Teen Playgrounds – Improving youth health, learning, behavior, and socialization

Imagine you’re a teen in a small Northern community, walking around town in the early evening with your friends. You’ve got your face buried in your cell phone, nothing to do, nowhere to go, yet you’ve got energy to burn and you’re looking for some action. Ripe for getting into some trouble, you turn a corner and there in front of you is a Teen Playground complete with basketball hoop, volleyball court, exercise circuit, and Barstarzz bars. You look around further and find some TRX Training equipment anchored to the side of a building, right next to a climbing wall, some rotation pods, more cool things to climb on, and spring swings! Wow! How many of you would stop whatever you were doing and start to play? Pretty hard to resist trying at least one or two of these devices, and if you’re in a group, the pull to outdo each other would be strong. Whether you’re overweight, have delayed development, or have never engaged in physical activity before (the plight of today’s youth), the Teen Playground provides both individual and group based equipment that challenge youth at their own physical level.

Healthbeat Exercise Equipment

Barstarzz Bars                                 TRX Training Equipment                          Climbing Wall

Habitat Systems playground equipment for youth

Research shows that exercise improves not only cardiovascular fitness, reducing risk of obesity and diabetes, but also improves mental health, reduces truancy, and enhances attention and learning (see Zone’in Fact Sheet for collated research references). These types of devices build strong core and motor coordination, resulting in improved printing, reading, and numerical literacy. Once the cell phones go in the pockets, teens start to socialize, helping them to feel more confident and less lonely. Teen playgrounds also offer youth the opportunity to expend some of that pent up, hyperactive, and often aggressive energy that builds up playing video games.

A thought to ponder is whether adhd is a mental illness, or a sign that children and youth just need to go outside and play. Recent issues arose in Vancouver BC as an advocacy group for children with disabilities released the results of a survey which revealed that numerous schools in the lower mainland were locking children into seclusion rooms, some for as long as 3 hour durations (see “Ban ‘isolation rooms’ in schools, B.C. advocate group urges” under Research and News section, December 2013 Child Development Series Newsletter). As problematic child and youth behaviors escalate, the propensity of the health and education systems to diagnose and medicate, or use restraints and seclusion rooms, rises. Diagnostic and medication procedures are costly, ineffective in most cases, and dangerous. Teen Playgrounds on the other hand are inexpensive, effective, and while a few youth might get hurt, their wounds will heal quickly. As Dr. Michael Rich pediatric researcher, quotes “I’d rather see a broken arm than a broken spirit”, one can easily see that the costs of a teen playground are minimal when considering the enormous mental and physical health benefits, reduced truancy, as well as improved attention and learning.

I’m presently working with a number of First Nations communities to establish these types of teen playgrounds in their communities. I’ve talked with hundreds of youth in the process who all report to me that there is nothing to do and nowhere to go to have fun in their community. When I show them pictures of this type of equipment, they all resoundingly say that they would definitely put down the tech and go outside and play if these devices were in their community.

How long can we continue to deny our youth what they sorely need and want, while instead turning to quick fixes of diagnosis and medication? How long can we turn a blind eye to the fact that our children and youth are suffering, and have never been sicker than they are today, largely due to technology overuse. How long can we continue to hide behind our own technology addictions, pushing device use onto our children and youth in both home and school settings? The ways in which we are raising and educating our children and youth with technology are not sustainable. Teen Playgrounds are a “best bang for buck” initiative to manage balance between healthy activity and technology.

Cris Rowan is a pediatric occupational therapist and advocate for children and youth. Cris is CEO of Zone’in Programs Inc. providing products, workshops, training, and consultation services for parents, teachers, and health professionals. For additional information please visit www.zonein.ca.