Play is a universal right. Through our partnership with Inclusive Play UK, we’re bringing inclusive play experiences to families around the world. This week, we proudly celebrate Inclusive Play’s 20 years of innovation, impact, and commitment to creating spaces where everyone can play.

Research in child development shows that unstructured play is essential for building social skills, emotional regulation, physical strength, and cognitive flexibility. Yet for too long, children with disabilities were excluded from the very spaces designed to support that growth.

The impact is real. When children can’t access play equipment, they miss more than moments of fun—they miss opportunities to reach important developmental milestones.

Inclusive play benefits every child. Shared experiences foster empathy, encourage cooperation, and help children appreciate different perspectives from an early age. An inclusive playground isn’t just for children with disabilities—it’s simply a better playground for everyone.

Inclusive playgrounds signal something powerful to the communities that install them: every child matters here. That message ripples outward — into schools, into families, into the way children grow up.

We're proud to partner with Inclusive Play and are looking forward to seeing what the next 20 years of innovation look like.

Ready to build a playground where everyone belongs? Explore Inclusive Play and Gametime's inclusive product offerings and connect with a playground specialist to start designing your new play space.

According to the National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA), one-third of playground injuries result from incomplete or neglected maintenance, and 84% could be prevented with proper upkeep and supervision.

Routine maintenance keeps playgrounds fully functional, ensuring children continue to enjoy the physical, social, and cognitive benefits of play. Still, maintenance can feel like an overwhelming task. That’s why we offer helpful resources like our Playground Maintenance Guide and Playground Supervision Guide - so you can keep your play space in top condition with confidence and ease.

When children arrive at a playground, their first instinct is to dive right into play. In fact, 92.5% don’t pause to inspect the equipment first. That’s why regular inspections are essential - to catch potential issues before they become a larger concern.

To make playground upkeep simple and stress-free, we created the Playground Maintenance Guide. This free guidebook features easy-to-follow checklists to help you build a reliable maintenance strategy for your park or school playground. With added tips for spotting and addressing specific hazards, keeping your equipment in top condition has never been easier.

While a well-maintained playground is the foundation to a positive play experience, proper supervision is required to make sure the equipment is being used correctly and optimally. A recent study found that 80% of children couldn’t identify safety protocols for common playground equipment, highlighting the vital role adults play in guiding play. With the right supervision, play spaces become more enjoyable for everyone.

We created the Playground Supervision Guide to help adults develop practical, effective supervision plans. With comprehensive checklists and tips for preventing and responding to common incidents, this free guidebook empowers caregivers to create a more intentional play experience - and to supervise the play environment with confidence.

In addition to our free guides, GameTime offers maintenance training workshops nationwide, covering everything from routine upkeep to advanced safety protocols. These hands-on sessions are led by industry experts, and attendees are eligible to earn CEU credits.

Contact us to learn more or to schedule a workshop in your area.

Regular maintenance and proper supervision are essential to keep playground equipment functioning efficiently, giving children the opportunity to learn, grow, and thrive through play. Our free Playground Maintenance Guide and Playground Supervision Guide remove the guesswork with practical, real-world examples, empowering play advocates to create more positive play experiences for every child.

Ready to safeguard your investment? Contact your local GameTime representative today to learn more.

Everyone has their own memories of playing on their school’s playground. You’d dash to the spot where your friends usually gathered, thrilled to find they were already casting roles for today’s game of “house.” Mimicking your role models, you’d repeat lines your mom often told you: do your homework, eat your dinner, and yes, your socks matching does actually matter.

“House” is a great example of dramatic and social play. It’s a collaborative fantasy children create together, building on each other’s ideas as the narrative unfolds. For many children with autism, this imaginative framework makes peer interaction more predictable—and therefore less intimidating—while also giving them a fun, meaningful way to share their interests and feel understood.

Read on to discover how your school’s playground design can empower children with autism to build meaningful peer connections.

Dramatic play is a type of imaginative play where children take on different roles to create stories together. On a school playground, that might look like children turning a play structure into a pirate ship, acting out a superhero adventure on the swings, or—of course—finding a creative way to play house. 

