Outdoor playsets are more than just a way for kids to entertain themselves outside—they offer an unmatched opportunity to foster accelerated physical, mental, and emotional development for children.
Outdoor Play for Child Development
The American Academy of Pediatrics has identified several interactive practices, or elements of play, that best encourage healthy development in children. These elements are balancing, climbing, swinging, sliding, brachiating, spinning, and sensory expression. When children have each of these as part of their active play time, they receive tremendous benefits to their growth and development. Children who grow up with regular exposure to these elements of play exhibit greater strength, confidence, and independence.
Balancing is the act of moving on or across objects, maintaining equilibrium and avoiding falling. This is foundational to motor skills, and encourages confidence, poise, and assertiveness, leading to improvement in physical and mental health.
Swinging helps children develop an innate understanding of momentum and how movement and space work together. Children who swing often will demonstrate good spatial awareness, core mobility, and full-body coordination. Children can swing on their own or with their parents.
Climbing is a great way for children to practice focusing on a goal, working at it, and accomplishing it. When kids climb to new heights for the first time, it instills confidence and ambitious optimism. As they continue to grow and climb familiar obstacles more and more easily, they gain an innate sense of progress and learn how to overcome challenges. Climbing is also excellent development for grip, leg, and upper body strength.
Sliding is something that can be intimidating for younger children, but as they continue to experience it as an element of play, they develop confidence and trust in themselves. It helps develop risk analysis, independence, and an understanding of gravity and motion.
Brachiating, also referred to as hand-over-hand swinging, is the act of using the hands and arms to swing across overhead holds, as is done on monkey bars in playsets. Brachiating is physically demanding and promotes excellent grip and upper body strength, as well as endurance and coordination. Kids who become proficient in brachiating exhibit decisive movement, confidence, and assertiveness in overcoming physical and mental obstacles.
Spinning helps the developing brain understand motion and energy, strengthening coordination. It uses both sides of the brain, so it can improve concentration and focus.
Sensory expression is when children interact with play components that allow them to explore the use of their senses; these are interesting things to touch, look at, and listen to. This helps children strengthen cognizance, imagination, and perception, helping them grow from curious children into confident, intelligent young adults.
Together, these elements of play contribute to a rich and nourishing play experience for growing children. As children interact with these elements, they strengthen core skills and traits. At Lifetime Products, we design our playground equipment around these elements, ensuring that our playsets and swing sets give your children the most enriching—and most fun—play experience that they can have.
Good playset design is safe, enjoyable, and encourages development in these areas. For more information about Lifetime Playsets and the play features they offer, visit our Playground Equipment page, and read more about how Lifetime incorporates the elements of play into our features.
