The Benefits of Risky Play

Photo credit: Tara Photography

There are so many benefits to allowing (and encouraging!) risky play in childhood: growing in physical strength and skill, strengthening problem-solving skills, building resilience, and boosting confidence and self-esteem to name a few.

Growth in Physical Strength and Skill

When children engage in risky play, such as climbing, balancing, and exploring, it helps them develop their gross motor skills, coordination, and overall physical fitness. When children feel physically challenged, they feel proud and strong. This strength physically supports their abilities to engage in more demanding outdoor activites.

When our phsycial self is strong and regulated, our learning brains are primed for new experiences.

Strengthening Problem-Solving Skills

By facing challenges and obstacles, children practice critical thinking, creativity, and resourcefulness.

In nature, we may consider if the mud may be too squishy, or if the water is rushing too fast for us to cross the stream. Is the dead tree sturdy enough for us to cross the river? Can we make a leaf pile padding thick enough for the biggest jump we can create??

The steps for problem solving and risky decisions is a constant cycle. I often relate it to the scientific method: we take what we know, make a hypothesis, safely test it, evaluate if it worked, and draw a conclusion.

This process can happen for most in minutes, or sometimes even seconds. Children with language, learning, and executive function challenges continue to benefit from this process being modeled for them. Nature-based therapy is an open-ended opportunity to practice these skills constantly.

Building Resilience

Risky play helps children learn to navigate uncertainty both in their decision making and body awareness: learning when to take calculated risks and developing coping strategies when things don’t go as planned.

In the process of risk taking, children’s cognitive skills are hard at work. Their executive function skills for decision making are TAXED. Often our most impulsive learners begin to learn how to pause and think through their choices. When the risk is higher for injury, I notice children moving slower and methodically.

This engages all areas of their brain to naturally develop skills of inhibition. Allowing kids this opportunity to take risks is a growth opportunity for the adults involved as well.

Boosting confidence and self-esteem

When children successfully navigate risky situations, they build confidence in their abilities and develop a sense of self-efficacy. 

Let them cross that log, discuss boundaries to keep them safe, teach them to use real tools, let them climb up the slide, hang upside down from the monkey bars... let kids play. In a society that encourages overprotective parental involvement in every day play, let us wisely and intentionally give our kids the opportunities to grow through risky play.