Do children create standardized playgrounds? A study on the gap-crossing affordances of jumping stones

One point of critique on playgrounds is their omnipresent standardization-the distances between, for example, jumping stones or the ropes in a climbing net tend to be equal. Although current psychological literature suggests that nonstandardized playgrounds are beneficial for the children's motor development, standardized playgrounds may have a greater appeal to children because of their symmetry. The present study examined whether children opt for standardization if they construct their own playground. A group of children, who varied in their stepping and jumping capabilities, were provided with six identical jumping stones. Each child was asked to create her own jumping stone playground and play in it. The vast majority of the children created a configuration with varying gap widths. Moreover, the maximum and mean gap widths in the playgrounds were scaled to the (perceived) action capabilities of the children. This suggests that standardized playgrounds are indeed undesirable.