Value of monkey bars?

As an 8-year-old I fell from monkey bars that were 8 feet tall (I was half that height), with my elbow striking a rock conveniently placed beneath them. I had a complex fracture that led to external fixation and a lifelong gunstock deformity but no other sequelae. I spent 3 weeks in traction, during which time I read the Golden Book Encyclopedia from A to Z, much to my doctor’s amazement. I am now an academic family physician, and a dual Canadian-American national, and can twist my left arm in ways that both amaze and disgust my younger relatives.

Of course, play cannot and should not be without risk. But reasonable bounds should be put in place to mitigate the risk of serious injury (ie, assuring age-appropriate heights for falls, removing rocks, and eliminating equipment that could lead to rare but catastrophic spinal injuries). The authors of the rapid systematic review on playground injuries in the March issue of Canadian Family Physician appear to minimize the suffering of 1500 hospitalized children per year in Canada alone, and fail to cite high-quality evidence that risky play provides greater social and intellectual benefits than less risky or safe play.¹

Bad things happen rarely. But just because your child is fortunate enough to go through childhood unharmed despite a laissez-faire attitude, it does not mean you should broadly advocate for it without better evidence that the small potential benefits for all outweigh the rare but severe harms to the few.

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