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 an educator 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
Professor
Executive Director, National Program for Play Area Safety
Dr. Heather Olsen is a Full Professor at the University of Northern Iowa’s College of Education. She serves as the Executive Director of the National Program for Play Area Safety, which focuses on research and certification training for the health and safety of play areas for children. Dr. Olsen’s scholarship has concentrated on playground safety research, child injury and risk assessment, advocacy, and curriculum and instructional delivery. Dr. Olsen has co-led three national studies conducting onsite playground safety assessments, which resulted in the co-development of the 12 user-friendly theoretical models. Additionally, she has a robust publication record and continues to serve on national and international committees for playground safety and is a reviewer for peer-reviewed scientific journals.
Dr. Olsen served as a principal investigator for the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission to conduct hands-on sampling to investigate the safety status of U.S. playgrounds, playgroundsafety.org/research. She has been instrumental in leading a team of researchers and topical experts for Public Health Canada and the Standards Council of Canada to develop contextual knowledge on the issue of thermal comfort and play areas for children. The research has been adopted as an informational annex in the Canadian Standards.
Sara Kreiss
Founder - Spaces for Play, INC.
MA, NPPAS
Design/Build Playground Company
For the first twelve years of Sara’s career, she worked as a teacher to very young children and University Students. For the last 26 years, an Educational Designer/Founder of Spaces For Play, Inc. Since 1999, she has spoken over decades at educational conferences on the design and construction of outdoor learning environments.
Sara is a leading designer in the NPPAS’s S.A.F.E. Play Area for Children Framework and has been involved in quality, age-appropriate design spaces nationally and internationally. Her designs have been inspired by international forums from not only the United States, but Italy, New Zealand, Australia, and Scotland. Sara participates regularly in continuing education opportunities that have taken her to Prague, Berlin and many parts of the USA. Sara is committed to creating environments that reflect play theory and safety research. The core of Spaces For Play designs incorporate an understanding of child development, safety, accessibility, learning goals, and the integration of natural elements.