One World Playground for STEAHM

K-12 STEAM education

Pilot or new project, program, or initiative (testing or implementing a new idea)

Scholarship of teaching and learning has demonstrated repeatedly that learners from underserved communities are asked to abandon their personal sociocultural and experiential ways of being in order to participate in typical learning and play spaces. Western STEAHM playgrounds are often designed to be overly safety-conscious, rigidly structured, highly contained places that use unsustainable plastics and metals. Western playground designs often limit rather than enhance collaborative play, do not attune the child to the natural environment, and discourage creativity and adaptability. As a result, children's understanding of their bodies in space and in engagement with objects and other people becomes limited. These play space deficits contribute to high rates of anxiety and depression, poor academic performance, detachment from one's culture and environment, social and ethical challenges, and high barriers to entry for children to participate equitably in communal spaces.

The immersive features of our playground enable children and their caretakers to play, learn, and receive occupational, speech, and social services in a natural setting. Very few playgrounds are designed in a way that allows for special needs and differently-abled children to participate meaningfully, and even fewer that are designed for providers to offer evidence-based, direct therapy and support without having to transport their own therapy equipment and resources. No playground like this exists in the USA.
Secondly, although this is a private playground, The Help Group prides itself in aligning with Los Angeles public Parks and Recreation policies. As part of decolonizing the playground and honoring the Tataviam-Fernandeño and Tongva-Fernandeño peoples who inhabited San Fernando and Los Angeles areas, we are particularly interested in incorporating indigenous and non-Western playground elements into our playground. By using universal and human-centered principles to design our STEAHM playground, children will “view themselves in “a bigger context of family, community, and nature” (Lewis Cardinal). We will consult with scientists who teach through non-Western and indigenous worldviews, playground designers who design with a decolonizing and inclusive framework, and human-centered and universal design specialists to imagine an accessible playground in which children with special needs and who come from marginalized communities will be able to play alongside typical peers.

No indigenous-informed playground exists in Los Angeles, and only 38 parks are listed as "universally accessible" on the LA Rec and Parks site. The Department states that it has a "goal of developing additional "Accessible Play" playgrounds and is working to identify more parks citywide which could be enlarged or otherwise accommodate installation of a mid-sized playground to help the vision become a reality." Our work will be the first indigenous-informed, inclusive, therapeutic STEAHM playground in Los Angeles (and to our knowledge, the United States). We expect to revolutionize playground design and share the full research and development, design, and provide annual fact sheets and conference talks about the benefits to our children academically, emotionally, and socially. We would like to serve as an exemplar to other entities seeking to develop STEAHM-based playgrounds that have inclusive, therapeutic, and accessibility missions.

This is an early-stage initiative that compliments recent campus upgrades we have received funding from private donors for: two regulation-sized pickle ball courts, and an outdoor track and circuit complete with state-of-the-art equipment to be used by The Help Group's high school and vocational students. Our campus at Sherman Oaks includes four schools that offer comprehensive special education day school programs for students ages 5 through 22, with moderate to severe global delays and developmental disabilities. We will define and measure success by: 1. 600 children receive 120 minutes weekly STEAHM play that aligns to their curriculum, and show >15% retention 2. Absenteeism and behavioral incidents decline 25% for 60% of students 3. 1:1 and small group OT and speech therapy goals on IEP will be met 15% more for 60% of students 4. 80% staff, students, families report socio-academic growth in focus group
5. By June 2025, 2 conference presentations and LAUSD consultation on design