationed where they can see children in the crawl spaces and on the equipment.
• There should not be any areas where children can easily get out of sight of teachers as this increases the chance for abuse allegations.

Key components of supervision:

Pre-supervision:

• An adult should enter the playground area before the children are allowed to enter the area.
• A quick inspection for any obvious, out of the ordinary hazards should take place prior to children being allowed onto the playgrounds.

Active monitoring:

• “Active” requires that monitoring children on the playground is intentional.
• Proper position: allows supervisor to see children from different angles, changing locations in the play area allows for closer supervision
• Scanning: supervisors should look up, down, left, right, over, and under to see all areas of the play environment
• Eye contact with children often can prevent unruly behavior that leads to injuries

2) Age appropriate equipment design

Equipment for children aged 2 to 5 years should be separate from play equipment for children 5 to 12 years old

• Signs in the play area will help reinforce teacher instruction on age appropriate play equipment
• Resist the temptation to move advanced younger children to older group play areas
• If possible, fences should separate age appropriate play areas from each other

Platforms on equipment:

• Are intended to allow children to change direction and get off the equipment if they want to
• Should have appropriate guardrails
  • Minimum of 38” high for school age children 5 – 12
  • Minimum of 29” high for preschool age children 2 – 5

Designs and supports:

• Equipment design and supports for the equipment should prevent children from climbing on the outside of the structure

Cautions about head entrapment

• General rule of thumb is that all openings in guardrails, between ladder rungs, and similar openings should be less than 3.5” or more than 9”
• Openings between those ranges can allow a child’s head to become trapped in the space

Height + children + gravity = falls

• Fall zones should be created due to the common event of children falling
• Proper fall zones should not allow for less teacher supervision
• Supervision helps prevent falls
• Fall zone guidelines are established to prevent life threatening head injuries
• It's a matter of physics.  The higher the fall and harder the surface, the worse the injury. ~ E. Henzy

Equipment height recommendations

• Preschool children should play on equipment no higher than 6 feet
• School aged children (5 – 12) should play on equipment no higher than 8 feet

Playground injury statistics

• Each year more than 15 children die in playground related incidents
• An estimated 205,850 playground related injuries result in hospital emergency room visits
• Approximately 75.8% of playground injuries in 1999 occurred on playgrounds designed for public use
• Fractures are most commonly reported injuries accounting for 39% of all injuries
• Approximately 80% of reported fractures involve the wrist, lower arm, or elbow
• Approximately 79% of injuries that occurred involved falling from playground equipment onto the ground below the equipment

Material Types

Loose fill material
• Organic
  • Includes wood chips, bark mulch, and engineered wood fibers
  • Should be replaced over time
  • May allow for bugs and weed growth
  • Requires retaining structures
  • Should be shifted regularly to provide maximum protection from fall impacts
• Inorganic
  • Includes sand, pea gravel, and shredded tires
  • Sand has problems when wet and with floor abrasions
  • Pea gravel has problems with curious children placing stones in various body cavities
  • Shredded tires are inconsistently processed in the past so problems with clothes stains arose

Unitary material

• Particles are bonded together through heating or cooling processes or with the use of a bonding agent or adhesive
• These materials are costly to install and over time require costly maintenance

Shock absorption characteristics

• Depth of material needed depends on height of equipment
• Recommendations include:
  • 9 to 12 inches of wood chips for equipment 7 to 8 feet high
  • 6 inches minimum of wood chips for equipment 6 feet high and lower

Practical tips:

• Use a straight ruler pushed into the material to measure depth
• Feel the material move under your feet, if there is no “give” you need more surfacing
• Consider 8” PVC connected to contain loose fill material

4) Equipment maintenance

Inspect playground equipment for the following:

• Broken or missing parts
• Protruding bolts or fixtures
• Dangerous gaps that can catch drawstrings or entrap body parts
• Gaps between 3.5 inches and 9 inches as they create special hazards
• Rust on metal parts
• Splinters on wood pieces
• Cracks and holes in plastic equipment

Regular inspections

• Designate people responsible for routine and more thorough inspections
• Use checklists to mark areas inspected and take notes for future maintenance concerns
• Keep files of inspections with dates which will provide for defense of some claims