The Benefits of Risky Play
The Benefits of Risky Play
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| Figure 1: Balancing at a great height |
Children are our most precious gifts. As parents and caregivers, we want to shield them from all discomfort. But, when we try to protect our children from any harm or sadness, we are robbing them of developing coping strategies that we all need to weather the storms of life. To help develop resilient, brave, creators, we must allow our children to fail. Without risk, children cannot problem-solve and learn from their mistakes.
Dietze and Kashin (2016) suggest “risky play helps children learn about their world; test out what is and is not possible; learn about making mistakes; and discover new things about their space, place and environment” (p.189). Children need to be involved in environments which allow them to engage in risk taking behaviour. “Children in over-regulated environments have significantly fewer opportunities to master the challenges in active play spaces” (Dietze, 2016, p.189).
In our early childhood centre, we want to provide opportunities for the children to take risks in a nurturing environment to build confidence in their unique skills. Educators work to be active observers, encouraging children to achieve their goals while providing a safe environment and mitigating hazards.
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| Figure 2: Risky play near water |
There are six categories of risky play which include: play that is rough and tumble, high speed, great heights, play with dangerous tools, play near dangerous elements, and independent exploration (p.190). Allowing children to experiment with each of these kinds of play challenges their skills and helps to develop confidence and perseverance.
Risky play allows children to learn boundaries and limitations within themselves while at the same time, building resiliency and fostering creativity. We want children in our program to truly believe that they are “mighty learners and citizens” (Makovichuk, 2014, p. 30). We also believe that by fostering a culture of risky play, children will gain confidence and competence to further lead in their learning journey.
This does not mean that we have a free-for-all in our classroom! We provide boundaries and scaffold for new goals and skills children are motivated to accomplish. “Self-efficacy develops through experiential play and learning, is influenced by encouragement and feedback from others, and is related to numerous interpersonal outcomes for children” (Bandura, 1997, as cited by Dietze & Kashin, 2019, p.135). Children must be given opportunities to make choices, experience failure, and develop perseverance. This encourages children to work toward goals and face obstacles head on. “This process develops problem-solving, collaboration, creativity and critical thinking skills that build the resilience kids will need as students and as future employees, inventors, and leaders” (Staerk, 2020, paragraph 3).
We believe in the importance of providing appropriate time, materials, and resources to enable full engagement and participation in the children to allow them to discover, investigate, and explore their environment. Depending on the children’s interests, abilities, and needs, each child’s experience will look different and all children will be working on different skills. This is the beauty of following the children’s lead in their learning and using emergent curriculum to provide appropriate teaching for individual children. Take a look at some of the benefits of risky play as outlined by Dietze and Kashin (2019).
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| Figure 4: Benefits of Risky Play Retrieved from: (Dietze & Kashin, 2019, p.135) |
Here are some of our favourite inspirational risky play examples for your enjoyment!
References:
Dietze B., Kashin. D. (2016). Empowering Pedagogy for Early Childhood Education . Toronto: Pearson.
Dietze B., Kashin. D. (2019). Playing and Learning in Early Childhood Education- Second Edition. Toronto: Pearson
Makovichuk, L. Hewes, J., Lirette, P., Thomas, N. (2014). Flight: Alberta's Early Learning and Care Framework. Retrieved from https://www.flightframework.ca/
Staerk, E. (2020, June 3). Observations/Opinions. Retrieved from Scientific American.
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