There’s nothing like being a kid! Running around at the park and finding all kinds of fun places to play and explore.
Ideally your children will have playtime outside in the park to climb, explore, run, and play on playground equipment. I’ll describe a jungle gym scenario and my suggestions based on principles of the Feldenkrais Method.
Your 3-year-old wants to get up onto the metal playground equipment and hasn’t figured out how to ascend. He is getting frustrated as he sees the other kids having a great time climbing up the steps and running around. He tells you to pick him up and put him on the platform, bypassing his navigating the steps on his own.
What should you do? Even if it wouldn’t be hard for you to lift your child, it’s best to let him negotiate the steps to get himself up, keeping in mind that if he can get himself up safely, he likely can also get himself down. This is the principle of reversibility.
It’s great if you want to stay close to your child as he navigates this new climbing challenge. You can help if he needs it, without doing it for him. You also can give him verbal instructions if he needs it, both on the trip up and down the equipment.
For instance, on a rock wall you might say, “Put your left hand on that blue rock and your right hand on the red rock. Put your left foot on the yellow rock and your right foot on the green rock. Push off with your right foot to step on the orange rock and reach your right hand to the black rock.” And so on, until the child is at the top. Both his learning and his confidence will grow from having achieved this feat without your physical assistance.
When it’s time to descend, you can use the same verbal cues, standing nearby if you’re needed but without rescuing him if he can do it on his own. And you might say something like, “There’s a black rock under your right foot, look down to your right - see it? You can put your right foot on it,” And continue with these instructions until your child is safely at the bottom. He will feel a sense of accomplishment having done it himself and you will have the confidence that when he’s playing and you’re not there, he will be more able to figure things out and less likely to panic and feel he can’t manage without his parent’s rescue.
In addition to acquiring problem solving skills, your children will develop core stability, muscle control, and balance while learning an awareness of negotiating their bodies in space. Allowing your children to choose what path to take to reach their intended destination makes this learning possible.
When my son was just 2 years old, having trained him on the playground in this very way may have prevented severe injury and even saved his life. Without getting mired in the details of that particular scary incident, suffice to say he developed concentration and self-sufficiency from this approach of reversibility to his playing on park equipment. That focus enabled him to safely navigate what could have been a dangerous climbing disaster for a 2-year-old.
I believe that giving your children the space to explore and problem-solve how to get up and down on the equipment themselves promotes independence, creative thinking, tenacity, and resilience which serves them throughout their childhood and life, in the classroom and in myriad aspects of their lives.
For information on supporting your child’s development, click here.
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