The Real Risk is Having No Risk! - Niki Buchan Guest Article
This Month's Guest Article From The Fantastic Niki Buchan All About RISK!
Hey PLAY People,
This month, our guest article comes from the fantastic Niki Buchan! I’ve known Niki for years, and I’m really glad to host her fantastic work on The PLAYlist! This guest article is all about the value that can be found in allowing children to take risks. It’s a really important part of their brain development, and being able to identify, manage and control risk is just as important to our practice!
Niki has written this article for all PLAYlist subscribers to enjoy, as well as a brilliant (FREE!) online training session and a fascinating interview available for paid subscribers. If you’re interested, find them [HERE]
Without any further ado, here’s Niki’s article:
‘The Real Risk is Having No Risk!’ 🎉
Look familiar? How often do we stop children’s play on a slide, usually for doing exactly what Tom is trying to do? You might be fulfilling your ‘allocated role’, supervising and standing next to the slide ensuring children use it correctly for safety reasons. The minute you turn your back; they are back to having fun exploring the slide their own way scrambling all over it (which is why somebody is expected to stand there!). Once a child has mastered climbing up the stairs and sliding down on their bottom, they naturally seek progression in challenges, experiences and learning. This risk taking is encouraged in all other areas of development such as social, emotional, cognitive, academic, but often discouraged in physical play.
My fondest childhood memories are of experiences that were exciting, a little bit scary and then that wonderful emotion of achievement and mastery, those ‘I DID IT’ emotions. Linked to these are the inevitable scabs on the knees to be picking at, loose flaps of skin on stubbed toes and my biggest regret as a child; I never broke a limb and never got to experience a plaster cast! I do however still have some physical scars I can celebrate as badges of honour, as important learning injuries sustained while having an adventure.
BE CAREFUL!!! How often do you hear this while in an environment filled with children trying to play? How often do you say this to children? Two simple words, what is the subliminal message? The words in themselves mean very little, what child will intentionally play carelessly or play to harm themselves? Children must think adults are not very clever! Are we telling children that we don’t trust them in their play, that they are not capable enough in what they are doing? What do they need to be careful of, the stick on the ground or the flying saucer? The risk of the well-intentioned adult telling a child confidently climbing up a tree, to “be careful” may make them hesitate, doubt their ability, make a mistake and then hurt themselves. Constantly being over-protected may make children more anxious while allowing children to take risks can reduce anxiety in children.
Children are natural risk takers; they are born to take risks. Risk-taking is daring to take a chance, to try something new, going outside our comfort zone. Babies learning to walk are encouraged to take risks practicing, walking is recognising as an important developmental milestone. Then they are prevented from running faster or climbing higher, also natural developmental progressions for children, important for their physical and mental well-being but perceived as too risky by adults.
Children need to take risks to learn about themselves, their limitations and their capabilities. How else will they learn if they can carry their own weight on a zip line or that thin branches might not hold their weight? Children are quite capable of making decisions on what hazards are safe enough for them to undertake. Such hazards, eg climbing high, are known as good hazards, children can judge the risk for themselves. At times the adult may increase the height of a structure children are jumping off to deter children as they then perceive it as too high. Bad hazards have no benefits and children don’t recognize them as dangerous; these are the ones adults need to protect children from. Just as practitioners become experienced at dynamically assessing risk, making ongoing evaluations in evolving situations, so do capable children.
It is important that children learn to keep themselves safe, learn to competently self-risk assess situations through ongoing practice from an early age, adults are not always present to protect them. This applies to all children. Lady Allen of Hurtwood created staffed adventure playgrounds in the 1960s and 1970s to provide play opportunities for disabled children. She had ferocious faith in all children’s competences and need for autonomy.
After observing children on playgrounds in Norway, England and Australia, Dr Sandseter identified six categories of risky play that children are driven to explore.
· Exploring height
· Exploring speed
· Using real tools
· Being near dangerous elements (fire &water)
· Rough and tumble play
· The possibility of getting lost
Later, another two categories were added. I suspect that over time, more will be identified.
· Play with impact
· Vicarious play (watching others take risks)
For those children needing to explore using the slide in unconventional ways, they are probably driven to explore height and speed. They need to be allowed to continue to fully explore the potential of a slide. Categorising risky play has been helpful in promoting more risky play.
Let’s be pro-risk practitioners believing children are capable, competent and have a right to challenge themselves, practitioners able to find a balance between their own anxieties and the child’s desire to test and prove themselves.
What if we reframed our thinking and see children’s self-directed play, including risky adventurous play, as an entitlement or right that is essential for children’s normal holistic development? Helen Keller once said, "Life is either a great adventure, or nothing at all." We need to reconsider the language we use and reframe ‘taking a risk’ as ‘exploratory play’ or ‘adventurous play’, describing minor injuries as ‘learning injuries’ and reconsider the message we give children and parents when we write out accident forms for minor injuries.
Let’s make adventurous play a priority. Research shows that taking risks increases confidence, resilience, independence, self-esteem and reduces anxiety. Life is an adventure to be lived from birth; children need to run, climb, jump, tumble, balance, make fires, play in the dark. They need to live life to the full.
As Anita Bundy and colleagues stated in a 2009 research article exploring how restricting risky play negatively affects social, emotional and physical development that:
“The real risk is ...there is ‘no risk!’”
Find Niki’s work online: https://www.naturallearning.net.au/
https://rethinkingchildhood.com/2013/06/24/lady-allen-godmother-play/
