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PLAYGROUNDS, PLAYTHINGS AND PLAYCOURTS ™ :
AN EXPERIMENT IN THREE PARTS:
By Dr. Reeve R. Brenner, Founding President,
The National Association for Recreational Equality
(NARE – “Let’s Play Fair”)

A. Playgrounds:
An experiment: Take one boundless playground or any such“accessible playground” intended for integration, socialization and inclusion (IDEA and ADA) of all – including special populations. Let us posit the playground cost at $100,000 as in Hagerstown, MD.

B. Playthings:
Budget $1,000 worth (or half) for a variety of Playthings: toys, trains, scooters, tricycles, dolls, games, art kits, puzzles and other playthings oriented to the same age group as the accessible playground. Place these in a like size area that is equally attractive and inviting.

C. Playcourts:
Alongside of the playground and playthings place a third equally attractive ball-playing Playcourt™ of Bankshot Sports (Bankshot Basketball, Bankshot Tennis, Bankshot Pitch-NThrow, etc) which costs $10,000 – or ten times less costly than the playground and ten times more than the playthings court in a similar size area. We have conducted this experimented at trade shows. We would like to conduct this experiment more scientifically in an ongoing park or recreation center.

PREDICTIONS TO BE PROVEN OR DISPROVED.
The differently-abled child and the developmentally-different child and all special population children might be represented by the child who uses a wheelchair (Although he is or she is not to be thought of as a common denominator for children with other disabilities or others who are differently-able. Our experience has been with children with MS, cystic fibrosis, cerebral palsy, autistic individuals and Down syndrome individuals.) Based on the limited but quite instructive trade show observations, of all the three play facilities set up, the toys will get traffic especially from the five and six years and under, particularly the toddlers and nursery school children the same age as the playground guidelines. The children will play on an average of five to twenty minutes. Longer, when there is no competition from a playground and a Playcourt like Bankshot.

But the interaction with other kids – inclusion, socialization and integration – at the playthings arena are realized at the cheap. Let’s leave aside who puts all the toys away. (The differently-abled will not be crawling through the climbing tubes – wheelchair users are not climbers and large crib toys are short in appeal.) And, unlike playgrounds and playcourts, playtoys are home oriented; parks and recreation centers need not provide these to the community In Hagerstown, MD, there has been installed a very attractive, accessible boundless playground a few yards from an already existing older, not unattractive playground (except by comparison to the new $100,000 playground alongside it).

Now Stevie, a nine-year old in a wheelchair, can roll up alongside the older playground and be marginalized or he can now roll up on a ramp inside the new accessible boundless playground and also be marginalized.Within or alongside the two structures, Stevie is excluded and reduced to staring at the enlarged cradle toys. The other children under five will crawl and climb but toddlers to eight years old, diminishing by age, will creep and crawl for up to 20 minutes on average. Then they – four, five and six year old and up - will depart for the play toys. They will play for up to 40 minutes.

D. Bankshot Playcourts
Now on to the Bankshot Playcourts. Children, beginning at the age of five or six, will spend an hour, several hours or the rest of the day at a nine to 13 station Bankshot court of approximately $10,000. In our research, very few children returned to climb and crawl in a playground once they reach the Bankshot court. Some of the younger children under 5 will return to the“cooler medium” of playthings but rarely to the playground. After they’ve played a single round of Bankshot they will spend the rest of the day at the Playcourt - designed for school-aged children and older - playing Bankshot to take on the challenge of the sport and to improve their skills. No surprise. Kids over five want to play ball. They will creep and climb through tubes somewhat longer if they have no alternative.

Bankshot Playcourts offer ball playing with a difference. Here’s why: Participants play alongside, not against one another.

That’s the key to inclusion. Unlike the “playfields” – baseball, tennis, football, soccer, etc - which receive the lion’s share of a community’s budget and are entirely exclusionary by their very nature - there is no running, no aggression, no offense or defense in a Playcourt. Speed, strength, size, stamina and gender are irrelevant at Bankshot Total-Mix Sports. Bankshot Playcourts are more than accessible. They achieve inclusion, integration and socialization (IDEA) for all and for the greatest age group of participants and for the maximum diversity of participants. Playgrounds empty out into Bankshot courts for children ages four and five and up. Care to experiment in your own community? Everyone, including the differently-able will transition from marginalization to real inclusion.

Conclusion:

Wherever there’s a playground, alongside it, advancing a child’s transition from playground to adult playfield sports, there should be a Bankshot Playcourt.

For more information, call the Bankshot Organization at
800-933-0140, check out their website at www.bankshot.com
or email your questions to info@bankshot.com .

Reprinted from The Park and Recreation Trades - Sept. 2009