When you're at a loss about what to do to keep your children happy and healthy, go to a playground. Children of all ages can spend hours swinging, climbing, balancing, digging, running and interacting with each other in these indispensable arenas. A report prepared for the Shasta Children and Families First Commission concluded that playgrounds are “vital for a child’s cognitive, emotional, physical, and social development.”
Parents who have seen their 4- or 5-year-old navigate a climbing wall or walk up a rope ladder or their 3-year-old venture out on a wiggling rope bridge have also seen the wide smiles once the children conquer their fears of these playground structures and gain success in mastering them. Voice of Play says that the sense of accomplish children gain leads to self-confidence and an increase in self-esteem.
The website adds that some equipment, such as tunnels and enclosed spaces, encourage imaginative play, where children can experiment with expressing different emotions and learning about life possibilities. The site quotes Albert Einstein: “Play is the highest form of research.”
Playground equipment helps toddlers' brains develop, as they learn about the world through motor activities and sensory experiences, according to the Shasta report. It goes on to explain that brain development in the first six years of life is especially important, and that the more children exercise both their sensory and motor skills by using playground equipment, the more brain-neural connections they create.
