How to Promote Disability Awareness on the Playground
When children with disabilities have access to fun, educational playground experiences, they can expand their social, physical, cognitive, and emotional skills. At the same time, children without disabilities can greatly benefit from disability awareness, interacting with their peers in an enjoyable setting, and learning to understand differences.
All children deserve a chance to have fun and learn on the playground. This guide explores various ways to improve disability awareness and create more inclusive play spaces.
The Importance of Inclusive Playgrounds
Every child benefits from play, and inclusive playgrounds make it easier for kids with varying abilities to experience the advantages. Overall, an inclusive playground:
- Inspires innovation, creativity, and wonder: These spaces offer physical benefits and boost children’s imagination and creativity by offering a range of equipment types. For example, kids can create stories and ideas that make the reality of a slide or swing more fantastical and interact with exciting features like play activity panels and pretend play elements.
- Promotes community involvement: Inclusive play areas bring families and communities together. These playgrounds make it easier for children of various ages and abilities to have fun together and learn about each other. This engagement improves trust, relationships, and joy within the community.
- Improves confidence and self-esteem: Children with greater confidence have better chances of developing positive relationships and reaching their goals. When kids of different abilities have an equitable chance to experience play, they can take healthy risks and build their social skills, both of which contribute to higher self-esteem.
- Encourages exercise and physical activity: Kids need physical activity in daily life. Inclusive play areas allow children of varying abilities to get the exercise required for healthy development.
- Promotes sensory play: Play helps build sensory engagement, improving how kids interact with the world around them. Inclusive playgrounds with sensory play equipment give children a more enriching play experience.
- Offers entertaining social environments: Inclusive play areas provide children with equipment made for independent and group play. Kids of varying abilities can play beside each other when they choose, making interaction easy.
- Allows more children to use the playground: By allowing children of different abilities to enjoy shared spaces, inclusive playgrounds make every child feel included and may even reduce bullying.
Factors to Consider When Creating an Inclusive Playground
There are many principles of inclusive playground design to keep in mind when building a playground or adding to an existing play space. Here are several important factors to consider as you look to create an inclusive and accessible area:
Accessible Navigation
Start by figuring out how users will navigate the playground. Look at how they can access the entire space, emphasizing broad wheelchair-accessible entry points and convenient parking spaces for guardians.
Additionally, think about maneuverability. Choose surfaces that users with mobility disabilities can traverse effortlessly. Provide guided pathways so moving around and accessing equipment is possible. Include ramps that offer easy access to ground and elevated-level play areas.
Sensory Play and Social Integration
Adding sensory play areas fosters inclusivity in entertaining and beneficial ways. All kids need different levels of sensory stimulation, and you can help children access sensory play while experiencing valuable social interactions. An inclusive playground should encourage social inclusion so children can get to know one another and build friendships during play.
The best spaces for interaction points are inclusive playground equipment that caters to many children, which can also be sensory play items. For example, you can include play panels with drums, bells, or chimes to engage kids’ auditory senses and encourage them to play together or side-by-side in parallel play. Additionally, slides with spinners and rollers or accessible swings can create sensory experiences for children of varying ability levels.
Easy-to-Read Signage
Using pictures, symbols, and easy-to-read text creates clear signage that improves kids’ comfort and understanding of their surroundings. This signage also benefits children with speech impairments and nonverbal or early learners, making communicating with their caregivers and friends more manageable.
Inclusive Play Features to Add to Your Playground
A crucial factor in creating inclusive playgrounds is choosing equipment and features that make them accessible and inclusive. Here are some fun and educational options to include in your design process:
- Social interaction activities: Provide activities and equipment that promote social engagement. Parallel play is an ideal method for improving children’s social skills. It involves placing different types of equipment side-by-side in a creative manner.
- Guiding design patterns: Strategically place contrasting colors and various textures throughout the playground. These patterns make it easier for children with sensory disabilities and vision impairments to navigate the play area. Themed equipment also improves relatability and connection with the playground.
- Stimulating play opportunities: Provide various types of play equipment, from sensory-stimulating equipment to physically challenging activities. Offer spinning and swinging equipment and audible and tactile features children can enjoy alone or in groups. This approach increases playability.
- Individual play and break areas: Add quiet resting areas and solitary play equipment for children who want to take a break from playing. These amenities reduce the likelihood of kids getting overstimulated. Provide them with quiet, shaded seating they can relax on and calm independent play areas. The ideal inclusive park offers a balance between quiet play and energetic play.
- Sensory play events: Design your playground with children with cognitive and sensory disabilities in mind. Sensory play events involve using sensory experiences, visual and tangible textures, and auditory movement motivators to provide opportunities for equal play. Sensory play elements can regulate the sensory system, which can help children with autism or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder feel more grounded and calmer.
- Play-value variety: To offer various opportunities for play, design a space that includes cognitive-creative, physical, and social-emotional activities. A varied mixture of equipment promotes greater inclusion by offering children the chance to play in the ways they prefer and find fun challenges that are age- and ability-appropriate.
Promote Disability Awareness on Your Playground With Little Tikes Commercial
Every playground has the opportunity to promote disability awareness. Including elements that encourage inclusivity and social interaction helps children of different ability levels play together and get to know one another. By keeping kids with different abilities at the forefront of your play space’s design, you can create a space that accommodates every child and helps them build lasting memories and skills.
Little Tikes Commercial makes designing an inclusive play area easy. Our goal is to empower children of varying abilities to flourish in exciting, educational play spaces that challenge them in fun, healthy ways. We provide a range of inclusive and accessible commercial play equipment to help playgrounds promote disability awareness.
Get started today by contacting us for a quote!
Note: Little Tikes Commercial is aware of the debate in the autism community over the use of identity-first (autistic person) and person-first (person with autism) language. While there is no language that fits both sides of the debate, we know the choice is a highly personal one, especially for individuals in the autism community. Little Tikes Commercial uses a combination of person-first and identity-first language.