Adventure Playground as an Example of the Child’s Right to Play

Abstract

We analyze the history of creation, structure and psychological foundations of adventure playgrounds, which appeared and became widespread in Europe during the second half of the XX century. Adventure playground is an example of realization of children’s rights enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, especially in Article 31. Adventure playgrounds are designed by experts, parents, teachers, sharing the ideas of civil society and seeking new ways to support the initiative, independence of children and adolescents. At an adventure playground, modern urban children and adolescents have the opportunity to realize their intentions, and try to explore their capabilities in a joint productive activity with peers. In this article, adventure playgrounds are considered as one of the ways to facilitate public urban space to play and socialize. Adventure playground serves as a social-psychological-pedagogical center and has great potential for all age groups. We provide specific examples of the structure and activity on adventure playgrounds existing in the UK and Germany. Separately we discuss the contribution of professionals working at these sites (playworker).

Keywords

• child
• activity
• game
• children’s rights