Article Analysis Essay on 'Risky' Playgrounds Are Making a Comeback

Introduction

Children's ability to learn better and be adventurous thrives best depending on the environment in which they play and interact with other children. At the same time, the playground is associated with risks that can endanger children's lives and result in injuries and fights with other children, among others. Because of these risks, the playground has been restricted and has become overly protective of children. The structures for child-play have been erected to minimize dangers to which children can be exposed. While this restriction is necessary, it has adverse psychological effects on the development of the child as it interferes with children's abilities to make certain choices. This paper presents a critical analysis of Tanvi Misra's article, "'Risky' Playgrounds Are Making a Comeback," highlighting its insights as well as biases towards the modern children's playground.

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In the article, "'Risky' Playgrounds Are Making a Comeback", written by Tanvi Misra and published on CityLabin August of 2018, she emphasizes the negative effect a sheltered, overly-protective upbringing can have on a child's self-discovery and development and proposes a new vision for children's play, one that allows them to make certain choices and learn from them. Misra interviews different organizations that are making this vision a reality for her research in this publication, as well as authors, architects, researchers, childhood development specialists, and parent's viewpoints on the situation. From her research, she has found that the adventure playground concept is newly emerging and thought by most to be more beneficial to the child.

First, children are able to analyze a situation and make a decision about the risks involved in doing certain actions. This helps the child develop right from wrong, and if they fail, they learn and will not make the same mistake again. Second, the adventure playground gives children a sense of independence. Most of the established adventure playgrounds do not allow parents to join the kids in the play area other than the area for the very young, so children are left to their own devices to protect themselves, make smart decisions and become better risk managers. Third, the playgrounds allow the children to be creative. The design concept behind these adventure playgrounds is that they are not cookie-cutter, they are simple with things like tires, blocks of wood and ropes so that the children can get creative with unstructured play using their imaginations to make something interesting out of things that inherently are not. In this piece, Misra is trying to persuade communities and parents to adopt the concept of adventure playgrounds.

Misra asserts that the risks and chances of harm labeled against the traditional playgrounds are overstated and have resulted in a critical analysis of the risks and injury that children can sustain. This scrutiny has led to new designs in creating modern playgrounds with plastic swings and slide meant to maximize the safety of children. While this idea guarantees children outward safety, it endangers the child's psychological well-being and negatively interferes with their abilities to have unrestricted fun while they are outdoors.

The author's argument is biased because, in as much as she has used numerous pieces of evidence to support the notion that structured playgrounds cause developmental disadvantages to children, numerous other sources have proven that modern playgrounds have increased children's safety and developmental health (Bohn-Goldbaum et al., 2013). There are playgrounds structures that are deemed dangerous as compared to others. Concerned parents have decried the use of dangerous structures and have been supported by safety policies insisting on children's safety when installing modern recreational spaces (Reddy, 2012). Numerous studies and research have proven that enhanced recreational spaces have increased children's activities in the playfields. While too restrictive measures interfere with certain aspects of child development, injury prevention is also fundamental to a child's safety. Physical wellness for children is also correlated to mental and social health. While psychological well-being is impacted with too restrictive measures of structuring playing spaces, the anomaly can be well-compensated for by other measures (Brussoni, Olsen, Pike & Sleet, 2012). The kinds of games played by children can also contribute to psychological development or deterioration. The unstructured playground might be adventurous and boost child play; however, only boys have a higher tendency of exploration because research indicates that female children tend to avoid them (Reddy, 2018). This aspect downplays the generalization that unrestricted play helps in the psychological development of all children

Organizational Structure

Overall, the organizational structure consists primarily of examples, focusing on the different organizations, studies, nonprofits that have adopted this concept and how it has worked out in their cases. Misra organizes the article in such a way that it first paints a negative picture of the modern playgrounds and how they stagnate children's psychological development. From the introductory paragraph, the author insinuates that modern playgrounds prioritize protection from harm at the expense of maximizing "enjoyment" (Misra, 2018, p.2). She goes ahead and trashes credible research written by Tim Gill on child safety, falsely claiming that it is an overstated piece of work. Misra then samples Reilly Wilson's one-sided views on how the latter trashes the aspect of "risks" (Misra 2018, p.4). Wilson does not weigh in on the well-documented dangers of unstructured playgrounds, and this notion indicates a bias.

