Outdoor Playgrounds Vs. Sensory Gyms: Two Developmental Giants Compared

In this post, I'm going to personally compare and contrast the outdoor playground with the new kid on the block, the sensory gym. On the surface, they appear similar, yet when we dive deeper into their purpose they couldn't be more different.

It is a happy talent to know how to play – Ralph Waldo Emerson

In this article, I do a deep dive into the origins of the outdoor playground and the sensory gym. What they are, their original purpose, their benefits, and what they aren't. So make sure to read to the end so you can be fully informed on which one is best for your child and when.

Within each I compare:

• Origins

• Purpose

• Benefits

• What they aren't

• How they're both effective in their own way

So make sure to read to the end so you can be fully informed on which one is best for your child and when.

Personal Overview

Before I get into the article myself, my name is Mason Pfefferle. I've been involved in designing, installing, and marketing sensory gyms for over 10 years. I'm a father of three sons, and a daily frequenter of the local outdoor playground.

Origins of the outdoor playground

The outdoor playground was a local oddity when it first appeared on the public stage. Initially known as "sand gardens" in Germany in 1885, the United States saw its first playground appear at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco in 1887. The first government-funded playground wasn't built until 1903. Shortly after the first government-funded playground was installed, the Official Playground Association of America was founded in 1906.

In 1907 President Theodore Roosevelt called for the construction of playgrounds as a way to protect children from playing dangerous, unsupervised games in the hot city streets. Interestingly, in 1912 climbing structures were banned from New York playgrounds. Two years later it was made a crime to play in the streets as many believed this led to truant behavior.

The first industrial revolution took place in England during the 18th and 19th centuries. The United States was still a fledgling nation at the time. It was only a matter of time before British industrialists would take advantage of the many opportunities the United States presented. One of the first large-scale textile mills to open in the United States was done so by Englishmen Samuel Slater in 1793.

Urbanization in the United States

The second industrial revolution often referred to as the American Industrial Revolution began in the second half of the 19th century. After the absolute carnage of the civil war, the United States was in a period of reconstruction. At the same time as rebuilding, the United States saw a massive influx of job-searching European Immigrants. Most of these jobs would be in factories which were located in industrial cities.

According to Hofstra University historian, Alan Singer, "Cities grew because industrial factories required large workforces and workers and their families needed places to live near their jobs. Factories and cities attracted millions of immigrants looking for work and a better life in the United States."

As urban populations grew, so to did the stress on public welfare. Cities suffered from poor air quality, cramped living quarters, and social isolation. This led to the spread of epidemic diseases such as tuberculosis.

A place to be a child

Most children living in urban areas in the 19th and 20th centuries played on the curb or in the streets. This presented a constant danger to the safety of the children. Many children sought out "play streets" these streets saw minimal vehicle traffic. The initial concept of the playground was to alleviate the everyday burdens of urban life on children. With purpose-built play structures in urban areas, children were able to practice healthy play routines, develop social skills, keep themselves from engaging in troubling street activities, and just be children.

Soren Carl Theodor Sorenson was a Danish landscape architect who is considered to be one of the greatest landscape architects of the 20th century. Soren is best known for designing the first Adventure Playground for children in Copenhagen. Adventure playgrounds were playgrounds modeled on the empty lots that children sought out for play. These playgrounds contained tires and other "junk" material, with a few existing play structures, that would allow children to build and create their own unique play area. Well-maintained adventure playgrounds could be unique and enjoyable spaces, but many became a repository for unwanted material. There remains a movement today to reintroduce adventure playgrounds as a viable concept for schoolyard play.

Outdoor Playground Benefits

Many of my most cherished memories as a child can be traced back to playgrounds. It's where I met some of my closest friends, where I learned to vent my frustrations in a subliminal manner, and where I learned to be patient and respectful of others' abilities. Encouragement was always in high supply as we cheered for each other to complete the monkey bars or walk across the balancing pole without falling onto the woodchips.

Some of the incredible benefits of the outdoor playground include:

1. Reduced Risk of Nearsightedness:

• Outdoor play can reduce a child’s risk of becoming nearsighted. There are of course genetic factors that are also at play, however, many studies continue to show links between outdoor play time and myopia. Here is a study for your convenience

2. Lowered Risk of Behavioral Issues:

• There's a strong link between a child's connection with nature and behavioral problems. Researchers have found that nature connected-kids were better behaved and more likely to behave kindly to others. The study is available here.

