Children's experiences of playground usability

The aim of the project is to study the accessibility and usefulness of different environments for children with different abilities.

Research on children with different abilities and accessibility in different environments is not common, research on children with different abilities and how they experience the usefulness of different environments is even less common. In order to gain a children's perspective on the accessibility and usefulness of different environments, it is important to share with children with different abilities thoughts and experiences about play and design of home, school and playgrounds. Play is an important part of a child's development, physically, cognitively, emotionally and socially. Play allows children to experiment with different things, to make decisions, to understand the cause-effect and to get to know their own strength and their limitations. The game encourages creativity and learning and develops the child's social skills. In occupational therapy theories, play is in itself an important activity for all children.

Interaction skills

Playgrounds are important environments where children play during their childhood. Playgrounds are specially designed to allow children to perform many different activities and interact with each other. In playgrounds, children have opportunities for motor activities such as running and climbing, but also social activities such as interacting with each other in joint activities. At playgrounds, children's awareness of the environment develops and it is usually at playgrounds that children learn social rules and values. Regarding the accessibility of different environments for people with disabilities, disability research emphasizes the importance of making the requirement that the built environment be accessible to everyone, a social right that applies to all citizens, whether they are children, adults or have any disability. The school playground and the public playground is a built-in outdoor environment where the interests of all children should guide planning and design of the environment.

Lack of knowledge

Studies on the accessibility of playgrounds show that there are children with different disabilities who find it difficult to enter many playgrounds and even less use the tools that are there. The studies also show that adaptation of playgrounds is not a priority area and that the people who create playgrounds lack knowledge of how playgrounds can be designed to be accessible. Playgrounds should be a play environment that also encourages social interaction. If a playground is only physically accessible without the possibility of social interaction, it can enhance the sense of exclusion for children with disabilities.

• The project has ended. Read Michelle Bergins doctoral thesis here. External link.