Risky Play - What are the Real Risks?

According to Ellen Sandseter, a professor at Queen Maud University in Trondheim, Norway, She's identified six categories of risks that seem to attract children everywhere in their play:

• Great heights: Children climb trees and other structures to scary heights, from which they gain a birds-eye view of the world and the thrilling feeling of I did it!.

• Rapid speeds: Children swing on vines, ropes, or playground swings; slide on sleds, skis, skates, or playground slides; shoot down rapids on logs or boats; and ride bikes, skateboards, and other devices fast enough to produce the thrill of almost but not quite losing control.

• Dangerous tools: Depending on the culture, children play with knives, bows and arrows, farm machinery (where work and play combine), or other tools known to be potentially dangerous.  There is, of course, great satisfaction in being trusted to handle such tools, but there is also thrill in controlling them, knowing that a mistake could hurt.

• Dangerous elements: Children love to play with fire, or in and around deep bodies of water, either of which poses some danger.

• Rough and tumble: Children everywhere chase one another around and fight playfully, and they typically prefer being in the most vulnerable position—the one being chased or the one underneath in wrestling--the position that involves the most risk of being hurt and requires the most skill to overcome.

• Disappearing/getting lost:  Little children play hide and seek and experience the thrill of temporary, scary separation from their companions.  Older ones venture off, on their own, away from adults, into territories that to them are new and filled with imagined dangers, including the danger of getting lost.

I personally agree with all these risk factors, and how beneficial they are. These to me are the real risks of risky play, explained. Risky play is letting children make decisions (safely) by themselves. Safety is everyones priority, but, it is important to realize when to interfere. When to interfere you may ask... parents, adults, caregivers, need to find a balance, a compromise, in interfering in free play that involves risks.

References:

1. https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/freedom-learn/201404/risky-play-why-children-love-it-and-need-it

2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3499858/