Elevating Children’s Play Experience: A Design Intervention to Enhance Children’s Social Interaction in Park Playgrounds

Abstract

Peer interaction through play is one approach to stimulating preschool children’s growth. The outdoor playground facilities in parks are ideal places for children to practice their social skills. This study utilized nonparticipant observation to observe and record children’s play behaviors and interactions with others to ascertain whether outdoor playground facilities favor peer interaction. We summarized the design elements of peer-interaction-promoting playground facilities to optimize the facilities by determining the types of environments and facilities that trigger peer interaction. This study discovered that children spent most of their time in solo play and the least in peer interaction. Such interaction occurred only in spaces in which children stopped briefly. After installing a new bubble machine designed to increase peer interaction, solo play behaviors and parent–child interactions became less frequent for children younger than six years old, whereas peer interaction became more frequent. During the peer interaction of children aged 3 to 6, the frequency of level one, three, and four interactions increased. They also displayed level five behaviors, which were not observed before the installation. The new facility triggered higher-level behaviors, such as cooperation and playing together, enhancing peer interaction between different age groups.