Are parents actually protecting their children from getting hurt or are they doing the opposite when preventing kids from performing semi-dangerous acts? That’s the question many scientists are looking into when discussing the new safety regulations of public playgrounds. Because many parents are afraid of their toddlers accidentally falling off of playground jungle gyms, they have started to lower the heights of bars or eliminating them altogether. Though many parents believe that this will ultimately save the child from injuries such as concussions and broken arms, taking away the need for height and speed, dangerous but necessary, may have harmful effects on children, as they get older. Scientists have discovered that children that are not exposed to extreme heights or fast motion become more susceptible to have a fear of height when they are older. It is proven that kids need to have both speed and height in order to have healthy emotional development when dealing with more dangerous situations. For instance, if a child is prevented from going down a very steep slide in a park and is deprived of that experience for most of the important development age (2-5) that child could have a fear of heights; the same goes for high jungle gyms. Also, it is not even a proven fact that lower bars or lower play sets have a less of an injury rate then the higher more risky play toys; therefore, there is really no harm in having the higher structures. Also, children feel more of a sense of accomplishment when they finally reach the top of a high jungle gym because they completed a harder task then if they were to scale a four-foot-tall set of bars; there is nothing better than feeling like you have just reached the top of the world. Jungle gyms, though sometimes controversial due to their height, are an essential learning tool for children.
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