By Kurt Woodman – Outdoor Play Visionary

In a world increasingly obsessed with safety and control, “risky play” can sound like a contradiction. But the truth is: when thoughtfully designed and supported, risky play is not about danger — it’s about development. It’s the scaffold on which confidence, resilience, and adaptive intelligence are built.

What Is Risky Play?

Risky play involves activities where children test their physical and emotional limits. These might include:

• Climbing to heights
• Balancing on uneven surfaces
• Moving at speed
• Navigating tools or natural materials
• Engaging in rough-and-tumble play
• Exploring unfamiliar terrain

It’s not recklessness. It’s intentional. It’s exploration at the edges of comfort — where learning happens most powerfully.

As Nathan Wallis, leading neuroscience educator, puts it:

“The frontal cortex develops through experience — trial, error, and repetition. Risky play gives children the opportunity to make decisions, assess danger, and solve problems in real time.”

In other words: children need exposure to challenges to grow smarter, stronger, and more self-aware.

The Neuroscience of Risk

Neuroscience tells us the frontal cortex — responsible for executive function, emotional regulation, and strategic decision-making — is shaped by active experience. Not passive instruction. Not worksheets. Play.

Risky play creates conditions for:

• Cognitive flexibility — trying multiple strategies when the first fails
• Self-regulation — managing emotions, hesitations, and excitement
• Risk assessment — learning to judge situations independently
• Resilience — facing uncertainty and pushing through it
• Goal-setting and delayed gratification — essential ingredients in academic and social success

When children wobble across a log or climb a high platform, they’re not just burning energy. They’re building a sense of self-efficacy — the belief that “I can try, fail, learn, and succeed.”

Confidence isn’t taught. It’s earned, through lived experience.

The Problem with Overprotection

In an effort to protect children, many environments unintentionally remove the very experiences that help them thrive.

When climbing frames shrink, surfaces flatten, and adult intervention interrupts every risk, we don’t eliminate harm — we eliminate growth.

Research shows overprotected children are more likely to:

• Avoid challenges
• Experience higher anxiety
• Struggle with decision-making
• Exhibit lower problem-solving capacity

By contrast, children who experience safe, supported risk develop:

• Greater physical coordination
• Higher levels of resilience and independence
• Stronger peer collaboration and empathy
• The ability to navigate real-life risks with confidence and care

Design that Supports Discovery

At Outdorable, we don’t just permit risky play — we design for it. Our play packages are modular, natural, and open-ended so children can:

• Choose their own path through a structure
• Combine elements in creative, unpredictable ways
• Test their balance, grip, and judgment with real-world materials

Every plank, log, branch and slide is a conversation starter between the child and the environment — a quiet invitation to try, rethink, try again.

Safety still matters. But challenge matters more. We build for both.

What Educators Can Do

Educators play a vital role in facilitating risky play. That doesn’t mean watching from a distance or taking over a child’s decision. It means:

• Offering language and feedback that builds confidence
• Creating a culture where failure is normalized and valued
• Modeling positive risk-taking through their own engagement
• Framing setbacks as part of the journey, not the end of it
• Helping children reflect on their efforts and recalibrate

Wallis reminds us:

“Frontal cortex development comes through the act of ‘doing’. The more chances children have to make decisions and solve problems, the better equipped they are for life.”

Risky play is one of the most powerful ways to provide that.

Let’s stop asking “Is this safe?”
Let’s start asking, “Is this challenging enough?”
Because it’s in the climb, the fall, and the brave try again — that confidence is born.

“The mud will wash off, but the memories will last a lifetime.”
— Kurt Woodman, Outdoor Play Visionary