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(Unit 1) Topic 3: Life on the Playground

Healthy Risk Taking

Topic 3 Page 14

As an educator, safety should always be first and foremost in your mind. You should never encourage a child to do something that would hurt themselves. However, it is also our job to help them experience appropriate risks, in this case physical ones, that they are ready for.

Too often, risks are taken through a screen, rather than experiencing them for themselves. In reality, no space is risk-free. Bumps, bruises and the occasional scratch are a part of childhood. Preventing children from getting hurt in any way, shape, or form, is to do them a disservice.

“The greater risk is not providing children with the skills and abilities to identify and mitigate risk when they come across it so they can engage with the big wide world.” (National Quality Standard Professional Learning Program). The goal is to encourage risks that are beneficial to children. The key is determining what it means to take healthy risks.

Risk vs. Hazard

A risk is something that is possible to negotiate and may be appropriate for particular situations and children.
A hazard is something that is inherently dangerous and needs to be remedied, such as a climbing structure with sharp edges or loose boards that could seriously injure children if they play on it (Curtis, 2010).

Benefits of risk taking:

Developing self-confidence
Building resiliency
Learning through experience
Engagement with the natural environment and natural elements

Sometimes it can be difficult for teachers to distinguish if an activity is a risk or a hazard. When managing risks, here are some factors to consider:

Children’s ages, stages of development and temperaments.
What may be appropriate risk-taking behavior for a school-age child may not be safe for a preschooler or toddler to be doing. Even students of the same age group may be in different stages of development. Educators should be mindful of this when trying to decipher if an action is a risk or a hazard. It all depends on the individual child.

Gender
Research indicates that boys are more likely to engage in risky behavior, and that sterile environments increase this type of behavior.

Additional needs
Some children with particular disabilities or behavioral disorders may be less aware of risks and dangers, particularly in the outdoor environment and therefore may require closer adult supervision at all times.

Family backgrounds
"Children may have experienced being over or under protected which means that they may respond differently to their environments and the experiences provided”. (Kennedy, 2009)

For more information on risk taking, explore the resources provided below.