How Planners Are Creating Clumsy Kids
A recent study on childhood development in compact cities calls on planners to consider the needs of children when making plans to avoid not giving children enough places to play. Children's motor skills are negatively affected, making them clumsy.
The University of NSW's City Future's research director, Bill Randolph's 'Children in the Compact City: Fairfield as a Suburban Case Study' examined the restrictions high-density living places on children. Professor Randolph unearthed a range of behaviours that early-childhood specialists say impair social and motor skill development, ranging from parents feeding young children to keep them quiet, to not having enough space for young children to crawl, walk or play."
"'The net result was young children entering preschool or even school with poorly developed social and motor skills,' the report found."
"Many parents considered balconies and parks unsafe and proximity to busy roads often meant playing in the street was not allowed, he found. Ball games were often restricted, as were noisy or messy games."
- Login or register to post comments
- Email this page
- Melbourne Ranked as Most Livable City - Sep 02, 2011
- Melbourne Needs A Makeover - Mar 08, 2009
- Kids Afraid to Play in Public - Jul 28, 2008
- Is a Sprawling Future on Tap for Melbourne? - Mar 07, 2008
- The Psychological Effects Of Urban Planning On Children - Oct 31, 2006
Planetizen picks
Contribute
- The Appeal of In-Town Big Box
- The Growing Appeal of Drinking From the Toilet
- How and Why Does an Architect Become Famous?
- Could Good Design Have Prevented the Housing Crisis?
- NY Times Defends the Port Authority
- Expanding the Hong Kong Subway, One Blast at a Time
- Can An Electric Bike Replace A Car?
- The Growing Popularity of Women-Only Mass Transit
- Putting the Bloom Back on the Rose Bowl
- Friday Funny: Smellvertising, Coming to a Bus Stop Near You
Volunteerism Plays Critical Role in Reaching World’s Millennium Development Goals
Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs, Cleveland State University
Feb 10, 2012
Web Seminar: Economic Development in a Digital World: Home-Based Businesses and Virtual Workers
International Economic Development Council
Feb 08, 2012
www.flickr.com
|
Uninformed article, misdirected blame
Wow so living in a flat makes children clumsy because parents won't let their child bike. What?
Isn't it automobile traffic that makes parents lock away kids from the street? How about a radical idea, makes he streets safe for children again. My mother rode her bike around the Bronx for multi-hour day-long trips with other children in the 40's. In the suburbs I am stuck in all the major streets have been "improved" into hi-speed bicyclist death traps for children.
It is very interesting that vehicles are clearly to blame for the fear of parents yet researchers and parents choose to blame flats instead. It's misdirected blame that will never solve the problem though.