TIPS - Table of Contents

 According to the National Program for Playground Safety, there are four key elements to safe play when out of doors. These key elements are easy to remember when you know they spell the word S.A.F.E. 

Elements of Safe Outdoor Play

S. Supervision of children in the outdoor play area

A. Age Appropriate equipment in the play area

F. Fall surfacing in the proper depth under equipment over four feet in height

E. Equipment maintenance

KEY ELEMENTS OF SAFE OUTDOOR PLAY:

Supervision

Supervision means actively being aware of the movements of each child in the play area. It may be necessary to divide the outdoor play space into key areas and assign staff to a specific area. Staff need to know the expectations of the outdoor supervisor job and the area to which they have been assigned.

Age Appropriate Equipment

Children from ages two to five do not have the upper arm strength, hand grip size and other coordination of a school age children, although they like to think they do. Equipment in the outdoor play area should be labeled indicating the age of children for which it is designed to be used. Equipment should be grouped by age thus enabling school age children and preschool children to have their own outdoor play area.

Fall Surfacing

The surface used to cover the ground under playground equipment can be a major factor to help reduce the number of injuries children receive while playing on playground equipment. There are several different types of surfacing materials available with varying costs and various advantages and disadvantages. For more information, please see the list of resources at the end of this tip sheet. Wisconsin Group Day Care Licensing Rules require that equipment four feet or more above the ground needs an impact absorbent material at a depth of at least nine inches under it. It is important to maintain the impact absorbent material at the depth required.

Equipment Maintenance

All equipment should be inspected on a regular basis for safety. A checklist of items inspected should be completed on a minimum basis of once a week. Documentation of inspections is a good risk management strategy. A system to address any items that are in need of maintenance and who is responsible for making these changes is also vital.

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PLAYGROUND SAFETY QUIZ

How much do you really know about outdoor injuries?  This brief quiz may surprise you with some information about the hazards children face when using playgrounds.

True or False

1. Every 2.5 minutes a child is injured on a public playground.*
   

2. Nearly 70% of all outdoor injuries occurred on public playgrounds.
   

3. Falls to the surface below equipment was a factor in 70% of all injuries.
   

4. The majority of injuries (71%) occur in May and September.
   

5. More boys than girls were injured on playgrounds.
   

6. Two thirds of all deaths occurred on home playgrounds.
   

7. Swings have the highest incidence rate of injuries in all age groups.
   

8. While falls to the surface are a contributing factor in many injuries, it is unknown how supervision and limits to age appropriate equipment would impact this data.
   

9. All persons assigned to supervise a playground should have a job description and training in supervision.
   

10. All playground supervisors should have training in first aid and CPR.
    

11. One size fits all ages when it comes to playground equipment.
    

12. Children of all ages should always be supervised by an adult when using playground equipment.

*Public playground refers to outdoor play areas in parks, schools, child care facilities, institutions, multiple family dwellings, restaurants, resorts and recreational developments, and other areas of public use.

Click to see answers

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PLAYGROUND SAFETY FACTS

The following facts should help you answer the playground safety quiz. They are intended to make you aware of some of the risks children encounter while using playground equipment. Your watchfulness and attention to safety and maintenance of equipment is the key to prevention of injuries.

These facts do not indicate whether the children using the equipment were properly supervised or whether the equipment was scaled to the age and developmental levels of the children:

• Over 200,000 children receive emergency treatment for playground injuries.


•  Boys (53.5%)receive slightly higher injuries than girls (46.5%).


• Nearly 70% of injuries occur on public playgrounds.


• Two thirds of deaths occurred on home playgrounds.


• Injuries to the head and face accounted for 60% of all injuries to children ages 0-4.


• Injuries to the arm and hand accounted for 43% of injuries to children ages 5-14.


• Swings have the highest incidence rates for children ages 0-4.


• Climbing equipment had the highest incidence rates for ages 5-14.


• Approximately 36% of injuries are classified as severe.


• Falls to the surface were a contributing factor in 70% of all injuries.


• The majority of injuries (71%) occurred in April through September.

LAYOUT AND DESIGN OF PLAYGROUNDS

Careful planning regarding the layout and design of a playground is another key to promoting safety for children playing out of doors.

 Selecting a site

• Consider hazards for children while traveling to the outdoor play area
• Consider the slope and drainage of the area; will the play space retain water?
• Consider traffic hazards and placement of a barrier so children may not enter traffic areas
• Choose a barrier material that complies with zoning requirements and allows easy vision of the children at play.

