Frommy’s World

This past month my six-year-old daughter Sophia broke her arm.

So how did it happen?

She fell off the Monkey Bars at school.

Did you know that according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission  (CPSC) that more than 53,000 children are treated each year for injuries suffered on school playgrounds?

Most of the playground injuries that were treated in emergency rooms (i.e., an estimated 29,680 injuries) were associated with the use of monkey bars. According to a 1999 article in the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics , playground equipment resulted in more than 200,000 injures in a four year span in the early 1990s; 88% of these injuries were attributable to monkey bars and the like. The article concluded that:

1. a significant proportion (25%) of monkey bar injuries required hospitalization;
2. most of the injuries (92%) required surgery;
3. the surface below the equipment had no influence on the type or severity of the injury;
4. younger children are more likely to sustain long-bone fractures than are older children; and
5. adult supervision does not influence the injury pattern.

Every one of these conclusions fit my daughter’s experience. In the study, investigators searched an emergency department’s records to find all children injured while playing on monkey bars or jungle gyms during a two-year period. They also surveyed the children’s parents or guardians, asking them to recall where the injury occurred (school playground, public playground, child care, home), type of surface below the equipment (sand, wood chips, grass, concrete) and whether an adult was supervising.

Researchers identified 204 children ages 20 months to 12 years who were injured. Fifty-six percent were male and the median age of those injured was 6 years of age…the same age as my daughter Sophia.

In a Canadian study in the November 1997 issue of the Canadian Hospitals Injury Reporting and Prevention Program (CHIRPP) News, Analyst Janet Brown of the Child Injury Division found that 10% of all injuries sustained by children between the ages of five and nine are related to playground equipment. So does that mean that I feel our elementary schools in Kelso should ban monkey bars?

A year ago in Gloucester, VA, this is what exactly was being discussed. According to the Daily Press , school officials and some parents were wrestling with the idea after a string of monkey bar related injuries.

Opinions swing both ways regarding this issue. Many feel that we are becoming too soft and are taking away too much from out kids. But others feel that the numbers stated above must be given attention.

What about law suits? The studies above showed that even if supervision was present and the ground was soft that it didn’t change the outcome. This would fall under “Personal Injury Law” where one would have to show negligence. Just as the studies show, Sophie was under adult supervision and the ground underneath was bark chips.

There had been a trend where monkey bars were disappearing from playgrounds across the nation. Monkey bars and jungle gyms have seemed to make their way back, but there is growing concern that something needs to happen again.

So how do I feel?

Kids need to be kids! I love my daughter and feel terrible that she has to go through this. In fact, Sophie had to miss her last three soccer games which was the most upsetting part for her outside of the actual accident itself. However, I can’t imagine keeping my kids from playing, running, or climbing because of what might happen. Six-year-olds need to run and play. Yes, they need to be given safe areas to do so while under the guidance of their parents or adult supervision, but they need to play.

My kids don’t go out with people I don’t know. In fact, I believe parents need to take a stronger roll in their children’s lives. But holding kids back, or worse yet coddling kids, is not the way to go. I say let Sophia play. However, please don’t monkey around next time, and please don’t miss that last monkey bar.