SHORT FACTS
Name: Thea Toft Amholt
Current position: Postdoc, Psychologist
Workplace: Danish Center for Clinical Research and Prevention
Favorite Schoolyard Activity: “I really liked the swings! I could spend hours trying to swing higher, synchronize my swing with the rhythm of the other swings, or jump on and off the swing. And luckily, my one-year-old son can’t get enough of the swings today either!”
Introduction
“Playtime is one of the most important factors in child development. It’s through play that children learn how to interact, engage, negotiate, cope, and imagine, which help their ability to regulate emotions.”
Thea Toft Amholt, a psychologist and researcher, believes that playgrounds hold the power to shape young minds and bring families together. However, with today’s opportunities for play shrinking, she warns that “we have far too little space and too little time for play today compared to previous generations.”
For Thea, playgrounds are more than just recreational spaces – they represent physical, compelling, and attractive spaces for children, friends, and families, where hours can be used to play and develop important skills. She believes in reimagining the approach to designing these spaces to make them even more intentional and engaging.
“Why not improve these play spaces and intentionally design them to not only foster developmental support but also encourage children and parents to stay and play just a little longer than they might have planned?”
PhD project: ‘Motivating Playgrounds’
Thea’s PhD project, ‘Motivating Playgrounds’, was conducted at the University of Southern Denmark in collaboration with the KOMPAN Play Institute. The research focused on an often-overlooked group in playground research: tweens (children aged 9-12), exploring how they interact with and use playgrounds.
Tweens are at a transitional stage between childhood and adolescence. Since physical activity and playground use typically decline during teenage years, creating engaging spaces for tweens may help foster lasting habits and positive experiences as they grow older.
The project specifically examined key aspects of playground interaction, including where on the playground tweens spend most of their time, the types of play they prefer, and their perspective on why certain equipment and activities appeal to them.
Key Findings and Design Recommendations
The project concluded that well-equipped playgrounds designed for tweens encourage high levels of physical activity, social interaction, and play. Tweens gravitated toward physically challenging and dynamic activities, spending most of their time in ball game areas and on fast-spinning equipment. They also viewed the playground as a unique space for building and strengthening friendships, where it was easier to connect with peers in an open, unstructured environment.
So, What Makes a Great Play Space For Tweens?
“Don’t crowd it!”
One of the most surprising findings was the importance of the space around the play equipment. Thea explains, “We found that the tweens valued the space around play equipment to hang out and watch what their peers were doing.”
Thea observed crowds gathering around soccer fields, tweens waiting in line for swings, and groups running to and from spinning equipment, playfully bantering, cheering, and challenging one another.
The value of the play equipment was amplified by the open space around it, creating a dynamic environment where tweens could engage with both their peers and their surroundings.
Want to dive deeper into Thea’s project?
Explore our brief summarizing its key aspects or read the full article in our database:
