Why risky play is important for young children

As an early childhood provider your fundamental role is to care for, educate and nurture other people's young children. Naturally you need to protect them from harm, however you've also got to give them the freedom to explore new experiences and challenges, and venture into territory that isn't one hundred per cent safe.

This is called risky play and it's increasingly becoming recognised as an important developmental opportunity for young children. This week we take a look at what risky involves, the key benefits and how to create more opportunities for children to experience risky play without compromising their safety.

Defining risky play

Risky play is a natural part of children's play and is defined as a thrilling and exciting activity that involves a risk of physical injury; and play that provides opportunities for challenge, testing limits, exploring boundaries and learning about injury risk (Sandseter, 2007; Little & Wyver, 2008).

According to Ellen Beate Hansen Sandseter, a professor at Queen Maud University in Trondheim, Norway, there are six different categories of risky play:

Great heights: Children climb trees and other structures to scary heights, from which they gain a birds-eye view of the world and the thrilling feeling of I did it!
Rapid speeds: Children swing on vines, ropes or playground swings; slide on sleds, skates or playground slides; shoot down rapids on logs or boats; and ride bikes, skateboards and other devices fast enough to produce the thrill of almost, but not quite, losing control.
Dangerous tools: Depending on the culture, children play with knives, bows and arrows, farm machinery (where work and play combine), or other tools known to be potentially dangerous. There's great satisfaction in being trusted to handle such tools, but also a thrill in controlling them, knowing that a mistake could hurt.
Dangerous elements: Children love to play with fire, or in and around deep bodies of water, both which pose some danger.
Rough and tumble: Children everywhere chase one another around and fight playfully, and they typically prefer being in the most vulnerable position - the one being chased or the one underneath in wrestling (the position that involves the most risk of being hurt and requires the most skill to overcome).
Disappearing/getting lost: Little children play hide and seek and experience the thrill of temporary, scary separation from their companions. Older ones venture off, on their own, away from adults, into territories that to them are new and filled with imagined dangers, including the danger of getting lost.

The benefits of risky play

Risky play is crucial to a child's development so it's important that teachers and parents don't prevent children from engaging in risky experiences and activities. Some of the key life-skill benefits to be gained from risky play include:

Building resilience and persistence
Balance and coordination - development of motor skills
Awareness of the capabilities and limits of their own bodies
The ability to assess and make judgement without risk
Handling of tools safely and with purpose
Understanding consequence to action
Confidence and independence
Resourcefulness
Creativity and inventiveness
Curiosity and wonder
Problem solving

On the flip side, children who don't engage in risky play are more likely to be clumsy, less physically fit, have little control over motor skills, feel uncomfortable in their own body, have poor balance, a fear of rapid movement and will be less able to manage risk.

What about safety policies?

The approved early years learning framework for children aged birth to five years under the NQF (National Quality Framework), encourages learning environments that invite and encourage children to take risks. It also lists a number of key outcomes of early childhood, one of which being that children become strong in their social and emotional wellbeing through many aspects including accepting challenges and taking considered risks.

Despite this, tighter regulations and concerns over safety, mean many early childhood educators restrict the amount of risky play that occurs in their place of service. This may include limiting access to certain areas, putting a halt on particular activities, tighter supervision and more rules and restrictions around children's free play, which may result in children not engaging enough in risky play.

So, what do you do? The solution is to create the right balance.

Taking risks in a safe environment

Your role as an early educator is to ensure that children have opportunities to enjoy all the benefits of risky play, but without any serious injuries taking place.

Risks can be categorised as either a challenge or a hazard. Challenges are something that children can negotiate which might be appropriate for certain situations - such as a tall climbing frame. However, hazards can be dangerous, and you might need to remove or modify them - for example if that climbing frame had loose planks or sharp edges which could result in children sustaining an injury.

Tips for approaching potential hazards:

Avoid treating each hazard with the same degree of seriousness.
Identify which ones need modification, removal or replacing.
Assess whether you can reframe and turn a hazard into a safe challenge instead.

Remember that children should always be supervised and take caution with regards to any equipment that's used for risky play. For example, put away scissors or sharp tools after an activity, and lock the gate that leads to a more advanced playground if it's unsupervised.

How to create more opportunities for risky play

If you're looking for some tips on how to introduce more risky play into your early childhood service, here are a few ideas:

Be gender equal: Whether it's intentional or not, many carers tend to encourage boys to be messy little adventurers more than they do with girls. So be sure to treat everyone equally by commenting when any child pushes their boundaries and leaves their comfort zone.
Little tradies: Under supervision, let children use woodwork benches with real tools and accessories such as hammers, nails and screws.
Food preparation: Encourage children to help educators cut up fruit or other items or take part in cooking things like pizzas, or damper on a fire pit to help educate about fire safety.
Excursions: Take children on outings to places like the bush or beach to explore nature and navigate things like road safety and not getting lost.
Loose parts play: Give children items such as plastic pipes, milk crates, large reels, ropes, pulleys, wooden boxes, sticks and logs to play with.
Allow physical play: Let kids climb, jump, chase each other and challenge their unique individual physical skills.
Encourage creativity: Allow the use of playground equipment in non-traditional ways, such as going up the slide and not down it.
Support always: Give children the opportunity to solve and make decisions with your support.