In this in-depth interview, author and activist  Tim Gill urges parents to consider the level of freedom and types of experiences they had in childhood. He explains why allowing children to fulfill their need to test their own limits helps them assess risks, learn their capacities, gain confidence and become more resilient. Tim talks about unstructured play and what a great play space looks like; garnering peer support from other parents; and what can be done to help the growing number of children suffering from anxiety and depression. You’ll learn why it’s vital to weigh up the risks vs benefits of certain types of play and how to be a little less risk averse and a little more free range.

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Length: 1h : 06m : 00s

Subject Area: Risk, urban planning

Tim Gill  is an independent scholar, advocate and consultant on childhood. His website and blog focuses on the changing nature of children’s play and free time, and their evolving relationships with the people and places around them. Tim argues for a balanced, thoughtful approach to risk in childhood: a position set out in his 2007 book No Fear: Growing up in a risk averse society  Tim is a longstanding advocate for child-friendly urban planning and design and supporter of the Playing Out movement.

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Subject Area: Risk, urban planning

Hanna Rosin’s excellent and in depth article looks at why a preoccupation with safety has stripped childhood of independence, risk taking, and discovery, without actually making it any safer. Rosin notes, most parents today remember their own childhoods as quite different from the way their children are growing up. Aware that she is not adverse to being a constant presence in her own children’s lives, Rosin takes her 5 year old son Gideon to ‘The Land’ – an adventure playground with a difference in North Wales – where children make the rules, parents are nowhere to be seen and fire making is an every day occurrence.

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Entertaining and in depth conversation with author Hanna Rosin about modern Western society’s obsession with child safety, which asks whether we have stripped childhood of independence and the joys of discovery.  Discusses why many parents are full of nostalgic memories of their own free range childhoods yet so fixed on the idea that the world is a more dangerous place than it used to be.

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Length: 52m : 18s

Subject Area: Risk, safety

Host Robert Siegel interviews author Hanna Rosin about the downside to parents micro-managing their children’s physical and emotional risks. She discusses the drastic change in parental supervision over a single generation and the effect it is having on children’s ability to grow up into healthy, capable adults. Contains discussion around ‘The Land’ – an adventure playground in Wales where children are allowed to light their own fires and are in full control of the typography without a parent in sight.

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Length: 8m : 09s

Subject Area: Risk, supervision

Positive risk-taking in outdoor physical play is important for children’s optimal health and development. Despite this, there is mounting concern that many developmentally beneficial activities are now seen as dangerous and something to be avoided. Perceptions of risk are very much subject to cultural interpretation, and the growing risk aversion evident in some developed Western countries, namely Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, is less obvious in other developed countries, notably some of the European and Scandinavian countries. To explore some of these cultural differences, early childhood practitioners from Australia and Norway were asked about the outdoor play experiences they provide for children and their attitude towards risk-taking in play. Results showed that practitioners from both countries recognised the importance of risky play for children’s development and well-being. However, differences in the extent to which children’s risky play was supported were evident. Factors associated with the quality of the outdoor play space, regulations, and threat of litigation were identified as constraints for the Australian practitioners. These findings have implications for the development of policy supporting teachers’ pedagogical decision to provide developmentally challenging play environments for children.

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Year Level: Early Years

Subject Area: Risk

Numerous studies over the past ten years have noted a trend towards over – protective parenting practices that restrict children’s activities and limit children’s independent mobility and neighbourhood engagement. Through semi – structured interviews with mothers of four and five year old children, this study examines beliefs around children’s outdoor play opportunities and exposure to and management of potential risks in outdoor environments. Whilst the results showed mothers overwhelmingly acknowledged the benefits of risky outdoor play, tension existed between their desire to provide opportunities for this type of play, and their own fears and concerns about their children’s safety.

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Year Level: Early Years

Subject Area: Risk

This article takes an evolutionary perspective of children’s risky play, looking at evolutionary functions and the anti-phobic effects of risky play.

According to non-associative theory, infants develop fear of things (like heights and strangers) to protect them from situations they are not mature enough to naturally cope with. Risky play provides children with the experience of facing situations they were previously scared of, coupled with a thrilling positive emotion. As they learn to cope with these situations and gain a sense of mastery, their fear no longer holds power.

 The authors conclude that risky play may have evolved as a natural phobia reducing developmental mechanism and that consequently, being hindered from taking part in age appropriate risky play may in fact increase the likelihood of mental health problems later in life.

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This website run by author, blogger, TV personality and activitist Lenore Skenazy discusses how to raise safe, self reliant kids without going nuts with worry. Parents are encouraged to let their children have more opportunities to be independent, spend time on their own and explore age appropriate risks with the knowledge that making mistakes and learning from them are valuable life experiences.

 

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This new collaborative venture from Free Range Kids author and blogger Lenore Skenazy, research professor Peter Gary and others, supports the idea that children are smart, strong and capable yet they are in danger of not being able to practice problem solving with adults always hovering around solving problems first.  They believe in giving children the freedom and opportunity to take risks, deal with disappointment, figure things out and make their way in the world as all generations before them have done, up until now. Witty, informed, some would say controversial, but always thought provoking content.

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