RePLAY 3-6: risky play in preschoolers

As safe as necessary?

Children spontaneously seek a challenge and like to try things that are slightly more difficult than what they can do. There are also risks involved... How do you offer a challenge and at the same time guarantee the safety of children? Supervisors and parents do not find this balance easy. They often interrupt playing children for safety reasons or out of their own fright. 'Watch out!', 'Don't', 'Dangerous' are words that they quickly use, even when children are playing intensely and there is no acute or great danger. As a result, supervisors and parents often unintentionally restrict playing opportunities for children. They then miss out on the countless benefits of playing at risk:

• Taking risks is exciting and challenging.
• Children are given more opportunities to play creatively and solution-oriented.
• They are at the limit of their capabilities.
• Children overcome their fear and their self-confidence grows.
• They learn to persevere and build their resilience.

Children therefore learn a lot of new skills. A unique added value, which you cannot obtain in other ways, is risk competence: children can notice dangers, dare to take risks and can deal with them appropriately.

Sensitize and stimulate professionals

We want to gain insight into inspiring examples of (supporting) risky play, and into the levers and obstacles experienced by professionals, parents and preschoolers in (supporting) risky play. That is why we are planning a large-scale survey among professionals (teachers, childcare and leisure supervisors) who work with pre-schoolers, and of parents of pre-schoolers. We distribute an online questionnaire and organize additional in-depth interviews with this target group and our main character: the toddlers themselves! We collect good practices of risky play among preschoolers: what do the children do, and how do professionals and parents support them in this?

We encourage the sharing of videos, photos and articles with which supervisors from various sectors and parents of babies, toddlers and preschoolers inspire each other. In this way we reach an even broader target group in the current debate about risky gaming. Throughout the project, we will also broaden the existing online community around 'risky play in toddlers' to 'risky play in young children'.

And last but not least, we continue to draw attention to the importance of risky gaming at policy level.