Why Children Love a Playground Slide

January 15, 2015 |


APCPLAY Blog - Why Children Love A Playground Slide

Visit any playground at any location around the world, and you are bound to see several commercial slide designs. Another thing you are virtually guaranteed to see is a line of children eager to experience the exhilaration of a fun, fast slide!

By nature children are thrill seeking and fearless in their exploration of the environment around them; it is how they learn. But in a world full of safety guidelines and supervised behavior, the playground slide really is one of few places a child can truly experience a thrilling rush of adrenalin and excitement without fear of major injury.

Ask any child what their favorite commercial playground component is, and they will typically pick the perennial playground favorite—a fast moving slide. But why do children love the experience so much, and what benefit does it offer kids as a feature in a well-designed indoor or outdoor play structure? And what type of slide is best for your needs?

Playground Slide Designs Over the Years

Historically playground slides were built from wood materials and if you have cringed thinking about the risk factors of using that material for slides, you are right; they were replaced by a more durable material—metal.

However, slides constructed of metal presented a new set of safety risks for children, and are now banned or infrequently found in public playgrounds. Thanks to new consumer safety standards, they’re essentially being completely fazed out of existence. Metal slides frequently rusted, cracked, or separated, and offered shallow rails—which often led to injuries, as children would fall over the side of the rails. The metal material was uncomfortable in the summer heat, and conducive to burns or to dangerous ice accumulation in the winter.

Today most playgrounds feature slides that offer seamless, rotationally-molded plastic slides that are virtually seamless and offer enhanced safety rails and non-stick surfaces. Given the new method of producing slides, designs that are rotationally-molded offer a safe, fast, and exciting experience for children and in a variety of styles.

If you are old enough to recall sliding down a hot metal slide, you are definitely appreciative of the advancement in playground design and materials. And if you are a parent, you’re definitely glad the safety regulations have been implemented to ensure your child’s well-being.

Benefits of Engaging in Slide Activities

Children enjoy many benefits while using commercial playground equipment, but the slide remains a favorite of children around the world. This is because of several main benefits kids experience why indulging their need for speed.

  • Slides encourage confidence and exploration. While the behavior is exciting and thrill-seeking for children, it also requires a good deal of confidence to scale a tall playground structure or slide and make the initial fast-paced trip to the bottom. It’s a tremendous confidence booster for children when they face the intimidating challenge of a tall slide, and win.
  •  Slides are a great motivator to promote physical activity on the playground. After all it takes some effort to climb, slide and repeat!
  • Slides are stimulating to kids and invigorating to experience. As such children will climb virtually anything to use a slide, and repeat this action over and over again. Because of this they learn balance and coordination, and develop spatial awareness in just navigating their way to the top.
  • The top (or bottom) of the slide is often an area of fierce negotiation. Inside the queue or on the ladder, children are also learning lessons of social organization. It teaches them to wait their respective turn, and be patient while others ahead of them enjoy.

APCPLAY offers a number of independent slide structures that you can affordably add to your park or playground. Augment your existing playground equipment with a fun, new slide like our 5’ Triple Rail Slide that allows children the chance to race a friend to the bottom, or our exhilarating new 7’ Typhoon Tube Slide. We also have many commercial play structures that feature a multitude of slides and other play components. Take a moment to browse our various product categories, or call us at 1-888-401-6446 to speak to a sales representative to determine what is right for your needs and the children of your community or organization.