7 minute read
Building a Healthier Australia through Play
Play Australia’s new fi ve-year game plan sets out its aim to see a connected and healthy Australia where play is a part of everyone’s daily life. Kieran Brophy explains
As we move toward life post-COVID19, Play Australia has set out its vision that it is committed to realising as the organisation launches a bold new five-year game plan to build play in Australia.
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In Australia, the health and wellbeing of our children and young people is at crisis point.
When we consider that only one in three Australian children engage in free play outdoors daily and the overall health of Australians is at all time low levels, it is of great concern.
Play is fundamental in building physical activity habits in our children and young people, which in turn increases the likelihood of them being active throughout their adult lives.
If we consider the ever-increasing federal government focus on building a more active nation, starting with our children and young people; unstructured play is the ultimate early intervention to build Australia’s declining physical literacy– particularly through outdoor play.
Research shows that there is a clear correlation between the time children spend outside and their levels of physical activity demonstrating that the more time children have to engage in unstructured outdoor play, the more physically active they will be.
We also recognise that children should experience twice as much unstructured time as structured play experiences to support their healthy development.
Play supports children to explore their own physicality, their relationships to others and helps them learn about the world around them; providing an essential opportunity to explore risk in the outdoors … to climb trees, jump from heights, roll down grassy hills, and enjoy rough and tumble play, to name just a few activities.
Bibra Lake Regional Playground.
“We want to see a connected and healthy Australia where play is a part of everyone’s daily life.” Play Australia
Interestingly, those children who do not develop their propensity towards risk during outdoor play may have a greater inclination to disengage with physical activity (including sport and recreation) later in life.
Play must not be dismissed as being frivolous. Rather, it is essential for the health of children and the long-term health of communities.
It is probably no surprise to hear that I am engrossed in play at all times of the day, whether it be advocating for play in my time working or being involved in play during family life.
“Can you play with me?” is always the question of the day.
And sometimes I say “no” citing to my wife that it’s important for our children to be bored so they can explore their creativity. However, most of the time I do say “yes” because I love it. I feel closer to my children because we play together.
When I think about my wishes for their future, I find myself reflecting on my own childhood play, and wondering if they will have similar experiences of their own, in the coming years. •Playing spotlight in the long grass at night •Building forts on different sides of the backyard with my brother and spending afternoons just throwing stuff at each other •Exploring the tunnels through all the blackberry bushes around our neighbourhood •Climbing trees, picking plums and throwing them at my brother and sister …there’s a theme here.
These are some of the experiences that shaped my childhood and they are intensely personal memories.
Having grown up in the 1980s, I now feel quite lucky that I did, as I recognise it afforded me a level of freedom to roam my neighbourhood that the majority of today’s children do not have.
During grade three or four, I began riding my BMX to primary school and had the freedom to go wherever I pleased, as long as I was home by dark or gave mum a call if my plans changed.
On reflection, this meant my parents gave me permission, time and space to play outside every day.
Having had roughly a five kilometre² roaming range at this time, which would be a much smaller roaming range than my own parent’s baby boomer generation - it was significant enough to provide me with a huge feeling of independence; it allowed me to connect with neighbours and other community members in my own way, and it always gave me opportunities to play.
This kind of experience, I imagine, was likely shared with many readers.
Fast forward to now, and roaming ranges have shrunk to ‘next to nothing’ for a number of reasons – including, but not limited to: a lack of time to roam because children are overscheduled; parental fears regarding the threats posed by traffic, stranger danger, and/or parental concerns over how they will be perceived and judged by others in the community, if they let their children roam.
So, how can we create a brighter play future for the ‘trapped’ children of today?
Play Australia’s five-year strategy positions play as a national health priority and calls for all Australians to value and support play, particularly for our children and young people.
As a growing national organisation which represents play throughout Australia, we are proud to embrace a strong advocacy role within our broad remit of work.
Our key advocacy initiatives include our Play Today campaign, our 1000 Play Streets movement, and Playground Finder.
The Play Today campaign is designed to get more Australian children playing outside every day, our 1000 Play Streets
Aquatic play at the Armadale Fitness and Aquatic Centre. Image courtesy of Nature Play Queensland.
movement calls on Australians to reclaim their streets as places to play and connect while our Playground Finder platform enables families to connect with playgrounds throughout Australia.
All these initiatives promote the importance of children’s outside play and to explore how we all better work together to: •Afford permission, time and space for children and young people to play freely outside every day; •Foster stronger connections with neighbours to build more social play opportunities and increase perceptions of neighbourhood safety and feelings of belonging; •Give our children and young people more freedom to explore roaming ranges – from backyards, to streets, to parks – encouraging curiosity and placing trust in them as they explore the world around them; •Support environments for play throughout our communities; •Challenge policy and legislation that fails to prioritise the health of communities; and •Ultimately enhance the health and wellbeing of all Australians.
Play Australia is committed to driving the play agenda at all levels - global to community - embracing a systems approach that values collaborative partnerships, healthy environments, healthy policy, with a focus on supporting unstructured childled play opportunities - particularly for those members in our communities who need more support to play.
Our Play focus is on child-led play that is either supervised or unsupervised by parents/caregivers.
This means we promote the value of independent play that sees children (when they are ready) playing unsupervised by adults and having the opportunity to roam freely beyond their home safety net.
This kind of play is important because it builds more confident, independent, and ultimately more resilient children and young people, which again, means better health and wellbeing outcomes for communities.
In addition to the initiatives outlined, Play Australia will continue to celebrate and foster all the things we love about our organisation over the coming years, such as our enduring connections to the people and groups who have helped our wide-reaching work to date.
We have a unique and long-standing connection to play space designers, developers and managers in our communities Australia-wide and through our training and advisory support we will continue to promote and support the quality design of playgrounds, to ensure all Australians can access quality places to play.
We’re also keen to team up with our extensive play networks and engage with Australian young people who have a lack of public space available for their play, to test co-design approaches alongside local government to create more opportunities for young people to connect and play, in their own way.
We have an exciting five years ahead as we launch our bold new game plan to build PLAY in Australia, and we ask that you not only read it, but join us in our mission to promote the value of play and support all Australians to play every day, so we can all create a brighter play future for our children and communities. Kieran Brophy is Assistant Director of Play Australia and a proud, sometimes exhausted, father of three children, all under five years.
SURF’S UP with the Beach Themed Waterpark at Shelly Beach Holiday Park (NSW)
We love designing and delivering custom themed waterparks
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