Kiddipedia
Why our children aren’t being set up for success
This might sound intimidating for parents but the theory is sound. We need to stop being so safe and let kids experience risky play scenarios. You see, protecting children from any potential risk of danger starves them of the experience to build critical life skills. By that I mean, developing a sense of self-reliance, resilience and the ability to assess and mitigate risks in future.
The first step is to understand the difference between a risk, and a hazard.
A risk is something that is possible to negotiate, and may be appropriate for particular situations and children. A hazard on the other hand is something inherently dangerous like a climbing structure with sharp edges that could do serious harm.
Think of risky play as something general like climbing a tree. The child will need to determine the height they’re comfortable to climb to, assess which branches are within reach, which will be strong enough to support them and once they’ve climbed up, how they will go about climbing down again.
Risk, and learning to overcome risk is the foundation for resilience. It builds a sense of fearlessness that empowers us to be confident and self-aware, to follow our dreams and to have original thought. It’s the ability to be fearless about getting knocked down, and having the drive to get back up again.
This is why I not only support children when exploring risky play, but I also support educators and parents in understanding how to engage with risky play.
As we all know, fear is a very real feeling. Even though it may not seem like it at the time, fear is a positive emotion. Positive in the sense that it keeps us safe and gives us an awareness that reaches every part of our bodies, parts we tend to forget about in day-to-day living.
Children in these situations could find themselves in a state of fight or flight that in turn creates anxiety and leads to their body shutting off their essential operating systems. This for me draws a very obvious link between a child’s emotional state and the many childhood illnesses that are so rampant today. We can be proactive as opposed to reactive in this situation by simply empowering children to create their own measure of appropriate fear through the exploration of risk.
Risky play creates a setting where children can become aware of their physical capabilities, making a child more likely to achieve goals they have set. In turn, they are receiving a positive emotional reward in the form of feeling good, which evolves into building confidence.
Over time, we have seen trends towards surplus safety or no risk whatsoever, where educators were relinquished of their initiative to make informed safety decisions for children during play. The intention behind this trend may have been to have consistency and zero risk of litigation, hence no risk environments were created. However, today, I am so happy to see more centres and schools of all shapes and sizes embracing and acknowledging the importance of risky play, with regulations following suit.
More and more educators are pushing forward by educating themselves and others on the benefits of risky play and the sustainable development of children – it’s amazing to be part of this revolution, and when we see the children of today grow to become a generation of confident and resilient young people, we’ll have done our duty as educators, parents and people.
To hear more play advice from Lukas, and a stellar line up of parenting experts from Australia and across the globe, be sure to tune into the Play It Forward Podcast.