Evidence Evaluation

Misra uses different types of evidence throughout her article to support her argument. One example is when she illustrated the statistics surrounding the benefits of adventure playgrounds "...these types of playgrounds had 53 percent more visitors than America's cookie-cutter ones, and children are up to 18 percent more physically active..." (Misra, 2018, p.5). This is an example of a statistic and demonstrates the use of logos. This is relevant because it supports her argument that adventure playground is beneficial to the child and the community. The evidence Misra presented is sufficient as it is a proper use of logos and gave derivative of where the statistic was sourced from, Talarowski, who runs a playground design nonprofit called Studio Ludo. This piece of evidence is also accurate as this non-profit organization exists and has the evidence posted on its website that matches the ones described in her article.

Another piece of evidence Misra presents is when she gives the viewpoint of Tim Gill, a London-based researcher who wrote a white paper on false assumptions regarding risky playgrounds. This piece of evidence is classified as a testimonial and is an appeal to ethos. This is relevant because it is an in-depth study on the stigma surrounding adventure playgrounds, supporting her argument that these playgrounds are mis-viewed. This piece of evidence is not sufficient or accurate as white papers are made for business initiatives and to persuade customers, partners, or businesses to promote their viewpoint. Using this piece of evidence shows bias, and is from a subjective viewpoint that makes the source unreliable.

The third piece of evidence can also be derived from Gill's results of research, which adequately indicates that structured playgrounds have been made to encourage risk-taking and adventure (Gill, 2018). Misra avoids this research and its arguably credible standing, claiming it is misguided, overstated, and based on "faulty assumptions."(Misra, 2018) This stance is a show of biasness.

Language Use

The connotative language used by the author is that of an outsider, a reporter reporting to the audiences the current state of affairs as far as playgrounds and child play are concerned. The language is strongly negative on the subject of modern structured playgrounds and how they limit a child's adventurous spirits and psychological development. This type of language impacts the audiences negatively on the use of structured playing spaces for children despite the fact that modern spaces of play have greatly minimized injuries while also encouraging adventure. The author uses a concerned tone as she constantly asks probing questions on the design of the playing grounds. For example, Misra asks whether the current playground designs foster creativity, problem-solving, and independence(Misra 2018, p.2).

Author Credibility

Tanvi Misra is not a credible author, at least as far as child developmental psychology is concerned. She is a staff writer at CityLab and The Atlantic and has a history in reporting and research with NPR, NBC, and Medill news service. As a journalist, Misra's credibility does not hold much grounds as she lacks a comprehensive background in child psychology.

The points she puts across are well-structured to propagate her biased views using information gained from interviewing organizations and experts. Misra claims in her article, "'Risky' Playgrounds Are Making a Comeback" is that risky adventure playgrounds are misunderstood and more beneficial to the child and their development. This claim is credible because Misra has conducted her research and has interviewed many organizations and nonprofits who have developed their own adventure playgrounds as well as parents of children who support this new design of children's playgrounds.

In contrast, there is evidence that Misra has a bias. She only included interviews with researchers or organizations that have studies or circumstances that support these adventure playgrounds and fails to represent a viewpoint that does not agree with her argument. Misra intentionally leaves out and negative studies or information regarding these playgrounds like potential injuries and lawsuits that could come from a playground such as this.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the modern structured playground is overly protected and restricted to prevent injuries and risks to children while playing. The over-restriction of the playground has led to claims that it limits children's spirits of adventure, psychological development, and their internal instincts to take risks. These aspects, according to Misra, are available in natural playgrounds with all its risky elements, and this is the reason why the world is embracing unstructured and undersigned children playing spaces. Misra uses a chronological organizational structure to advance her points, making the audience to understand a one-sided part of the story. She uses various shreds of evidence to indicate that unstructured playgrounds are beneficial to child development than the structured ones. She utilizes a negative connotative language with a hopeful tone to convince audiences to embrace unstructured playgrounds. Despite her views, Misra is not a credible author with a background in child psychology. This is the reason why she ignores all the positive aspects of structured playgrounds and how they have contributed to the safety and promoted risk-taking and the spirit of adventure. This aspect of ignorance makes her arguments quite ineffective because they are associated with biased viewpoints.

References

Bohn-Goldbaum, E., Phongsavan, P., Merom, D., Rogers, K., Kamalesh, V., & Bauman, A. (2013). Does Playground Improvement Increase Physical Activity among Children? A Quasi-Experimental Study of a Natural Experiment. Journal Of Environmental And Public Health, 2013, 1-9. doi: 10.1155/2013/109841

Brussoni, M., Olsen, L., Pike, I., & Sleet, D. (2012). Risky Play and Children's Safety: Balancing Priorit...