 Through dramatic play, children practice communication, problem-solving, self-expression, and cooperation. They learn how to take turns, assign roles, negotiate ideas, and respond to others in real time. In many ways, dramatic play helps children make sense of the world around them while building the social and emotional skills they’ll use their entire life.

 Social play is any type of play that encourages children to interact with others. On a school playground, social play happens when children play games together, take turns on equipment, invent group activities, or solve problems as a team. These interactions help children build the social and emotional skills they need to form friendships and navigate group settings.

 Social play is closely tied to a child’s sense of belonging. For many, the playground is where they first feel like part of a group. Unlike classroom desks, which create forced proximity, playgrounds give children the freedom to choose who they interact with and how they build connections. These experiences help children develop autonomy and their sense of identity.

On a standard playground, children with disabilities like Autism Spectrum Disorder spend more time alone (30 vs 9%) and less time engaged with their peers (42 vs 72%) compared to children without disabilities.¹ However, children with autism are just as excited to engage in play as neurotypical children—they just thrive in different environments.

Children with autism want to make decisions carefully and plan ahead.² Dramatic play gives children a role to step into within a larger predictable story, empowering children to make informed decisions based on their familiarity with the topic. Playground design elements that prompt dramatic play, such as a play house, create tangible experiences that help children with autism participate fully in the shared narrative.³ 

Keeping sociodramatic play props consistent, such as those built into fixed equipment, is ideal for children with autism because they thrive with routine and consistency.⁴ When you foster a predictable environment, children with autism can observe patterns and find their own play style—helping them feel more comfortable to seek out connections with peers.

Dramatic play and social interaction are at the heart of what makes school playgrounds transformative. These experiences turn playgrounds into stories, creating opportunities to seek connection through imagination.

When schools prioritize dramatic and social play, they create environments where children with autism aren’t just observing from the sidelines—they’re actively engaged in play, supported by a space designed to help them thrive.

Ready to bring these experiences to life? Contact your local GameTime representative to start planning your school playground today.

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¹Locke J, Shih W, Kretzmann M, Kasari C. Examining playground engagement between elementary school children with and without autism spectrum disorder. Autism. 2016;20:653-62.

²Brewster S, Coleyshaw L. Participation or exclusion? Perspectives of pupils with autistic spectrum disorders on their participation in leisure activities. British Journal of Learning Disabilities. 2011;39(4):284-91.

³Westby C. Playing to pretend or “pretending” to play: Play in children with autism spectrum disorder. Seminars in Speech and Language. 2022;43(4):331-346.

⁴Yuill N, Strieth S, Roake C, Aspden R, Todd B. Brief report: Designing a playground for children with autistic spectrum disorders––effects on playful peer interactions. Journal of autism and developmental disorders. 2007;37(6):1192-6.

The strongest argument for intentional school playground design is not theory. It is what happens when real schools build outdoor spaces that are designed to do real work. A recent Springfield case study shows the idea in motion. And when you line those stories up next to public school data, the case for designing school playgrounds on purpose gets a lot more concrete.

The Play On! Design Guide includes examples from Missouri and Mississippi that are worth paying attention to because they show a pattern. The winning formula is not just new school playground equipment. It is intentional design, active programming, teacher support, and a clearer idea of what the school playground is supposed to accomplish for students and the community.

That matters because schools do not need fairy tales. They need proof points. They need to see what intentional school playground design looks like on the ground, what it asks of educators, and what kinds of student outcomes it can help support over time.

Springfield, Missouri: school playground design at district scale

In Missouri, the Play On! case study points to Springfield-Greene County as a pioneer in school-park partnerships and shared-use thinking. Many school playgrounds in Springfield are open to the public outside school hours, which expands access and helps the district get more value from every investment. The Play On! guide also notes that nine local elementary schools participated in a national research study that examined the value of the program as part of elementary physical education. Teachers reported that students were active at the same time instead of waiting their turn, and that even children who did not usually enjoy PE responded differently when the activity felt like play.

That district-wide story gets even more tangible at Weller Elementary in Springfield, where GameTime recently highlighted a Play On!-based playground designed to increase daily movement and support long-term wellness goals. Missouri DESE’s public district directory lists Springfield R-XII with 39 elementary campuses, which is exactly why intentional school playground design matters so much here. At that scale, the school playground is not a side feature. It is a system-wide learning and wellness asset.

