Anthropologists mark 100 years since the jungle gym and monkey bars were patented, arguing that the playground equipment and other forms of risky play exercise a biological need passed on from apes and early humans that may be critical to childhood development.
https://home.dartmouth.edu/news/2024/09/risky-play-exercises-ancestral-need-push-limits
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I’ve linked to the press release in the post above. In this comment, for those interested, here’s the link to the peer reviewed journal article:
https://academic.oup.com/emph/advance-article/doi/10.1093/emph/eoae017/7735986
From the linked article:
A team of Dartmouth anthropologists takes a different view, marking 100 years since the jungle gym and monkey bars were patented by arguing that the iconic playground equipment and other forms of risky play exercise a biological need passed on from apes and early humans that may be critical to childhood development.
They write in the journal Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health that a trend toward “surplus safety” on playgrounds may come at the expense of children being allowed to independently test and expand their physical and cognitive abilities in a context in which injury is possible but avoidable.
“One of the ironies of modern parenting is that our children have never been physically safer and yet we have never been more worried about them. We need to consider the potential longer-term benefits of allowing them to engage in play where there is some level of risk so they can overcome challenges on their own and learn from it when it doesn’t work out,” says Zane Thayer, a co-author of the paper and associate professor of anthropology at Dartmouth.
“Generally, researchers have found that risky play helps children build resilience and confidence, skills that resonate throughout life,” she says. “We focus on jungle gyms and monkey bars as an easy way for children to engage in risky and thrill-seeking play.”
Studies of hospital admissions show that jungle gyms and monkey bars result in more childhood fractures and hospital visits than any other playground equipment, the researchers report. But the risk of children being injured on a playground is relatively low.
The Dartmouth team cites a 2003 study that calculated the risk of playground injury at no more than 0.59 in 100,000, which is far less than injuries sustained through organized sports or even gym class. Another study found that 95% of children with playground injuries were treated and released between 2001-2013.
“We share the concerns of parents, school administrators, and policymakers in wanting to make sure our kids are safe. However, we also must consider the long-term benefits of engaging in this type of play,” Thayer says. “Risky play in which children challenge themselves is a normal part of our development, as it was for our ancestors.”
I’ve always thought that gyms should be more like “playgrounds for adults.” Exercise should be playful, and I can’t see a reason why the general concept of a playground should exclusively be for children.
In case you’ve never seen the [photos of those crazy old timey playgrounds of death](https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/dangerous-playgrounds-1900s/).
The Canadian Paediatric Society makes similar recommendations: https://cps.ca/en/media/risky-play-can-enhance-childrens-health-and-wellbeing
This makes a lot of sense – the most sheltered kids tend to be the most anxious ones.
I wonder what the correlation between the current youth mental health crisis and the ever growing emphasis on H&S is.
Also, does this apply to helmets? We already know not wearing helmets is considered a net physical health benefit because more people will cycle if they don’t have to wear a helmet. Does the low injury rate of cycle crashes outweigh the mental health benefits as well?
[https://academic.oup.com/emph/advance-article/doi/10.1093/emph/eoae017/7735986](https://academic.oup.com/emph/advance-article/doi/10.1093/emph/eoae017/7735986)
>Many authors view monkey bars as a public health hazard, but it is plausible that our childhood impulse toward thrill-seeking play is a result of selective pressures throughout our primate evolutionary history. Indeed, emerging evidence suggests that the developmental benefits of thrill-seeking play extend into adulthood, outweighing the occasional costs of injury. Disparate and consequential, these dueling perspectives have fueled debate among health professionals and policymakers, but with little attention to the work of biological anthropologists. Here we call attention to the hominin fossil record and play behaviors of non-human primates, providing a novel perspective that bolsters arguments for the adaptive significance of thrill-seeking play. The moment for such a review is timely, for it commemorates the centennial anniversaries of two playground icons: the jungle gym and monkey bars.
I one was of those kids who liked to pushed it. This is satisfying to read and very interesting.
>“We share the concerns of parents, school administrators, and policymakers in wanting to make sure our kids are safe. However, we also must consider the long-term benefits of engaging in this type of play,” Thayer says. “Risky play in which children challenge themselves is a normal part of our development, as it was for our ancestors.”
The jungle gym broke a lot of bones. I’ve never seen a chimp or other primate in a cast, but i do remember kids in casts from the jungle gym.
Isnt it basically training proprioception? Which all kids have to develop?