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This Viewpoint considers why children's playground provision has changed so little in the UK over the last century despite radical changes in our understanding of children's geographies, considerable research into play space design and committed advocacy that has promoted children's more equitable access the city. It argues that the equipped playground has become increasingly embedded in to social, political and professional attitudes relating to the provision of public space for play. This history continues to have an enduring influence on the present-day management and maintenance of more than 26,000 children's playgrounds and the £86m spent on them each year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the positive impact of nature-based play on children's development, specifically focusing on the problem of conventional play areas in Cairo. The study concludes that current playground design needs to include natural features to foster nature-conscious children. The research found that incorporating natural elements into playgrounds can increase physical activity levels and provide opportunities for various types of play, benefiting cognitive and emotional development. The study also highlights the lack of natural playgrounds in the Egyptian context and suggests involving children in the design process for future research. [Extracted from the article]

Universal Design (UD) is promoted internationally for the design of public playgrounds that support outdoor play, social participation, and inclusion. Despite this international recognition of UD, there is a lack of research evidence concerning the applicability of UD for playground design. Instead, municipalities need to rely on best practice guidelines to inform the design of public playgrounds for inclusion. Internationally, numerous grey literature guidelines have been produced for designing public playgrounds for inclusion, resulting in a lack of consensus on core principles for applying UD. Thus, this scoping review study aimed to synthesise findings from a review of international grey literature guidelines to strengthen the knowledgebase for designing public playgrounds for inclusion. Three themes were identified that characterise core considerations for good design: (1) design approaches, (2) design principles and (3) design recommendations. Although UD is recognised as having potential to support the design of public playgrounds, inconsistent design approaches, principles, and recommendations, were communicated within these guideline documents. Still, the core concept of inclusion underpinned all guideline documents and a tailored application of UD dominated. Consequently, to fully realise the design of public playgrounds for inclusion, UD may need to be tailored for play; however, further research is required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Physical activity has a great impact on the development and overall health of children. Urban parks, which generally feature both green areas and playgrounds, offer children a wide range of opportunities to be physically active. However, previous studies have shown that a significant number of children are sedentary during park visits, rather than engaging in vigorous activities. In addition, children’s physical activities in urban parks have not been sufficiently studied in the Egyptian context. Accordingly, the main objective of this study is to investigate the relationship between the design characteristics of urban parks and children’s physical activity in the Egyptian context. To achieve its objective, the study relied on a mixed qualitative-quantitative approach to investigate six settings in a large urban park east of Cairo, three green areas, and three playgrounds. Methods of data collection included field documentation of the design characteristics of the six settings investigated, structured observations, behavioral mapping, and semi-structured interviews with 16 children. Study results show that the presence of both green areas and playgrounds is important in the design of parks. The study also identifies the design features that need to be considered in the design of parks to promote children’s vigorous activity. These features are the presence of wide-open green spaces, the presence and variety of vegetation, the presence of water bodies, the presence of challenging age-appropriate play equipment in playgrounds, the availability of pathways, the availability of shading, the variety and appropriate use of ground surface materials, and the variety in topography. Findings of the study can help designers and decision-makers in efforts to create urban parks that promote the active play of children.

To synthesize evidence regarding the physical design features and non-physical aspects of public playgrounds that facilitate/hinder outdoor play, social participation, and inclusion; identify design recommendations; and explore the current discourses and concepts around designing for outdoor play, social participation, and inclusion in public playgrounds in the context of Universal Design (UD). Published studies addressing public playgrounds, inclusion, and design, were identified via a systematic search of eleven databases from health, science, education, and humanities. Fifteen documents met the inclusion criteria. Three main themes were identified concerning physical design features and non-physical aspects of public playgrounds that facilitate/hinder outdoor play, social participation, and inclusion, with associated design recommendations. Although UD is recognized to have the potential to support the design of public playgrounds, no studies examined UD solutions for playgrounds or tested them for effectiveness. We cannot yet determine whether UD can support outdoor play, social participation, and inclusion in public playgrounds. Research to date has mostly focused on understanding users' perspectives; future research should continue to be informed by diverse users' perspectives to address gaps in knowledge concerning children's voice from migrants, lower socioeconomic communities, and intergenerational users with disabilities alongside researching design solutions for play. Children, particularly children with disabilities and their families, continue to experience marginalization and exclusion in public playgrounds, despite a commitment to inclusion in international treaties. Universal design is recognized to have the potential to support the design of public playgrounds, however, the evidence is currently very sparse. While accessibility is an important consideration for playground design, it does not ensure that play occupations can take place. Extending knowledge on universal design as it applies explicitly to playgrounds and play occupation requires multi- and trans-disciplinary collaboration that includes a play-centered perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Playing outdoors is beneficial for children's development and learning. Investigating how children's play varies in different types of outdoor environments can offer valuable insight to better support their development. As part of a larger comprehensive study examining the impact of naturalizing outdoor play environments, this article focuses on investigating young children's physical activity levels and movements on equipment-based and a naturalized outdoor play environments at a licensed early childhood education and care setting. Through a quasi-experimental mixed method design, the present study used wrist- and hip-worn accelerometers as well as spatial behaviour mapping to investigate the level of physical activity and movement between the two types of outdoor play environments. Findings from the accelerometer data indicated a significant decrease in moderate-vigorous physical activity, and a significant increase in sedentary behaviour in the naturalized outdoor play environment. Spatial behaviour mapping revealed that this decrease in physical activity post-naturalization could be due to children engaging in longer periods of more clustered (i.e., multiple experiences in a similar area) play interactions and experiences on the naturalized outdoor play environment compared to the equipment-based environment. This research is valuable for considering how children's more holistic development could be supported on a naturalized outdoor play environment to inform pedagogical and policy decisions. • Naturalized playgrounds may support lower physical activity levels. • Longer play pauses and interactions were observed on the naturalized playgrounds. • More clustered play interactions were observed on the naturalized playgrounds. • Naturalized playgrounds may support more engagement in holistic outdoor play. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]