Five Ways To Make Your Childrens Play Area More Inclusive

An inclusive playground should cater to everybody regardless of whether they walk or use a wheelchair. Some surfaces are more suitable than others for the wheels of a wheelchair to roll over. Therefore, when picking or designing a playground, this should be a factor taken into account.
Bonded rubber mulch is a great surface in all aspects. Cushioning, colourful, slip resistant and sustainable, the benefits of rubber mulch speak for themselves.

PlaySmart’s own offering, JungleMulch, uses recycled shredded rubber tyres. This mulch also utilises a unique colouring process to ensure long-lasting vibrant colours. Additionally, it has excellent slip resistance and we install this surface to offer specific fall protection. JungleMulch is very accommodating to wheelchair users, making it one of the most accessible surfaces on the market.

Rubber Jungle Mulch Safety Surfacing under tyre swing

2: Opportunity for Quietness

Another thing to consider when it comes to creating an inclusive playground is the sensory stimulation it can offer. Children may have a range of sensory issues or sensitives, stemming from autism, disabilities, mental health issues. Playgrounds can be a good source of recreation and stimulation for these children.

However, trying to cater to sensory issues without being overwhelming can appear complex or overwhelming. It is therefore important to understand the difference between good and bad stimuli. 

Put simply, children with sensory sensitivity can sometimes experience sensory overload. This may be more common in children with ASD, who can become overwhelmed by too much sensory stimulation. However, children still need sensory stimulation in order to encourage creative play and interaction with other children. So, how can inclusive children’s play areas address this need?

Special educational professionals often recommend that children’s play areas include a mix of interactive stimuli alongside quiet areas. This is because it is essential to provide a place where children can retreat to if they feel overwhelmed. These spaces can be sheds, huts or structures with crawl spaces children can access. This provides a safe space to avoid sensory overstimulation, and also offers the chance to recharge.

Child looking out of play tower

3: Add Sensory Activities

Another sensory concern for playgrounds is the inclusion of sensory activities to prevent under-stimulation. Children with hidden disabilities, such as ASD or ADHD, can feel under-stimulated as well as over-stimulated. This can lead to boredom, disruptive behaviour and so on. 

Sensory activities are anything that stimulates the five senses – touch, taste, smell, sight and hearing. Of course, some senses aren’t as relevant on the playground, but there are plenty of opportunities that can be utilised. 

Some commonly applied stimulis are music, lights, sand, and play structures with spinning or moving parts. You can easily apply these to your play structures built with inclusivity in mind. They will create a fun and inviting atmosphere that entices the senses and provides a fun and stimulating activity space.

Your playground surfaces can also provide positive sensory stimulation. For example, artificial grass provides a touch-sensitive surface that stimulates the touch sense. Also, it is an aesthetically pleasing and easy-to-maintain surface option when compared to the time-consuming nature of real grass.

Child playing with sand and a toy digger

4: Colours and Patterns

Colour has always been an important aspect of playgrounds. Research has proven that bright colours are a good addition to children’s play areas. This is because the visuals help stimulate play and creativity in young minds. It is also important, however, to consider the effect a bright and visual playground has on children with different sensitivities.

Additionally, an inviting setting full of creativity will naturally inspire children’s confidence and encourage them to socialise. Children can therefore gather with their playmates or classmates, to create fun games and grow their social interaction skills.

You can also see creativity in playgrounds themed around adventures in the ocean or exploring a forest. Themed playgrounds help encourage creativity and play by providing the inspiration for children’s storylines and roleplaying. This in turn also encourages social interaction, giving children the foundations of playing a game together.

Children playing around a play tower

5: Ground Level Activities

Not all children have the same ability to climb, scale or crawl. Therefore, they may not be able to access lifted play spaces, or those accessed by steps. You should consider putting in more ground-level play structures easily accessible to children with a compromised range of movement.

This means playgrounds don’t segregate children by their abilities. Everyone can enter and exit at the same level. Therefore, children who use wheelchairs or other mobility aids have equal opportunities to their able-bodied counterparts.

At this pivotal stage of development, excluded children can develop self-esteem or confidence issues as a result. This is something that you can easily avoid with the right provisions in place. The internet has a plethora of inspiration for your ground-level play structures. We recommend wheelchair-accessible swings, play structures with ramps for wheelchairs to go up, and so on.

We hope this article has helped give you some ideas of ways to make your playground inclusive to all. In this day and age, playground suppliers and businesses or schools should aim to make their play spaces more accessible.

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