 Locating equipment

• Equipment should be located so that active play areas are separated from quiet or passive play areas
• Popular, heavy use equipment should be dispersed throughout the play area to avoid crowding in any one area
• Equipment should be placed so that a person supervising the playground can clearly see all areas of the play space
• Equipment that moves, such as swings and merry-go-rounds, etc. should be located towards a corner of the playground so that children do not need to pass near this area to reach other equipment
• Equipment should be placed to clearly separate children of differing ages, e.g., all equipment for ages 2-5 are located in one area, and equipment for ages 5-12 are grouped in another area
• Equipment exits such as slide exits should be located in an "low traffic" area of the playground

Signage

• All equipment should have an attached sign indicating the age for which it is intended
• All signs should be attached in such a way that they are permanent
• The entrance to the play area should bear a sign indicated ownership and hours of use

USE ZONES

As defined by the Handbook for Public Playground Safety (available from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission) the use zone is the surface under and around a piece of equipment onto which a child, falling or exiting from equipment, would be expected to land. This is the area where protective surfacing or an impact absorbent material needs to be provided. The following information contains recommended use zone standards as written in the Handbook for Public Playground Safety. The use zone differs according to the type of equipment.

(Wisconsin's group child care licensing rules require a 4 foot fall zone around each piece of playground equipment that is 4 feet or more in height.)

Stationary Equipment (excluding slides):
The use zone should extend at least six feet in all directions from the perimeter of the equipment

Slides:
The use zone in front of the access to the slide and the sides of the slide should extend a minimum of six feet from the perimeter of the slide. (Embankment slides are an exception to this expectation.) The use zone in front of the exit of a slide should extend the height of the slide plus four feet.

Single Axis Swings:
Because children may attempt to exit a swing while it is still in motion, the use zone in front and in back of the swing should be twice the height of the swing. For example, if the distance from the swing to its pivot (support/hinge) is five feet, then the use zone extends 10 feet in the front of the swing, and ten feet in the back of the swing. The use zone also extends six feet on each side of the swing unit.

ADDITIONAL RECOMMENDED SAFETY GUIDELINES

Swings

• Swings should be equipment which stands alone
• Two swings to a bay, or section of the support structure, is a maximum
• The distance between the swing seat and the nearest support structure should be at least 30 inches
• The distance between swing seats should be a minimum of 24 inches
• Swing seats should be made of a soft, flexible material (no wooden or metal swing seats should be used)
• For pre-school children, the pivot points should be less than eight feet above the surface
• For pre-school children, the distance from the bottom of an occupied swing seat to the surface below should be no less than 12 inches
• For school-age children, the distance from the bottom of an occupied swing seat to the surface below should be no less than 16 inches

Elevated Platforms

• For pre-school age children, platforms more than 20 inches above the ground should have guardrails to prevent unintentional falls
• For school-age children, platforms more than 30 inches above the ground should have guardrails to prevent unintentional falls
• For pre-school children, platforms more than 30 inches above the ground should have protective barriers. (A protective barrier is intended to prevent both inadvertent and deliberate attempts to pass through the barrier.)
• For school-age children, platforms more than 48 inches above the ground should always have protective barriers

Head Entrapments Hazards

• Openings that are closed on all sides should be less than three and one half inches or greater than nine inches. (Openings between three and one half inches and nine inches permit a child to enter feet first, but they are too small to permit the head to pass through, thus preventing potential injury or death.)
• Bike helmets should be removed when playing on playground equipment

Hazardous Playground Equipment

• Animal figure swings are not recommended because their rigid metal framework is heavy and leads to the risk of injury
• Free swinging ropes are not recommended because the ropes may fray or otherwise form a loop and present a potential strangulation hazard
• Swinging dual exercise rings and trapeze bars are generally on long chains and considered to be items of athletic equipment and are not recommended for public playgrounds
• Monkey bars that allow a child to fall onto another section of the equipment is not recommended. There should be nothing except the cushioning materials below the monkey bars

USEFUL RESOURCES

The National Program for Playground Safety
University of Northern Iowa
Cedar Falls, Iowa 50614-0618
Phone: 800-554-PLAY
Website: http://www/uni.edu/playground
Email: playground-safety@uni.edu 

Handbook for Public Playground Safety
U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
Washington, DC 20207
http://www.cpsc.gov

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)
141 Northwest Point Boulevard
P.O. Box 927
Elk Grove, IL 60007-1098
http://www.aap.org

National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)
1509 16^th St., N.W.
Washington, DC 20036
800-424-2460
http://www.naeyc.org 
naeyc@naeyc.org

National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care
800-598-KIDS
http://nrc.uchsc.edu

Wisconsin Child Care Information Center (CCIC)
2109 South Stoughton Road
Madison, WI 53716 800-362-7353
http://www.dpi.state.wi.us/ccic

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Answers to Safety Quiz

1.  T       2.  T     3.  T     4.  F     5.  T     6.  T     7.  F     8.  T     9.  T     10.   T     11. F     12.  T

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