Creative Play has launched 10 new pieces of inclusive play equipment, designed to bring accessibility, sensory experiences, physical challenge and imaginative play together within the playground.
From wheelchair-accessible climbing structures that combine physical and sensory play, to compact teepees offering sound, colour, texture and shelter, the range shows how inclusive features can be built into everyday play equipment.
Rather than creating ‘specialist’ equipment or a separate area, the designs give children different ways to interact with the same structures and play alongside one another.
10 New Inclusive Items Include:
Discover our latest range of equipment, designed to create more inclusive and engaging outdoor play experiences for children of all abilities. Take a look at the new products below to find out more and discover how they can bring inclusive play to your playground.
Three Climbing Frames Like You’ve Never Seen Before
The three new climbing frames combine physical challenge with sensory and interactive play, bringing a range of activities together within one structure.
Each features wheelchair access, playboards, translucent panels and a shop hatch. “The accessible design is intended to encourage children who might otherwise not approach a climbing frame to come right up to them and join in activities with their friends,” explains Creative Play Product Designer Hugo.
“The playboards introduce interactive activities that can be explored without climbing, while the shop hatch opens opportunities for imaginative and social play. That means children can interact with the structure in different ways and create games around it together.”
Reinventing the Playground Teepee
The five new teepees show how a relatively small structure can introduce several different play experiences, each featuring a different combination of play elements.
“These are a significant departure from the traditional idea of a playground teepee, transforming a simple sheltered structure into something that can offer sensory, creative, musical and quieter play experiences”.
The first incorporates three music panels, creating opportunities to experiment with sound and rhythm. Another brings together a chalkboard, a translucent colour panel and an artificial grass panel, combining creative play with visual and tactile experiences.
A third uses translucent colour panels on three sides, “allowing children to explore colour, light and shadows as they move around the structure”.
The remaining two create more sheltered spaces. One uses timber panels all the way around, while the other has them only across its upper third, “providing a quieter space while keeping children fully visible to supervising staff”.
“The designs came from the idea that an inclusive addition doesn’t have to be large to add something meaningful. These teepees are an easy way to introduce more inclusive variety to an existing space.”
A Playhouse Packed With Play Value
The new Playhouse brings many of the range’s ideas together in one structure.
It features translucent panel and artificial grass walls, seating, wheelchair access, artificial grass rollers, an open shop hatch and a bubble window.
“Each feature creates a different point of interaction. The artificial grass introduces a texture to explore touch, while the rollers provide another tactile activity and the bubble window creates something to investigate.”
The seating, accessible layout and shop hatch allow children to use the structure in a way that is “a natural focus for imaginative games that other children can easily join”.
As Hugo explains, “we’ve taken some of the best elements from our other equipment and brought them together in one place.” The result is a structure where sensory, imaginative and social play can happen alongside one another, rather than each requiring its own separate piece of equipment.
A Maze Board That Makes You Move
The new Maze Board takes interactive play down to a much smaller scale, consisting of a metal ball that sits inside a wheel which children must rotate to guide it towards the centre.
“By encouraging hand and elbow movements the physical action of turning the wheel helps children with both fine and gross motor control, while working out how to move the ball through the maze introduces a problem-solving element. And then the sound of the ball rolling and dropping provides auditory feedback, making the activity more than a purely visual experience.”
It also features a braille element, which is an attention to detail important to Hugo, who insists “every element has to serve a purpose.”
The resultant Maze Board is a great example of how a compact feature can combine physical movement, cognitive challenge and sensory feedback in a single activity.
Inclusive Features, Built Into Everyday Play
Across the range, the ten products bring together different combinations of movement, sensory experiences, interaction, imagination, shelter and accessibility, making it easier to build inclusive features naturally into a play space.
And behind all of them is a simple objective.
“The real challenge was delivering lots of play value while keeping inclusivity affordable. An outdoor play area adapting to be more inclusive shouldn’t have to start over again. Helping all children feel welcome and included in a playground really shouldn’t mean adding a separate zone, it needs to be a natural part of the same general space.”
Could One Of These Designs Work In Your Play Space?
If something in the new range has caught your eye, talk to us about your space, your requirements and how the equipment could work for you. We can help you explore the options and take the next step towards installation.