3. Facilitates Group Interaction:

• Friends to play with and peers to meet! Playing games, collaborating to play games, or taking turns to go down the slide are all working to foster a child's social skills. When children learn the rules of a game and use them to play with other kids, they're working on a key executive function skill.

4. Sensory Development:

• Swinging, spinning, sliding, and climbing all provide children's brains with complex vestibular and proprioceptive information. When properly analyzed, this information helps a child orient themselves through proper body positioning and posture in space and time. Should I increase speed or decrease speed? These are questions addressed by vestibular and proprioceptive input.

5. Builds Muscle Strength:

• When children play they're warding off disease. Outdoor play improves immune system function, promotes a healthy heart and lung function, and lowers the risk of obesity and diabetes. When children swing they're working their core and leg muscles as well as shoulders. Almost every activity on the playground promotes healthy physical development.

Of course, there are way more than five benefits to playing on an outdoor playground. I wanted to touch briefly on the top five benefits. It's no secret that outdoor play fosters healthy cognitive and physical developmental growth in children. On the surface, playgrounds may appear as mere fun. However, you'll see that these activities and obstacles are definitely providing your child with a full workout. My fiancé and I personally love taking our son to the park two hours before bed. This helps regulate his energy allowing for a full night of sleep.

The CDC recommends children should have at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity every day. What better place to achieve this than by frequenting the outdoor playground? Frequenting the playground also creates a routine of exercise that we hope will carry over into our children's adult lives.

What An Outdoor Playground Isn't

Historically, outdoor playgrounds haven't always been accommodating or accessible to children with special needs or handicap needs. It wasn't until the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990 that we started seeing more inclusive playgrounds. Even in 2022, it can be difficult to find local playgrounds that are handicap accessible. As I stated previously, many of my most cherished memories can be traced back to my time on outdoor playgrounds. But for children whose disabilities keep them from using playgrounds, those opportunities can be lost.

Many of the advancements we've seen take place around more inclusive outdoor playgrounds haven't come from the federal government but rather from parents and advocates. Inclusive playgrounds are much more expensive than traditional playgrounds which aren't accessible to children with disabilities. This means many local governments are having a hard time affording these projects.

These inclusive playgrounds allow children with disabilities to play shoulder to shoulder with their peers. Eve Hill a civil rights attorney with the Justice Department stated that "Play areas are not just places where kids have fun, they are places where kids learn to interact with the world, and with each other."

Outdoor playgrounds can also be overwhelming for children with special needs. Sensory Processing Disorder is a condition in which the brain has trouble receiving and responding to information that comes in through the senses. Children with SPD may have a hard time telling where their limbs are in space, bump into things, be uncoordinated, or find difficulty engaging in conversation or play. Because the symptoms of SPD are on a spectrum, many children may experience it differently.

Although children with SPD seem to generally prefer the same types of play as their typically developing peers (Cosbey et al., 2010), they may need explicit instruction in strategies to manage their sensory over-responsiveness and under-responsiveness and may need structured play situations while they are developing the ability to use strategies independently (Case-Smith & Miller-Kuhaneck, 2008).

This leads me to my analysis of sensory gyms

What is a sensory gym?

(Pictured is a Fun Factory Sensory Gym)

In its most basic definition, a sensory gym is a room or place that encourages sensory play or sensory activities. What do we consider a sensory activity? A sensory activity is any type of play or action that gives stimulation to our senses. There are a total of 8 senses. Sensory gyms provide a supervised environment in which sensory development is fostered through open-play and structured play situations. Structured play situations allow therapists and parents to isolate external factors while working to develop the sensory system.

It's this development in a safe setting that helps children develop their physical and cognitive abilities. This translates into increased confidence and self-esteem.

Before I get too far ahead of myself I want to give a brief history of the sensory gym. It's hard to believe that 15-20 years ago these lifelines that we now call sensory gyms were virtually nonexistent. In 2007 It's a Sensory World (ISW) became the first sensory gym in the state of Texas and only the second in the entire nation.

As I mentioned previously in the article, children with special needs and disabilities prior to the passage of the 1990 Americans With Disabilities Act and the advent of the sensory gym, either had to try and figure out a way to play on the outdoor playgrounds or avoid them altogether.

This lack of inclusion in outdoor playground design led many parents and therapists to begin creating their own sensory spaces. Many of these early sensory spaces included swings from the ceiling, balls, and mini trampolines. It wasn't until 2007 and 2010 that we started seeing the actual incorporation of outdoor playground features make their way into the sensory space scene.

The original designer of the sensory gym is Troy Pfefferle (founder of Playaway Toy Company and Fun Factory Sensory Gym.) Troy still holds patents on the indoor support bar which was one of the first indoor swinging apparatuses ever invented. He is also the founder of Fun Factory Sensory Gym, the first company to incorporate outdoor playground design into sensory gyms. Troy felt that early sensory spaces were limited by their equipment and design. Most early sensory gym designs weren't entirely purposeful.

There was equipment scattered about but the design lacked flow and functionality. Many of the sensory gyms you see today have quite a few components that were taken from the outdoor playground. These include:

• Monkey bars

• Zip-lines

• Swings

• Rock climbing walls

• Play structures

• Stairs

• Slides

• Foam-cube pits

More Than Just a Play Room

Just as the outdoor playground has tremendous benefits, so too does the sensory gym. You will see obvious similarities between the two given their shared design and equipment. When most people hear the word gym they immediately might think of treadmills, dumbbells, and Stairmasters.

These purpose-built sensory gyms are more than just playrooms. They're structured environments in which active play on intent-based equipment stimulates the senses of children. This includes equipment that addresses vestibular as well as proprioceptive needs. These sensory environments give individuals with autism and other sensory needs access to the equipment they need for sensory regulation in a non-threatening environment.

The structured nature of these sensory environments helps foster increased engagement by creating a calm setting. This calmness helps children focus and can minimize tantrums and meltdowns.

Sensory Gym Benefits

Although all children can use and enjoy a sensory gym, they're typically used in hospitals and therapy centers.

1. Enhanced Therapy :

• Sensory gyms in their own right provide many of the same physical fitness benefits. Many children with special needs require services such as occupational therapy, or speech therapy. Sensory gyms are not meant to replace these types of therapy, however, they will help amplify the effects of the therapy. Sensory gyms help foster engagement, when a child is engaged they're more likely to participate attentively in their therapy sessions.

2. Encourages Motor Planning:

• Because many sensory gyms have various pieces of equipment, they're tremendous for assisting children in motor planning. For example, when a child is navigating a rock wall they must conceive, plan, and carry out a skilled, non-habitual motor act in the correct sequence. This involves firstly generating an idea (ideation) deciding how to go about it (motor planning) and then carrying out that plan.

3. Cognitive Development:

• Sensory play helps developing brains bridge nerve connections. New and frequent experiences create connections that improve a child's ability to do more complex learning activities.

4. Problem-solving, creativity, exploration:

• Sensory gyms come with limited expectations. It is a place where a child can push the boundaries of their abilities while figuring out how to navigate certain sensory stimuli in a safe environment. Children can be creative with how they're going to use problem-solving to navigate the rock wall or jump into the foam cube pit.

5. Builds Muscle Strength:

• When children play they're warding off disease. Outdoor play improves immune system function, promotes a healthy heart and lung function, and lowers the risk of obesity and diabetes. When children swing they're working their core and leg muscles as well as shoulders. Almost every activity on the playground promotes healthy physical development. This is critical for children with special needs who have higher rates of obesity than their neurotypical counterparts. According to the CDC, 20% of children 10 through 17 years of age who have special health care needs are obese compared to 15% of children of the same ages without special health care needs.

Important Note

Sensory gyms do not exist to replace outdoor play. They exist to assist children in developing their sensory skills in hopes that this development will carry over into their everyday lives. From putting on their clothes to brushing their teeth to navigating a rock wall. Outdoor play is irreplaceable. However, as we discussed previously, traditional outdoor playgrounds for various reasons haven't always been accessible to children with special needs. There is also much more awareness around special needs today than there was 20 years ago. There are still tremendous strides to be made in regard to special needs awareness.

In Conclusion

Children of all ages and developmental stages can benefit from both an outdoor playground and a sensory gym. The sensory gym is a structured environment in which a child can develop their sensory systems. The outdoor playground also benefits a child's sensory system, however, the environment isn't structured and can be dangerous to children with special needs who may lack the required sensory processing abilities to effectively participate. Hence, the sensory gym!

I truly hope this article helped spell out the major differences between outdoor playgrounds and sensory gyms. They're both incredibly effective in how well they assist in the overall development of children.

Is there something I missed? Please let me know your thoughts. I look forward to engaging with my readers and getting to know everyone.