uab school of education · play is important to healthy development uab school of education 5...

UAB School of Education

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GEIGER, B.F., ROY, J., SIMS, S. K., & FULMORE, J.S.

S PR 2010 C ON FEREN CE OF THE A LAB AMA S TATE

A SSOCIA TION O F H E A LTH , P HYSICA L E DU CA TION , R E CRE A TION A N D D A N CE

O RA N GE B E A CH , AL

Utilizing Assessment Tools to Advocate for School Playground

and Gymnasium Safety

Objectives for Participants

UAB School of Education - Health and Physical Education Programs

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To understand educators' responsibilities for student health and safety

To review outcomes of a preservice learning activity to assess hazards in Alabama playgrounds and gymnasiums

To complete a virtual tour of playgrounds/ gymnasiums to rate safety hazards

To review informational and funding resources provided by the National Program for Playground Safety, AAPAR, equipment vendors, and philanthropic groups

Play is Important to Healthy Development


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Practice social, physical and relationship skills

Develops healthy interaction, role-playing, balance, coordination

Improves children's classroom attentiveness, while decreasing restlessness

Promotes academic achievement!

Teachers, school personnel, and volunteers are responsible for monitoring the children's safety

Establishes safe play behaviors

Selma NEWS, a School-University Collaboration

Pilot program in SCSS

School-level wellness teams formed in early 2005, guided program improvements Membership includes administrators, teachers, RN, CNP staff,

parents, community representatives and students to guide program improvements

Playground Morbidity & Mortality


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Children in low-income areas face playground hazards due to unsafe equipment and poor maintenance

No mandatory reporting requirement or single database -hard to obtain estimates of annual playground injuries

Estimated annual ER visits to treat children’s playground injuries range between 50,000 and 200,000

Approximately 45% are severe injuries including fractures, internal injuries, concussions, dislocations and amputations

Safe to Play?


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Playground Morbidity & Mortality


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Of severe injuries, 148,000 occur on public playgrounds in schools and community parks Most often falls from

swings, climbers, slides

Less than 10% of playgrounds where injuries occurred clearly indicated appropriate ages for safe use

51,000 injuries occur on home playgrounds, most often on swings

60% percent of injuries are due to falls onto hard surfaces

An average of 15 children per year dies due to strangulation and falls onto hard surfaces or onto other equipment

The estimated cost to treat playground injuries in 2003 was $6.8 billion

Developing the Learning Project


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Wellness teams prepared digital images of playgrounds and gymnasiums in 11 public schools

High school students and their teacher provoked team discussion about correcting safety hazards

Wellness teams requested assistance from university health education faculty and students to systematically record safety hazards for correction

Ideal opportunity to engage UAB HEPE students enrolled in 2 planning courses, and nursing students from WSCC

Safety Assessment


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HEPE faculty and students from UAB provided technical assistance

Select wellness team members

Facilitate team meetings

Present professional development programs

Conduct a needs assessment

Wellness teams elected to focus on 3 components during the 2005-06 school year: health education, physical education and other activity programs, and nutrition services



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Next step was to search for a low-cost and simple tool suitable for use by secondary students, teachers and caregivers None was found after a preliminary literature review

and queries made of HEPE colleagues

Reviewed available documents about installation, use, monitoring of playground equipment, and safe use of indoor athletic facilities

Instrument Development


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Developed two new tools for public school audiences “Assessment of an Outdoor Elementary School

Playground” - 32 dichotomous items

“Assessment of a School Gymnasium” - 29 dichotomous items

Draft tools were reviewed by wellness team members, and then sent to 8 experts Represented disciplines of physical education,

health, early childhood education, exercise physiology, and school leadership and worked in K-12 and higher education

Instrument Development


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Each panelist independently responded to a series of questions

Which items would you change? What items should be added? What items should be deleted?

Panelists wrote an explanation of recommended changes

Collaborators added new items, revised items for clarity, and then planned pilot testing

Maintenance is Important!


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Maintenance is Important!

Virtual Assessments – Your Turn


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Only equipment needed to complete an assessment is a clipboard, writing tool, measuring tape and ruler

These brief instruments are a viable option for school, park and recreation professionals to recommend improvements to school, city, and park administrators

Future Work


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UAB student and faculty teams completed 153 assessments in 12 AL cities and 1 county Researchers will continue to establish reliability and validity One tool does not universally apply to all settings (public vs.

private, indoor vs. outdoor)

Important safety hazards were identified across playgrounds and gymnasiums Differences in resources exist across urban and rural communities

Results revealed the need to communicate construction and maintenance standards to school administrators and city leaders

Researchers recommended improvements to reduce risk of injuries

What Can You Do?


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Become an advocate! Teach parents and students to assess local playgrounds and gymnasiums

Seek support for improvements (maintenance, new equipment, host “community build” days)

Form partnerships with local businesses/agencies

Contact local foundations – begin with your school system!

Who Can Help?


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Project FIT America at link http://projectfitamerica.org/

KaBOOM! National nonprofit sponsored by Home Depot and partners, link http://www.kaboom.org/

Shade Foundation of America grant program at link http://www.shadefoundation.org/structures.php

Lowe's Toolbox for Education Grant Programhttp://www.toolboxforeducation.com/

Funds may be used for teacher and parent training, site preparation, purchasing equipment, and program evaluation

http://projectfitamerica.org/

http://projectfitamerica.org/

http://www.kaboom.org/

http://www.shadefoundation.org/structures.php

http://www.toolboxforeducation.com/

http://www.toolboxforeducation.com/

Reference


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Brian F. Geiger, Jane Roy, Sandra K. Sims, Jason S. Fulmore, & Karen A. Werner. (2009, Dec.) An Applied Learning Activity for Health and Fitness Students to Advocate for School Playground and Gymnasium Safety. Californian Journal of Health Promotion , Vol. 7 (Special Issue: Obesity Prevention), 39-47.

uab school of education · play is important to healthy development uab school of education 5...

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