National Playground Safety Week is April 22-26, 2019. This week is not only centered around preventing injuries while on the playground but also raising awareness about how to keep playgrounds safe.
Children’s Minnesota has one of the busiest pediatric emergency programs in the U.S., with about 90,000 visits each year. We love kids here at Children’s, but we’d rather see them safe at home and on the playground.
The National Program for Playground Safety (NPPS) notes that playground injury prevention can include a broad perspective of factors, such as: maintenance, materials, environmental factors and safe user behavior.
NPPS provides ways to help make sure your child stays safe on the playground – they call it S.A.F.E.™.
- S = Supervision
- A = Appropriate environments
- F = Fall surfacing
- E = Equipment maintenance
Playground safety recommendations
Keep these safety recommendations in mind when your child is on the playground.
- Actively supervise children; keep eyes on kids and encourage them to use equipment safely.
- Ensure kids aren’t wearing loose-fitting clothing or clothes with strings or ties that can easily get caught in equipment.
- Be sure playground equipment is age-appropriate and designed for your child’s skill and ability.
- Check that the surface under playground equipment is soft enough to absorb falls
- If you notice broken equipment or low amounts of loose fill underneath equipment (wood chips, sand, etc.), notify the playground owner — usually the city, county or school.
If you would like to evaluate your playground and know if it makes the grade, download this Playground Safety Report Card from NPPS.