Missouri DESE also makes the larger point plainly in its Healthy Schools guidance: healthier students tend to perform better academically, attend more consistently, and experience fewer behavior problems. That context makes Springfield’s movement-centered approach feel less like enrichment and more like common sense.

Mississippi: design plus training, not just installation

The Mississippi example in the Play On! Design Guide is powerful for a different reason. It was not only about replacing outdated playgrounds. It paired design with educator training. According to the guide, the statewide initiative created more than 96,000 square feet of new play spaces across Mississippi, impacted 17 schools and more than 7,300 students, and included more than 20 hours of training for 25 educators. Every participating educator agreed with the training outcomes and said they would recommend Play On! to other schools.

That training piece is easy to overlook, but it is probably one of the most important lessons in the entire series. A school playground works better when adults know how to use it well. When educators understand the six active play elements, the standards-aligned activities, and the intended movement patterns of the site, the school playground becomes easier to program during PE, recess, family events, and before- or after-school programming. The space starts doing more than sitting there and looking nice.

What the Mississippi report cards show

Public report-card data from the Mississippi Department of Education adds another layer. Houston Upper Elementary, part of Chickasaw County School District, is currently an A-rated school. On its 2024-2025 Mississippi Succeeds report card, Houston Upper posted 58.1% math proficiency, 61.1% English proficiency, and 76.1% science proficiency. Houston Lower Elementary’s 2022-2023 report card showed 54.4% math proficiency, 90.1% math growth, and 87.0% growth among students in the lowest-performing quarter, which is the kind of number school leaders notice.

Union Elementary offers a useful reminder that real school performance is rarely a straight line. Its 2024-2025 Mississippi Succeeds report card shows 62.0% math proficiency and 55.0% English proficiency, while also showing a chronic absenteeism rate of 19.5%. That combination is exactly why intentional school playground design matters. Schools need environments that support both engagement and wellness, not just test preparation. Better movement opportunities alone will not solve every challenge, but they can support the kind of healthier school culture that student success depends on.

Build the Ideal Playground The Case for Building on Purpose

These Missouri and Mississippi examples point to the same conclusion. The school playground works best when schools stop treating it like an afterthought and start treating it like strategy. Intentional school playground design helps schools create more opportunities for movement, more inclusive play, better use of PE time, stronger family engagement, and more value from the same square footage. It also creates a cleaner story for school leaders: the playground is not competing with learning. It is supporting learning.

That is the part worth remembering. The most effective school playground equipment is not just durable, attractive, or budget-friendly. It is equipment chosen and arranged to support how students move, interact, recover, and return to class. That is what turns a project into an asset. To start planning your school playground, contact your local GameTime school playground expert.

More physical activity in childhood is associated with better cognition and academic success. The evidence is clear. That is why designing a school playground should never begin with a simple question like, “How many kids can fit out there?” It should begin with a better one: “What do we want this space to help students do?”

When schools approach school playground design through that lens, the conversation changes fast. The playground stops being a recess-only amenity and starts becoming a tool for movement, regulation, skill-building, and school-day readiness. That does not mean every school playground has to look the same. It does mean every school playground should be designed on purpose.

Play On! is one of the clearest frameworks available for doing exactly that. Developed by PlayCore in partnership with SHAPE America, it gives schools a research-based way to think about school playground equipment, physical activity, and standards-aligned programming as one connected system rather than three unrelated decisions.

Start with the six elements that matter most

The Play On! framework centers school playground design around six key elements of active play: balancing, brachiating, climbing, sliding, spinning, and swinging. That matters because the goal is not just to fill a site with activity. The goal is to provide a well-rounded movement environment that helps students build strength, coordination, body awareness, confidence, and fitness through play.

Each element brings something different to the table. Balancing supports control and stability. Brachiating builds upper-body strength and coordination. Climbing challenges full-body strength, planning, and persistence. Sliding adds spatial awareness and dynamic movement. Spinning supports kinesthetic awareness and postural control. Swinging promotes whole-body movement and rhythmic timing. When a school playground includes all six, it starts to function less like a random collection of structures and more like an intentional outdoor learning environment.

