Brave Kids: The Ultimate Guide to Risk-Taking Play
Updated: November 12, 2023
Risk-taking play, also known as dangerous or risky play, is a natural part of children’s play. Risk-taking play is a type of play where children test physical abilities with climbing, jumping, balancing, moving fast, moving heavy objects, and rough-and-tumble play.
Key Points
- Risk-taking play is a type of play where children test physical abilities with climbing, jumping, balancing, moving fast, moving heavy objects, and rough-and-tumble play.
- Risk-taking play supports physical, cognitive, and emotional development.
- Adults’ role in risk-taking play is balancing safety and exploration.
- Risk-taking play is the most beneficial when it’s outdoors.
Risk-Taking Play Definition
Risk-taking play, also called dangerous or risky play, is an essential part of a child’s learning, where they test their physical abilities.
This type of play includes climbing, jumping, swinging, balancing, running, and carrying or moving heavy objects. Rough-and-tumble play with parents or peers is also a favorite type of risky play for kids.
These activities allow children to understand how their bodies relate to their environments.
Examples of Risk-Taking Play
Benefits of Risk-Taking Play
Risk-taking play supports children’s holistic development, improving their physical, cognitive, and emotional skills.
Physical Development
Engaging in risk-taking play challenges a child’s physical abilities, promoting strength, agility, and overall fitness. By pushing physical boundaries, kids get stronger and more agile. This type of play also stimulates the vestibular and proprioceptive senses.
Cognitive Growth
Risk-taking play fosters cognitive development by improving problem-solving skills and understanding of cause-and-effect. Children learn to assess risks, make decisions, and comprehend consequences.
Emotional Resilience
As children test new skills in risk-taking play, they build self-esteem and confidence. They will feel proud of their achievements. Restricting risky play can impact a child’s self-assurance, making them apprehensive about trying new things. Overcoming challenges in this play instills resilience and perseverance while creating a framework for handling failures.
Long-Term Benefits
Risk-taking play empowers children, building confidence in body and mind, and equipping them to confront life’s challenges. Risky play helps kids understand their strengths (and weaknesses) and develop strategies to handle obstacles. Through this type of play, children learn that stumbling is part of the journey, but getting back up is part of being brave and strong.
Risk-Taking Play Activities
Outdoors in Nature
- Running up and down hills
- Rolling down hills
- Climbing trees or large rocks
- Jumping from tree stumps or into water
- Balancing on fallen logs
- Carrying, rolling, or pushing heavy objects such as rocks, branches, and buckets of water or sand
- Crossing streams
- Sledding
On the Playground
- Hanging from bars
- Sliding down poles
- Climbing stairs, rock walls, nets, and ladders
- Climbing up slides
- Swinging
- Standing on swings or swinging on the belly
- Flipping over bars
- Walking on balance beams
- Tag and chase games
- Dodgeball
Indoors
- Balancing
- Step stools
- Stilts
- Balance stepping stones
- Jumping
- Trampoline
- Bed or couch
- Cushions
- Climbing
- Pikler Triangle
- Climbers
- Spinning
- Rough-and-tumble play
- Obstacle courses
- Heavy work
- Moving baskets of heavy objects
- Rolling in blanket burritos
- Stairslides
- Toppling giant blocks
- Beanbag dodgeball
Indoor vs. Outdoor Risk-Taking Play
While indoor risk-taking play offers controlled and structured environments, outdoor play encourages an understanding of the natural world and how humans relate to it.
Why Outdoors is Best
Outdoor risk-taking play helps children understand how their body relates to natural features.
- How do heavy branches or rocks feel?
- How sturdy are stumps?
- How does my body move in water?
- How does gravity feel when I jump or run down hills?
Indoor environments made up of plastic toys, carpeted floors, and padded furniture simply don’t provide the same experiences. Learn more about the benefits of nature play.
Tips for Parents & Educators
Helpful Tips
Finding a balance between safety and freedom to explore is key to meaningful risk-taking play.
- Start Small: Model developmentally appropriate “risks” that matches your child’s abilities.
- Manage Your Responses: Avoid transferring your fears to the child. Rather than immediately stopping play, consider gentle redirection and thoughtful suggestions.
- Open-Ended Guidance: Use open-ended questions while your child plays to guide them and foster problem-solving skills.
- Respond Appropriately: Your child will inevitably tumble, get stuck, or feel overwhelmed. Respond by validating their feelings, staying positive, and being encouraging.
- “You sounded scared when your foot got stuck. I’m proud of you for trying, but it was good to ask for help. I wonder what you can do differently next time.”
When adults observe risk-taking play, they will likely feel a blend of awe for a child’s bravery and concern for their safety. As parents and educators, we have to be careful not to project our fear onto children. Part of the adult’s role is simply allowing children to uncover their own potential.
Keep reading to learn more about facilitating risk-taking play for your child or classroom.
Teacher & Parent Guide to Risk-Taking Play
Risk-taking play should be supervised, which makes an adult an essential part of the activity. Let’s explore strategies and tips to help you best facilitate children’s play.
The framework for this is:
1. Managing Fear & Mindset
When parents and educators understand their own attitudes and fears about risky play, they can create supportive environments for children.
- Reflect on your personal childhood experiences with risk-taking play and adults’ responses.
- Reflect on your comfort levels with risk as an adult.
- How can you balance your control and your child’s freedom to explore?
We sometimes forget how easily we can transfer our worries and fears onto children. Children are ultimately safer when they can test and learn their own boundaries.
2. Understanding the Child
Facilitating safe, meaningful, risky play is built on understanding a child’s developmental stage and individual characteristics.
- Note your child’s emotional state during risk-taking play.
- Are they feeling excited, determined, frustrated, or genuinely scared?
- Redirect or model ways to adapt play to meet a child’s abilities.
- Climbing stairs vs. climbing a rock wall on a play set
- Jumping vs. sliding off a log
- Give genuine feedback.
- “Taking a break when your arms got tired was a great idea.”
- “I saw how you waited your turn to climb. That was a safe choice!”
- “You worked so hard to climb up here. You should feel proud!”
3. Facilitating
Parents and educators can create activities and environments that balance exploration and safety.
- Inform kids of boundaries before the activity starts. Keep the rules brief and easy to understand.
- “We can climb up the slide. You cannot push anyone. You cannot jump from the sides.”
- Model asking for help.
- I will actually say, “Yell HELP like this if you need me.”
- Support problem-solving with open-ended questions.
- What would happen if you tried pushing instead of pulling?
- Now we know you can’t all climb at once. What ideas do you have?
As children run, climb, and explore, they’re on a path of self-discovery, confidence, and resilience. Risk-taking play helps children discover the relationship between the world and themselves.
By supporting this play, parents and educators nurture children’s abilities to confront obstacles, learn from stumbling, and emerge stronger and more confident to handle life’s journeys.
Unlock the door to enriched childhood experiences! Read my comprehensive Types of Play article for expert guidance on fostering creativity, resilience, and overall child development.
Excellent article that summarizes the benefits for children and from a parental perspective.
Thank you Sandra! I hope you found information that can help you. I’d love if you could share this with others 🙂