Earl M. Lawson Elementary School in Leavenworth, Kansas, USA, currently attended by 300 students, is also the regional Life Skills Development Center for children with disabilities. The playground on the school grounds must therefore meet the needs of both ordinary students and children in wheelchairs, autistic children, and those with sensory impairments or muscle atrophy.
The school board decided to install rope play equipment to meet all these needs. The frame is nearly five and a half metres tall, giving children plenty of space to play up high. Children can climb to the top of the net, cross a suspension bridge, and then slide back down to the ground on a very sturdy slide.
More than 2 years have passed since this playground opened. It has breathed new life into the place, and into all the children who study there.
- Children in wheelchairs can move to right beneath the rope system, observe and talk with their friends above. This increases children's interaction, helping children with disabilities feel closer, and letting them play and frolic together with their peers.
- With their boundless imagination, children can turn a seemingly simple game into something extremely fun and thrilling with their own rules and scenarios, and children who cannot climb can still join the fun by gripping and feeling the movement of the ropes, watching and listening to the lively sounds. The ropes seem to have connected the children together. They clearly enjoy this novel way of playing.
- A proper three-dimensional net provides plenty of space for children to stand and hold on. They can climb up, down and sideways as safely as possible. The higher they go, the more confident they feel.
- Children are often visually stimulated when the sun sets and things begin to cast shadows. With the spider web structure, the net's shadows form many strange shapes on the ground. Children love running around to change their viewing angle, looking for the squares and triangles the rope shadows trace on the ground.
The ropes have been adjusted so that any child, able-bodied or disabled, can play. In addition, the rope net lets parents easily watch their children and help when needed.
A student with cerebral palsy at the school shared that she had never been able to reach the slide in the playground. Her teacher later helped her climb to the highest point of the rope system. She finally slid down the slide she had long dreamed of. Since then, the girl's attitude during playtime has completely changed.
