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Though speculating on the benefits, origins, and/or functions of play is always interesting, and sometimes even worth a good laugh, that we play, in my opinion, is a phenomenon even more worthy of our collective exploration, worthy of even more profound …

With - Nicholas John Fazio – PlaySafe, LLC Planning Team Specialist Nick recently attended (as a guest) a public planning meeting for a new Parks Master Plan for the downtown of the city where he lives. It was a typical public planning meeting; people of …

I don’t know how happy we should be celebrating an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) milestone birthday. The ADA as an enactment remains in large measure a distraction from and perhaps a distortion of the purpose of inclusion of the disabled. In the …

A recent conversation with Michael Haran caught my attention when he used the term “inquiry-learning.” He defined the term as not only discovering the world around the learner but also looking for the serendipitous. He explained that this sort of thinking …

Playground drainage is a critical part of keeping playground equipment and surfacing in proper working order, safe and usable. When purchasing a new car, it looks and runs great for a while, but if the oil is never changed and if the windows are left open …

Coming together for a “barn raising” is as old as America. It is only natural that that same spirit has been harnessed to build places for kids to play.  There is very little evidence that the early years of the playground movement used volunteers but is …

Curtis Stoddard has been a playground contractor for over thirty years and has constructed thousands of playgrounds across the Intermountain West. He co-founded the International Playground Contractors Association (NPCAI) and has been involved with ASTM …

It is an exciting time when a new playground comes to a community. From planning to finish, the local children wait with anticipation. Hopefully, the owner has employed a quality contractor to build the playground, and the owner has been involved with the …

Among the many improvements in playground design over the last decade is an important movement toward incorporating more natural materials into the play space. It’s not hard to see why. Playgrounds that use natural elements tend to be more enticing to …

Building it right is about creating safe play areas before, during, and long after the installation process. Building a playground is not just about setting posts and bolting climbers and slides to it. A few years ago an installer installed an awesome new …

Every once in a while something comes along in the playground industry that not only changes the game but makes us all proud to be a part of such a wonderful endeavor – helping children and families increase overall health and happiness through active …

“It is the creative process that holds the spell, not the finished work.” writes PlayArtist Ernst Lurker . In my so-called work, I use the word “playfulness” instead. It’s not the game or toy or equipment that I find so spellbinding. It’s the way in which …

In 1987, President Ronald Reagan declared March to be Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month , urging “ all Americans to join me in according to our fellow citizens with such disabilities both encouragement and the opportunities they need to lead …

I find it very odd, and I suspect that you do too, that after more than two decades of allegedly improving playground safety through mandated standards we have essentially the same annual number of accidents.  How can that be? Certainly, some of the …

Well, we’ve done it again. Another successful and fun Fire and Ice Festival at the Anarchy Zone and Ithaca Children’s Garden . The “Hands-on-Nature” Anarchy Zone is one of the first of the US’s new Adventure Playgrounds inspired by the European model and …

The discovery that we can get ourselves to play (or playfulness, or find some way to have something like fun with it all) – almost whenever we want, almost with whatever we feel like playing – is profound and empowering. It helps us endure the …

A series of comments and questions related to the CPSI examination process have surfaced on one of the National Recreation and Park Association’s (NRPA) social/professional networks appropriately named, NRPA Connect. The group network or community is …

I just read an insightful piece in  The Guardian  titled “Children in our towns and cities are being robbed of safe places to play.” The author argues that we fail to consider the play needs of children when designing community spaces today and that “a …

Recycled tire-derived rubber is considered a tire-derived material (TDM) that is used as a feedstock material in the manufacturer of tire-derived products (TDP) and for a wide variety of end uses. TDM is used in athletic, recreation and play surfaces …

I recently posted this image of the ThudGuard helmet on the Linkedin Playground Safety: Balancing Play Value & Injury Prevention  group and asked what the members thought about it. After the predictable bout of mocking, the discussion became quite …

I have few regrets from my years of working for municipal governments, but I do have a silly one to share with you. As a Superintendent of Parks, I was tasked with designing and developing over ten parks’ playgrounds that we had received funding for from …