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Playgrounds require supervision, maintenance to be safe for kids
Texas' year-round warm weather means children can get outside and enjoy all the fun that being outdoors can bring. Playgrounds call to them, with long slides, swings that go higher than ever and jungle gyms that can be a fort or great climbing tree.
Play is an essential part of healthy development in children. Playgrounds provide opportunities to develop movement, thinking, social and reasoning skills. Unfortunately, playgrounds are the sites of unintentional injuries.
Facts
- Playground equipment is a leading cause of injuries to children.
- Lack of supervision is associated with 40 percent of playground injuries.
- Strangulation is the primary cause of playground equipment fatalities, causing nearly half of the deaths.
- Falls are responsible for 24 percent of the deaths associated with playground equipment.
- Falls also account for 90 percent of the most severe playground related injuries, mostly head injuries and fractures.
Prevention
- Always supervise children using playground equipment; make sure you can see and hear them.
- Make sure your children follow basic rules of the playground - slide feet first, sit on the swing and use handrails when climbing a ladder; remind them, too, not to push or shove and to take turns on the equipment.
- Teach children never to jump off or walk in front of or behind a moving swing.
- Have your children remove hood and neck drawstrings and scarves; make sure shoelaces are tied securely; leave necklaces and purses at home.
- Make sure the equipment is challenging enough for your child; when it is not, children often try to create challenges, causing misuse of equipment and injuries.
- Guide children to equipment appropriate for their age and size; children age 5 and younger should play in a separate area away from older children.
- Report any safety hazards to the people responsible for the playground site.
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