Playground injuries are common among children, such as those from climbing apparatus, swings, and slides. They lead to over 200,000 emergency department visits in the US annually.i These injuries range from minor skin abrasions to severe cases, such as fractures, concussions, and even death. School-aged and pre-school children account for most playground injuries.i Every safe and comfortable playground starts with a plan. When shade disappears and surfaces overheat, play stops, and safety suffers. In this webinar, an experienced playground safety researcher and a Certified Playground Safety Inspector (CPSI) will come together to share recent research, information, trends, and current insights for the prevention of playground injuries and health risks from several perspectives. This webinar will highlight resources with expert strategies to design safe playgrounds to help community members, childcare managers, school leaders, municipalities, and educators build play spaces for children that stay cool, safe, and ready for action.
Dr. Heather Olsen will describe emerging insights to playground injuries and share the S.A.F.E. framework approach. S.A.F.E includes (S) Supervision, (A) Appropriate Environments, (F) Fall Surfacing and (E) Equipment Maintenance. A validated structured evaluation tool will be discussed to guide participants on how to assess various aspects of the health and safety of play areas for children. Sara Kreiss, an educational designer and founder of Spaces for Play, INC will share case studies and examples to describe ways to integrate the S.A.F.E. framework approach at the local level.
A combination of research and experience will be shared, including visuals of the design process for new and enhanced play area sites to prevent playground injuries. Resources and tools will be available during the webinar that are geared for practitioners, community leaders, health and safety technicians, and educators within early childhood, schools, community parks, health, safety, and injury prevention. Presenters will discuss how agencies can combat the negative effects of traditional playgrounds and empower communities to use updated guidebooks and tools for safe and healthy decisions. These approaches can reduce incidences of playground injuries and support the health and well-being of children.
Moderator:
Michael Ely has thirty-five years of experience in data analysis, management, and program evaluation. As the director of the EMS for Children Data Center (EDC), he oversees several full-time staff as well as coordinates assignments and activities for several additional part-time faculty members, statisticians, IT personnel, and administrative staff. The EDC team supports grantees of the Emergency Medical Services for Children Program in the areas of data collection, statistical analysis, data linkage, research design, grant writing, data dissemination, and quality improvement. He has extensive experience in data collection and analysis, design of surveys, grant writing, instruction/presentation, and group facilitation. His research interests include improving hospital emergency department (ED) and pre-hospital readiness to care for pediatric patients, ED and EMS data collection systems, and quality improvement. He is also a member of the Children’s Safety Now Alliance.
Presenters:
Dr. Heather Olsen is a nationally known educator and researcher who has been involved with the promotion of quality safe play environments for children. She began her academic career in leisure, youth, and human services at the University of Northern Iowa where she now holds the position of Full Professor in the Department of Health, Recreation, and Community Services. Along with Dr. Olsen’s faculty appointment, she currently serves as the Executive Director of the National Program for Play Area Safety.
Dr. Olsen’s scholarship portfolio includes over 20 peer-review articles for notable professional journals and she has delivered over 200 state, regional, national, and international presentations, authored two books and two book chapters, and authored over 45 service publications and professional manuscripts, which have been adopted by a number of public and private entities. She co-developed a Playground Supervision and Sun Safety train-the-trainer curriculum for the Iowa Department of Public Health. She co-developed comprehensive educational information, such as the Early Childhood Assessment Manual for Outdoor Play Areas, Playground Supervision: A Guiding Reference for Schools & Youth Programs, Playground Safety Inspection Manual: School-Aged Play Spaces, and After the school-aged playground inspection: A guide for reporting findings.
Dr. Olsen’s scholarship has concentrated on playground safety research, child injury and risk assessment, advocacy, and curriculum and instructional delivery. Dr. Olsen served as a principal investigator for the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission sponsored study to assess the safety status of U.S. playgrounds for a variety of risk factors. In addition, she spearheaded a team of leading researchers, scientists, educators, and students for Public Health Canada and the Standards Council of Canada to develop contextual knowledge on the issue of thermal comfort, as it relates to young children, Thermally Comfortable Playgrounds. The Canada Playground Standard adopted the research in an informational annex on thermal comfort and playgrounds (CAN/CSA Z614). She has co-led three national studies conducting onsite playground safety assessments, which resulted in the co-development of the 12 user-friendly theoretical models. From 2005-2008, Dr. Olsen co-directed the Iowa Safe Surfacing Initiative which was funded by the State of Iowa RIF Bill.
Sara Kreiss is an educational design consultant and founder of Spaces for Play, INC. Her 40 years of experience include teaching young children and university students. Sara has published educational articles and speaks at various conferences about playground design, safety, and accessibility for outdoor natural learning environments.
In addition to her advanced degrees in education, she remains current as a Certified Playground Safety Inspector (CPSI) by completing recertification every three years and is certified with the National Program for Playground Safety (NPPS).
Sara is currently a collaborator with Childspace Early Learning in New Zealand. Additionally, Sara has participated in the international forum, presented by Reggio Children in Reggio Emilia, Italy. She has attended conferences in New Zealand and Australia, as well as having engaged in a training program with Nature Explore. To continue her studies of "Nature Preschools," Sara traveled to Scotland, Ireland, Prague, and Waldkindergarten in Berlin, Germany (Forest Schools).