How to ensure that our kids Play it safe

As parents we all love and adore our children and want the best childhood for them.

Growing up, a world of skills is discovered by children in eternally fun ways of jumping, swinging, running, hanging and all other forms of recreational free play. In fact this is also a great way of learning interpersonal and softer skills All over the world it is recognized that children need freedom to play...and that play is not a luxury, but a necessity!

But first, safety

The most important thing to ensure while encouraging children to play is the safety measures. Playing surfaces are most important in this aspect, as these play a huge role keeping kids safe and preventing injuries.

If one were to round up the injuries caused during play, the statistics are alarming. A country like Canada alone records 225000 playground injuries year on year and almost 60% of head injuries are from falls on playgrounds or sports grounds!

Cushy them up

So how do we go about ensuring playground safety for our children? If you are a parent, or creche owner or a contractor, you should start with the right kind of rubber flooring to child proof your playgrounds.

All you have to keep in mind is the critical fall height of play equipment and that will tell you the kind of floor thickness you need. For example, if your play equipment critical fall height is 1.7m, you should place a flooring with a thickness of at least 60mm to be able to cushion a potential fall from that height.. Refer to the chart available on your catalogue.

Follow those guidelines

The relation between these 2 key factors and playground safety have been governed by International guidelines : ASTM 1292 and UNI EN 1177. These standards have behind them, a serious amount of risk analysis done, related to injuries caused by falls and the flooring shock absorbing features. Nothing is left to chance.

If you’ve never done this before, relax. We understand. Our expert teams will show you how it's done. We have some highly evolved machinery like TRIAX which is a stress tester built specifically for such surfaces.

Also the HIC (Head Injury Criterion) test is one of the most effective ways to measure the probability of head injury occurring from the impact with a surface and it also allows to check if the above mentioned international standards are met.

Check, check and double check

Playground surfaces are also prone to damage, being high traffic areas. So you need to keep a check on them and inspect the surfacing and resilience routinely.

We are sure as responsible facilitators of play or simply as parents, you would want to be aware of safety standards and do your best to give them the childhood they deserve!

Because we know that falling is learning…but we need them to fall safely don’t we!