New-Age Playgrounds Rule, as Long as the Kids Are in Charge

Jan. 11, 2007 — -- Gone are slides, seesaws and swings. City planners are now designing new-age public parks with trained "play workers" who guide children through a maze of water, ramps and sand to encourage creativity.

What happened to the old steel monkey bars on America's playgrounds? And just what exactly are play workers?

Architect David Rockwell, who has created adult play spaces at glamorous Manhattan restaurants like Nobu and the flashy Mohegan Sun resort in Connecticut, is working with New York City to design a public playground where children can engage in fantasy and learning.

Rockwell and the city have worked with child development experts to plan the park, and he hopes to raise $2 million to hire experienced play workers to help children through zones of sand and water, sloping ramps and construction gadgets.

Child psychologists agree the principles and equipment in these new-age playgrounds can be wonderful tools for creativity and learning -- as long as the kids are in charge.

"Don't they allow kids to play dodgeball anymore?" said child psychologist Stephanie Pratola. "Kids don't need a lot of people hanging around showing them how to use stuff. Adults always have a right and a wrong way -- and rules. Children benefit most developmentally in a non-structured way with no direction."

Young children learn about the world through their senses, and Pratola believes the sand and water available to children in these new-age parks teach them about containment, flow, volume, gravity, building and structure.

"Kids are naturally creative and imaginative and play with whatever is available to them," she said. "Water and sand are two of the most important things that seem to pull out of kids a lot of imagination. They are naturally therapeutic for younger kids, who are immediately stimulated and attracted to learn about their environment."