Risky Play: Anti-fragility vs. Safetyism
These are relatively new terms applied to society today, but they were born of necessity. Anti-fragility may seem synonymous with resilient, but it’s actually different. Resiliency is generally understood to mean when tough things happen to us, we continue despite them. Anti-fragility, however, means that the tough things that happen to you actually make you stronger. Of course no one wants bad things to happen to their children. However this is not a black and white issue. The relative “badness” of the thing happening is essential. Walking along a fallen log in the forest and slipping off to land in the plants beside it is not actually that bad. The risk the child has taken is very small, and the consequences fit perfectly. A little dirt, maybe a bruise or small cut, and the element of surprise. Every part of this experience is there to teach the child things like “if I put my foot on a wet spot like that, there’s no traction”, or “falling is kind of scary but in the end I’ll be fine”, or “next time I’ll wear my rubber boots like dad suggested”.
The opposite of anti-fragility is safetyism. I first learned about it from the book The Anxious Generation (Haidt). In it, he explains: “The worship of ‘safety’ above all else is called safetyism. It is dangerous because it makes it harder for children to learn to care for themselves and to deal with risk, conflict, and frustration.” (pg. 94) When we ‘protect’ our children from taking risks and dealing with failures, we are in fact, not protecting them - we are actually inhibiting their overall growth. Haidt explains that humans are happier in the long run (and short term too) if they live more of their lives in the positive ‘discover mode’, than the fearful ‘defend mode’. He says “Antifragile kids need risky play to stay in discover mode. Antifragility is the key to solving many puzzles about human development, such as this one: Why do children add risk to their play? … Play researchers have long known the answer. As Norwegian researchers like Ellen Sandseter and Leif Kennair wrote in 2010, thrilling experiences have anti-phobic effects.” (pg. 74) He continues further by explaining the details of their research here:
“Sandseter and Kennair define risky play as ‘thrilling and exciting forms of play that involve a risk of physical injury.’ (In a 2023 paper, expanding on their original work, they add that risky play also requires elements of uncertainty.) They note that such play usually takes place outdoors, during free-play time rather than activities organized by adults… Sandseter and Kennair analyzed the kinds of risks that children seek out when adults give them some freedom, and they found six: heights (such as climbing trees or playground structures), high speed (such as swinging, or going down fast slides), dangerous tools (such as hammers and drills), dangerous elements (such as experimenting with fire), rough-and-tumble play (such as wrestling),and disappearing (hiding, wandering away, potentially getting lost or separated). These are the major types of thrills that children need.” (pg. 77)
A Vancouver academic, Maria Brussoni, studies play. She focuses on outdoor play (which we can’t offer - yet!) and the risk that is required for children to experience. Of course, we won’t be able to offer all types of risks at Playsticity. We don’t need the fire department to tell us that open flames aren’t a great idea in our indoor playground, and our contractors would surely not love the idea of the children being given tools. However, we will do our best to offer what Haidt and Brussoni recommend, in offering the kids a supervised open-ended space in which to take the risks they seek. We decided to do this long ago, but we were validated in this approach from the book. Here’s one example:
“While writing this chapter, I met with Mariana Brussoni, a play researcher at the University of British Columbia. Brussoni guided me to research showing that the risk of injury per hour of physical play is lower than the risk per hour of playing adult-guided sports, while conferring many more developmental benefits (because children must make all choices, set and enforce rules, and resolve all disputes)... Our goal in designing the places children play, she says, should be to ‘keep them as safe as necessary, not as safe as possible.’” (pg. 81)
So, at Playsticity, we encourage risky play for toddlers, preschool and school age kids. Now that you know what we mean by that, and understand the incredible necessary benefits of it, we hope that you are excited to bring ‘discover mode’ into your children’s lives more often, and that our playspace can be a part of that journey.
