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Emily Clark

Embracing and Enabling Risky Play: Lessons for risk-averse cultures

“Be careful!” “Don’t fall!” “Get down from there!” Why can’t we just let them play? Cultural attitudes towards risky play definitely impact our ability to allow children in our care to take successful risks.


boys climbing rocks

The research

"Lessons Learned from Norway on Risky Play in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC)" (Obee et al., 2020) shares new research that discusses the benefits and challenges of risky play in early childhood settings. The research is based on a study that was conducted in Norway, where risky play is encouraged in early childhood settings. Obee et al. stated, “Norway is considered a less risk-adverse Western society, therefore insight into practitioner and parent attitudes and beliefs toward risky play may provide valuable information about social factors influencing children’s opportunity to engage in it.” (2020).


Risky play is defined as challenging and thrilling play that inherently involves an element of potential physical harm- this encompasses basically anything fun; everything from rough and tumble play to woodworking to using the monkey bars to playing unsupervised.

Research has shown that this kind of play has huge benefits for children, it may, “may increase physical activity, improve mental health and well-being, promote the development of risk-assessment skills, resiliency, self-regulation, emotional expression, self-esteem, improve motor skills, and decrease conflict sensitivity (Brussoni et al. 2015; Harper 2017; Harper et al. 2019; Little and Sweller 2015; Sandseter 2010; Sandseter and Kennair 2011; Tremblay et al. 2015; Wyver et al. 2010).” (Obee et al., 2020)

Despite these benefits, the researchers found that- particularly in Western cultures such as the US and UK- attitudes towards risky play can stop early childhood educators from implementing it. Both educators and parents share concerns about risky play including the fear of litigation, concerns for children’s safety, and societal pressures. Personal experiences and values also shape parent and educator tolerance for risk. The prevailing cultural norms impact educator’s comfort with allowing risky play, “Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish pre-school teachers present with less uneasiness regarding children’s risk taking than American teachers (Sandseter and Sando 2016, p. 179).” (Obee et al., 2020)


This study was conducted in early childhood settings in Norway. The researchers collected over 100 hours of observation data over a two month period. The researchers also conducted interviews with practitioners and parents.


Obee et al stated “This research highlights three key areas in which social factors can influence children’s opportunities for risky play: assumptions about childhood, attitudes towards risk, and pedagogy,” (2020). In the early childhood settings observed, parents and educators shared the assumptions that children were competent and that they should have input into their daily routines and activities.


Attitudes towards risk were found to understand risk as normal and small injuries as expected, “One parent indicated that if injuries weren’t happening, then the children probably weren’t being active enough at kindergarten: ‘Let the kids play, if they are not hurting themselves a little bit, then they are sitting much too still’ (MPa33)” (Obee et al. 2020). Parents and educators shared the belief that learning is active and occurs by doing and highlighted that physical activity was important.


Importantly, the researchers found a shared and consistent belief in the value of risk. Although both expressed their own hesitations of fears with some aspects of risky play, they recognized that they couldn’t allow those fears to cause them to limit the children. A parent expressed this by stating, “I don’t even want her walking on icy roads because she could fall and hit her head, but I know that is something she needs to do and she needs to learn and it’s something that is part of her life in Norway. (FPa35)” (Obee et al. 2020).


The researchers found that “another way value of risk appeared was in parents and practitioner’s ability to identify benefits of risky play. Subthemes within value of risk that emerged regarding parent and practitioner identified benefits of risk play included risk assessment, toughness, self-confidence, physical skills, and the feeling of experience.”(Obee et al. 2020). Being able to easily name multiple benefits of risky play supported the parents’ and practitioners' understanding of its value and increased comfort with risk.


The pedagogy of the settings also played a key role in allowing the children to experience risky play. Educators understood their role as preparing the children to meet challenges they will face in life. Educators engaged with the children in their play, recognized the physical environment as vital, and held a deep belief in the value of early childhood education.


In their discussion of their findings, Obee et al. shared how different cultural contexts and pedagogies impact the “practitioners’ ability to actualize their beliefs about risky play in practice” and explored how “the pedagogical frameworks employed in Norway may give practitioners a way of thinking about pedagogy and development, as well as the skill sets needed to support children’s risky play.” (2020).


The real talk


Oooh there is a lot to unpack here! I think sometimes it’s so easy to say, “If only I were in that country then I could do that thing… but I don’t so I’ll just give up.” We can’t all live in Norway, but we absolutely can all use these findings to improve access to risky play in our settings.


The families and educators in these settings were on board for risky play because they saw risk as a healthy part of childhood and they understood that the value of risky play outweighed the potential for harm. They were able to clearly express why risky play was so important. Can the families in your setting do that? Can you and your teams do that? If we know and deeply believe in the reasons why something is important we can use that to help us think logically to override our own anxieties. So, as usual, the next steps I see here center on the adults.


We need to analyze our own comfort with risk in our settings, and we need to evaluate if our pedagogy supports us seeing children as capable beings. If we're not there yet, then we need to start with our own journey to embracing risky play by educating ourselves and our teams on the benefits. Only when we are completely committed to risky play can we begin the work of supporting families on their journey to see the value in it as well.

To support families, we need to make the value of risky play visible and we need to celebrate the risks that children can take in our settings. Risky play for many parents is a “see it to believe it” experience. Focus on showing children deeply engaged in risky play, share videos of their proud smiles when they’ve completed a risky task; acknowledge that risky play has risk but- more importantly- it also has rewards. Remember that fear is eased through trust- building genuine relationships with our families supports all the work we need to do.


Here’s the trick though- we will have to do this work before families are on board. If we want our children to be able to take risks, as it turns out, we will have to do it first ourselves.



References:

Obee, P., Sandseter, E. B., Gerlach, A., & Harper, N. J. (2020). Lessons learned from Norway on risky play in early childhood education and care (ECEC). Early Childhood Education Journal, 49(1), 99–109. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-020-01044-6



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