More Fun and Fewer Ouchies: 6 Playground Safety Tips

Safety in the playground is crucial. Although play structures, such as the slides and the swings, offer a fun environment for the little ones, they can get dangerous.

Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed that emergency departments treat over 200,000 children for playground-related injuries. CDC considers almost half of those injuries as serious.

Common injuries on playground equipment include entrapment, collisions and equipment failure. Whether you’re managing a school, public park or recreational facility, you need to support safe outdoor play areas.

Here are a few suggestions to help you improve current playground conditions and raise safety awareness:

Kid’s playgrounds often lack sufficient protection from sun exposure. Excess exposure to solar radiation can negatively affect child health.

The sun is at its highest intensity between ten in the morning and two in the afternoon. This coincides with the time kids commonly visit playgrounds. Being active in the play area during this period can leave little ones exposed to high levels of intense sun, raising the possibility of sunburn and heat illness.

As much as possible, limit playtime at sun exposure. If the weather is too hot, instruct the kids to seek shade and direct them to the nearest covered walkways and canopies.

What’s more, avoid letting kids touch playground equipment during the hottest times of the day. If the playground equipment, such as monkey bars, is too hot to the touch, it’s too hot for a kid’s bare skin.

If you believe that the weather is getting too hot, instruct the children to leave the playground. Give them water or some ice cream to cool off.

Playground clothing is important for kids. Many of the play safety problems arise when kids don’t wear the appropriate clothing. Loose clothes, clothing strings and other stringed items around the neck of a child place them at risk for strangulation.

Before you let children head to the playground and have fun with the play equipment, they should remove the strings on sweatshirts. Also, make sure that kids wear closed shoes. If this type of footwear has shoelaces, get the children to tie them properly.

Kids need to know how to act responsibly and stay safe at the playground. They should know how to:

Park and playground administrators need to check on structures regularly. Keep an eye out for things, such as rust, cracks in plastic play structures, splinters on wood equipment and deteriorating structures.

Given that these problems can arise over time, you need to check and then recheck as time passes. What’s more, you need to remind parents and other playground supervisors to inspect the outdoor play area before they allow their kids to have fun. They should also report any maintenance problems to you right away for proper resolution.

Not all play equipment is the same. Some of them are appropriate only for children who reach a certain age.

Separate equipment by age level as follows:

Playground administrators should prevent younger children from playing with bigger structures. Make sure that adult supervisors are there to stop younger kids from making their way to the larger playground equipment. You can increase awareness of this safety suggestion by labeling the play structures at your facility or park.

Fall surfaces refer to the surface of the play area. They must be kid-friendly. Inappropriate play surfaces include dirt, grass and cement. These hard surfaces could bump up the likelihood of a severe injury.

If a child falls, they should land on loose-fill materials maintained at 12 inches. This will help minimize the risk of an injury. These materials can be mats made of approved safety-tested rubber, wood chips, pea gravel or mulch.

Playgrounds are wonderful places for kids to have fun. Children, however, should enjoy what they’re doing without getting hurt. When the little ones visit the playground, take note of these safety tips to keep everyone safe.