Use school playground design to create progression, not chaos

One of the smartest ideas inside Play On! is that designing school playgrounds should include levels of challenge. Children do not all move, grow, or build confidence at the same pace, so a strong school playground design gives beginners, intermediate users, and more advanced movers a place to play successfully. That progression is good for inclusion, good for safety, and good for student confidence.

This is where many school playground projects miss the mark. They confuse quantity with quality. More pieces do not automatically mean better play. A better school playground is one where students can enter the space at their skill level, find success quickly, and then be tempted forward by the next challenge. That is how movement becomes habit instead of frustration.

Design the layout for movement patterns students actually use

School playground equipment matters, but layout matters just as much. Play On! recommends creating connecting play patterns, which is a fancy way of saying the space should make movement feel natural. Slides should lead back toward climbers. Components should support intuitive loops, chasing games, and repeated use. Social opportunities should be built in so students can cooperate, play side by side, and stay engaged longer.

That layout logic is a big deal for academic success even though it does not look academic at first glance. Students who move more, wait less, and stay engaged longer get more benefit from the time they have outside. They return to class with fewer bottlenecks, fewer avoidable conflicts, and a better chance of being regulated enough to learn. Good school playground design is not just about what students do on the structure. It is about what the structure makes possible.

Design school playground equipment for PE, recess, and everything in between

This is one reason Play On! stands out as an essential design guide for schools. It does not stop at equipment selection. It pairs school playground design with 125 standards-based activities for grades PreK-5, assessment tools, implementation strategies, family take-home resources, and alignment with SHAPE America’s National Physical Education Standards. In other words, it helps schools turn a school playground into a usable platform for instruction, not just a pretty installation.

The research summary is worth paying attention to. In a SHAPE America-sponsored Play On! study involving roughly 6,000 children across 14 schools in five states, 91% of teachers reported that playground use increased, 90% planned to keep using the activities, and activity intensity measured 38% higher during Play On! activities than during free play. That is not a small bump. That is proof that design plus programming can move the needle.

Why Play On! should be in every school playground planning conversation

Schools already expect indoor environments to support educational outcomes. Play On! makes the case that the outdoor environment should do the same. It gives school teams a practical way to align school playground equipment with wellness goals, PE standards, recess strategy, and family engagement. It also helps schools maximize the value of an investment that will be used before school, during school, after school, and often by the wider community.

That is the real win. A better school playground design does not ask the playground to compete with academics. It asks the playground to support academics by supporting the whole child. That is a much smarter brief.

Build the Ideal Playground

Schools do not need a school playground that only looks impressive on opening day. They need a school playground that keeps earning its keep, year after year, by helping students move more, regulate better, and come back to the classroom more ready to learn. Designing a school playground around research, progression, programming, and purposeful school playground equipment is one of the simplest ways to make outdoor space work harder for academic success. To start planning your school playground, contact your local GameTime school playground expert.

Researchers have shown that the physical design of a classroom can measurably affect how well students learn. That matters because schools rarely treat classroom layout, lighting, flexibility, or flow like random details. Yet the school playground is still too often planned like leftover square footage instead of a learning environment.

That mismatch never made much sense. Children do not stop being learners when they step outside. Recess is not dead time. It is where attention resets, bodies move, friendships get tested, and self-regulation gets rehearsed in real time. The CDC’s guidance on recess and school-day physical activity connects those opportunities to better attention, behavior, and academic performance, which means the outdoor environment deserves the same seriousness we give the indoor one.

If we believe environment shapes learning inside the building, then designing school playgrounds should follow the same logic outside the building. The question is not whether the school playground matters. The question is why so many schools still plan it last.

Why classrooms get the strategy treatment

Schools design classrooms with intention because everyone understands the stakes. Teachers need visibility. Students need comfort, choice, movement, and structure. Furniture is selected to support the age group, the lesson style, and the rhythm of the day. Wall space is used on purpose. Acoustics matter. Lighting matters. Circulation matters. Even the distance between tables matters. Nobody says, “Just put some desks in there and hope for the best,” because classrooms are expected to do real work.

