The Magic of Play: Types of Play That Support Early Childhood Development

I think it was Aristotle who said, “Give me a playground until age five, and I will give you the adult.” 

Or maybe that was just something my uncle made up after his third cup of coffee. Either way, there's a profound truth in it.

BCI Burke recently released an updated early childhood catalog with innovative designs and new products specifically created for our youngest explorers. Let's dive into why different types of play matter so much in those formative early years.

The Wonder of Early Childhood Play

Play is how children make sense of their world. The Harvard Center on the Developing Child notes that play in early childhood effectively supports brain development through complex interactions that help children build resilience. Those giggles and games are actually building neural pathways!

Three Essential Types of Early Childhood Play

1. Physical/Functional Play

This foundational type of play begins in infancy. The National Institute for Play explains that babies start playing very early, discovering how their body movements work and establishing the basis for all future playfulness.

Burke's graduated climbing elements provide the perfect opportunity for little ones to build coordination, strength, and body awareness at their own pace.

2. Symbolic/Pretend Play

Have you watched a child turn an ordinary object into something magical? That's cognitive development happening before your eyes. According to research on Jean Piaget's developmental stages, symbolic play begins around 18 months and is considered the most sophisticated play activity during preschool years, fostering social skills and academic development. 

 

3. Constructive Play

When children manipulate objects to create something new, they're engaging in valuable constructive play. This play type promotes development across physical, cognitive, emotional, and social domains simultaneously. 

Burke's NaturePlay collection offers nature-inspired elements that encourage hands-on learning and problem-solving while fostering a connection to the natural world.

Early Childhood Play Environments

Quality early play experiences help children refine motor skills, develop social interactions, and build language abilities—all crucial components of cognitive development. 

Burke's early childhood playground equipment was specifically designed with these developmental milestones in mind. Each component works together to create a cohesive play journey where children can freely explore different developmental experiences.

Let's embrace the world of early childhood play. It's where the magic of childhood and the science of development come together beautifully.

 

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Want to explore how Burke's new early childhood equipment can enhance your play space? Check out the Early Childhood Catalog here or contact us today to learn more.

The Science of Successful Playground Designs

Raising the Bar on Effective Playground Equipment Design

Raise the bar? Seriously, the only time I want the bar raised is if I'm in a limbo contest.

The origin of this phrase comes from literally raising the bar in the track and field high jump.
You've cleared the last height, so it makes sense to raise that bar to see if you can clear the next height and so on. Outside of track and field, we often see this concept get misused and mis-strategized throughout many industries.

"We're going to raise the bar, because you didn't clear the last one." That … seems counterproductive. "Try harder" isn't much of a strategy. "Jump higher" isn't a plan. Instead, let's find out why and work together on elevating the skills, techniques, mindset, focus, physical requirements, and whatever else is involved in a given sport, skill, course, or occupation.

Custom Playgrounds Designed for Development

Raising the bar also refers to raising standards or expectations. Expecting more of others or even ourselves isn't a strategy either. By itself, it's just an unrealistic expectation, backed by nothing. What are you going to do about it is really the question. When it comes to the science of playground design (yes, there's a science to it), the good ones are created with developmental continuum in mind. What?

Age-Appropriate Play Space Considerations

Most playground designs are broken into age groupings. The two most common are systems designed for 2-5 year olds and 5-12 year olds. Most of the biggest differences here are in the height of the playground components. Obviously, the 5-12 year olds can have much higher play activities than those of a 2-5 design.

Other playground design differences are in the individual play activity products where the developmental challenges are age-appropriately designed. To "raise the bar," a well-designed system will incorporate a continuum to challenge abilities as a child progresses through and with that playground.

How Children Balance Play and Growth

Children are very fast at leveling up, but there are still individual paces in which this happens. A challenge today is nothing tomorrow, but for some, it may still be a challenge. However, they're navigating it with much more dexterity, confidence, and skill.

They will raise the bar on themselves. All we have to do is let them. "Hey, Jimmy, come on, use the monkey bars. Let me help you up. Grab the bar."

Jimmy pushes back, "No, no, no!"

It seems high and he wasn't ready. Now maybe because of that, he steers clear of the monkey bars for a long time, when, if left alone, he may have done it tomorrow. If he asks to be lifted up, that's a different story. He's ready to go! When we raise the bar on others forcefully, it can have the opposite effect we were looking to achieve.

While a child is playing, a lot is going on inside and it's very personal. Going up to that higher deck is an uncomfortable decision, but they're doing it. Make sure they're safe and be observant, but let them do their thing. By balancing their play with incremental challenges, they get to move at their own pace.

Nature of Child-Led Development in Playgrounds

Kids often self-graduate from a lower-level play panel to the monkey bars. Today they test it, tomorrow they traverse it (which is a huge victory), and one day it just isn't that challenging anymore and they raise the bar on themselves, moving onto the 5-12 playground and the continuum begins again.

While this all sounds physical, it's much more than that: through all this, it develops critical thinking skills, spatial awareness, and resiliency. It stimulates tactical perceptions, visual perception of distance, and gross and fine motor skills. More? How about kinesthetic awareness, cognitive development, proprioception, and vestibular development, not to mention the development of social skills and navigating risk-taking.

Burke playgrounds are scientifically engineered through research, designed to encourage children to raise the bar on themselves.

To learn more of have one of our design professionals help you with your next project, call 800-921-4509 or email us at info@toplinerec.com

Now, where's that limbo stick?

When a Playground is the Content and the Context, We All Win

“Picture a flower.  Then … picture a flower in a field or completely by itself.  Or a flower on a gravestone, and then picture that same flower in the barrel of a gun.  The context changes the content and the background of a picture changes the subject.” – Rick Rubin

To continue with Rick Ruben’s thought, when we see a picture of a flower sticking out of the barrel of a gun, some of us will see a message of peace, while others will see the destruction of peace.  In either case, the gun is not the main subject.  It’s about the flower.  But if we see peace, we see that the flower is affecting the gun.  If we see the destruction of peace, we see the gun affecting the flower and what it represents. 

As Henry David Thoreau said, “It’s not so much what we look at that matters.  It’s what we see.”

While context and background can affect the perception of the content, how we see it and interpret it, depends on us.  What kind of mood are we in?   Our outlook, philosophy, beliefs, positivity or negativity, optimism or pessimism, political leaning, personal experiences, religion, education, and a thousand other things in real time, considering the infinite number of variables, circumstances, and dynamics of reality.

As adults, we’re experts at convoluting what is.  Children are better at just being.  A playground changes the landscape.  It can be the content as well as the context, but it remains the subject.  When we look at it, children and adults both tend to see the same thing; play. 

Play is liberating and invigorating.  It un-convolutes our brain chatter and let’s us relax and be in the moment.  It’s healthy and rejuvenating.  It allows us to decompress, relax our shoulders, and let joy and positivity in. 

Children are under so much pressure to achieve, level-up, and be better.  All well and good when managed correctly, but if not, that pressure can build and cause distress.  When a playground or just play in general is the background, the subject is elevated.  Let’s help our children elevate themselves.  And we adults should remember to play as well. 

We’re part of the context.

Photo by Andrew Small on Unsplash