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Prepared by: Jeana Donohue, Fall 2023
“Playground Equipment for Schools.” Miracle Recreation, 28 Aug. 2023, www.miracle-recreation.com/markets/school-playgrounds/.
Intergenerational interaction is vitally important to promoting social sustainability and healthy community relations. We can improve familial connection through healing landscapes and by providing places for caregivers to play with and interact with their kids, while also giving children room to play and develop essential skills. We can do this in three ways; by encouraging play and making it safe and enjoyable for children and parents, by designing the environment to promote interaction between children, their parents, and the community, and by prioritizing green space in the environment for positive physical and emotional health.
Intergenerational interaction is vitally important to promoting social sustainability and healthy community relations. We can improve familial connection through healing landscapes and by providing places for caregivers to play with and interact with their kids, while also giving children room to play and develop essential skills. We can do this in three ways; by encouraging play and making it safe and enjoyable for children and parents, by designing the environment to promote interaction between children, their parents, and the community, and by prioritizing green space in the environment for positive physical and emotional health.
Play Characteristics
Play Characteristics
“Creating a Summer Schedule for Kids: How to Maintain Routine.” ChildrensMD, 22 May 2018, childrensmd.org/browse-by-topic/parenting/creating-a-summer-schedule-for-kids/.
The ability to play is vital for early brain development in small children.
The ability to play is vital for early brain development in small children.
Free play and guided play is a powerful influence in promoting stress relief and developing key executive functioning skills in children, such as motor skills, social-emotional intelligence, language, math, and self-control.
A primary characteristic of a child’s ability to play is parental engagement. Because play is often learned by watching adults, we know that nurturing healthy relationships between children and their caregivers is important for helping children develop critical executive functioning skills.
Designing a space that promotes engagement and play between parents and children is essential in creating healing landscapes that support intergenerational connection. There should be plenty of room for children to play and be active, while also blocking off any areas that may be dangerous or hazardous, like roads or poison ivy, to alleviate parental concern and allow care-givers to focus all of their attention on their kids.
Children must feel safe in an environment designated for play or else they are less likely to build strong connections to their care-givers and their peers.
Children must feel safe in an environment designated for play or else they are less likely to build strong connections to their care-givers and their peers.
Playground Features
Playground Features
kali9. “A Young Family Playing on a Playground. the Children, 3 Year Old...” iStock, www.istockphoto.com/photo/young-family-with-twins-on-playground-swings-gm1305651797-396469872.
We can design community spaces that promote social sustainability and intergenerational engagement through the manipulation of playground features.
We can design community spaces that promote social sustainability and intergenerational engagement through the manipulation of playground features.
Parent-child connection is best achieved by providing caregivers with opportunities for teaching and observing play. Installing playgrounds with open spaces and pathways that connect different elements of the site is a great way for children to freely play and explore. Pathways not only make the site much more accessible, but it also allows for teaching bike riding. Open spaces, like large grassy fields, promote motor skill development and hand-eye coordination through sports and games.
While having numerous options for play will keep a child’s interest, while also offering physical challenges, it is beneficial to have a limited number of popular equipment to help children learn social skills and the concept of taking turns.
It is important to place seating both within and outside of playground areas to give care-givers the option of interacting with their children along with observing and interacting with the other parents.
All of these playground elements contribute to social sustainability and healthy intergenerational interactions.
All of these playground elements contribute to social sustainability and healthy intergenerational interactions.
Nature Elements
Nature Elements
Levinson-King, Robin. “Coronavirus: Should You Let Your Children Play with Other Children?” BBC News, BBC, 18 Mar. 2020, www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-51938537.
The natural environment has an incredibly strong influence on human beings in regard to our stress levels, emotional states, and physical states.
The natural environment has an incredibly strong influence on human beings in regard to our stress levels, emotional states, and physical states.
Exposure to nature has been documented to show an overall reduction of stress and improved cognitive function, brain activity, blood pressure, mental health, and sleep. Living close to green spaces has also shown to correlate with greater physical activity and improved mental health.
Encouraging intergenerational interaction in green spaces is inherently valuable for children to strengthen their connection to nature and build greater respect for the environment. Allowing children to spend more time in nature will positively impact their emotional regulation and physical capabilities.
Human’s relationship to nature should always be taken into consideration when designing healing landscapes.
Optimizing the amount that people can connect with their surroundings over the amount of hardscape and inorganic material can have an incredibly positive impact on people’s well-being.
Optimizing the amount that people can connect with their surroundings over the amount of hardscape and inorganic material can have an incredibly positive impact on people’s well-being.
“Stop Following Your Kids around at the Playground.” ParentMap, www.parentmap.com/article/independent-imaginative-play-research-science.
"Are These Christchurch’s Most Toddler-Friendly Playgrounds?” Newsline, 20 Dec. 2020, newsline.ccc.govt.nz/news/story/are-these-christchurchs-most-toddler-friendly-playgrounds.
Dugdale, Julie. “6 Places around Denver to Take Your Kid in Need of a Play Date.” 5280, 20 June 2022, www.5280.com/6-places-around-denver-to-take-your-kid-in-need-of-a-play-date/.
Sources:
Sources:
Barroso, Nicole E et al. “Parenting Stress through the Lens of Different Clinical Groups: a Systematic Review & Meta-Analysis.” Journal of abnormal child psychology vol. 46,3 (2018): 449-461. doi:10.1007/s10802-017-0313-6
Ginsburg, Kenneth R., et al. “The Importance of Play in Promoting Healthy Child Development and Maintaining Strong Parent-Child Bonds.” Pediatrics, vol. 119, no. 1, American Academy of Pediatrics, Jan. 2007, pp. 182–91, doi:10.1542/peds.2006-2697.
Jie, Chen, and Wang Yun. “Research on the Parent-Child Landscape Design of Baxter Park in the UK.” Journal of Shanghai Jiaotong University (Agricultural Science), vol. 31, no. 6, Dec. 2013.
Washington, Tracy L., et al. “Fostering Social Sustainability Through Intergenerational Engagement in Australian Neighborhood Parks.” Sustainability, vol. 11, no. 16, Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute, Aug. 2019, p. 4435, doi:10.3390/su11164435.
Yao, Wenfei, et al. “The Effect of Exposure to the Natural Environment on Stress Reduction: A Meta-analysis.” Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, vol. 57, Elsevier BV, Jan. 2021, p. 126932, doi:10.1016/j.ufug.2020.126932.
Tim Gill. “The Benefits of Children’s Engagement with Nature: A Systematic Literature Review.” Children, Youth and Environments, vol. 24, no. 2, 2014, pp. 10–34. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.7721/chilyoutenvi.24.2.0010. Accessed 1 Sept. 2023.
Raelyne L. Dopko, Colin A. Capaldi, John M. Zelenski, The psychological and social benefits of a nature experience for children: A preliminary investigation, Journal of Environmental Psychology, Volume 63, 2019, Pages 134-138, ISSN 0272-4944, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2019.05.002. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272494418307102)
Jimenez, Marcia P et al. “Associations between Nature Exposure and Health: A Review of the Evidence.” International journal of environmental research and public health vol. 18,9 4790. 30 Apr. 2021, doi:10.3390/ijerph18094790
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