That same design discipline should apply to a school playground. A school playground is not just a place to burn energy between “real” learning blocks. It is where children practice balance, coordination, confidence, cooperation, risk assessment, conflict resolution, and independence. Those are not side quests. Those are part of how young students become ready to learn, ready to relate, and ready to grow.

What school playground design should borrow from classroom design

Good classroom design starts with a clear goal, and good school playground design should do the same. Before anyone starts picking out school playground equipment, schools should ask the same kind of questions they ask when planning academic spaces: What do students need to do here? What skills should this environment support? How can we create enough challenge without creating chaos? How will teachers supervise it? How will all students participate?

That shift changes everything. Instead of treating the school playground like a shopping list, schools start treating it like a framework. They think about age-appropriate challenge. They think about how students move from one activity to another. They think about inclusion, shade, supervision, circulation, surfacing, and how the space works during recess, PE, before-school programs, after-school use, and family events. In other words, they stop buying equipment and start designing experiences.

A school playground is part of the learning environment

That idea is already supported far beyond the playground industry. The American Academy of Pediatrics has long argued that recess is a crucial part of healthy child development, not a disposable extra. The National Association for the Education of Young Children points to outdoor play as a driver of physical, cognitive, social, and emotional growth. Missouri’s own Healthy Schools guidance says healthier students perform better academically, behave better, and attend school more consistently. When you lay those ideas side by side, the case gets pretty hard to ignore.

PlayCore’s Play On! Design Guide pushes that same argument one step further by treating the school playground as critical infrastructure for health and wellness. That is exactly the right phrase. Infrastructure is not decoration. It is not optional. It is what makes the rest of the system work. A school playground that supports movement, choice, challenge, and programming can help schools reinforce the goals they already care about inside the classroom: focus, engagement, belonging, and student success.

When school playground equipment becomes instructional infrastructure

This is where intentionality gets practical. A better school playground design does not happen because a campus adds more pieces and calls it a day. It happens when the layout, the equipment mix, and the site amenities all support how students actually use the space. That might mean creating intuitive looping movement instead of dead ends. It might mean balancing high-energy zones with quieter side-by-side spaces. It might mean choosing equipment that supports different levels of challenge instead of one difficulty setting for every child. It definitely means remembering that the best school playground equipment is not the flashiest piece in the catalog. It is the equipment that earns repeated use and supports better outcomes.

That is also why designing school playgrounds with intention should involve more than facilities staff alone. Teachers, PE leaders, school administrators, and even community partners all have something useful to say about how the space should work. Classrooms get better when instructional goals shape the layout. School playground design gets better the same way.

The Playground Should Be Planned, Not Left Over

If a school classroom deserves strategy, structure, and purpose, the school playground deserves it too. Designing school playgrounds with the same intention we bring to classrooms creates a campus that works harder for students all day long, inside and out. When schools are ready to build a school playground that supports movement, learning, and long-term student success, they should start planning it like the learning environment it already is. To start planning your school playground, contact your local GameTime school playground expert.

We are proud to celebrate the dedication, leadership, and performance demonstrated by our partners and professionals this year. Please join us in congratulating the recipients of these awards—individuals and organizations who exemplify excellence in service, sales performance, innovation, and commitment to our mission.

Legacy Performance Award – Dominica Recreation

Dick Dominica Representative of the Year – Sinclair Recreation

Richard Stanford Outstanding Sales Professional Award – Jeremy Bosman

Outstanding Sales Support Professional – Sarah Catrillo 

President’s Award of Excellence – MRC Recreation

President’s Award of Excellence – Tami Atchley

Rookie of the Year – Samantha McAdams

Turning Research Into Practice Agency of the Year – MRC Recreation

Marketing Achievement Award – Cunningham Recreation

Marketing Brand Ambassador Award – Mitch Reno

Honorees:

• Kathy Kolanko
• Jimmy Burke
• JoAnn Thomas
• Greg Dollings
• Melissa Benson

Congratulations to all of this year’s winners! Your hard work, passion, and commitment continue to inspire excellence across our industry. Here's to another year of impact, innovation, and success!