Playgrounds for All Ages

The BBC has this report about elderly people in Finland being encouraged to play at the playground with their grandkids, or on their own. The article begins:

"At the Santa Claus Sports Institute in Lapland, a group of elderly Finns leap around on climbing frames, swinging on the swings and bouncing on a see-saw that is more of a people launcher than anything I remember from my days on the playground.It is the latest Finnish wheeze to get people more active.The University of Lapland has been researching how to make activity more playful and pleasurable and is convinced that elderly people would benefit from joining in with the children in the local park.A team at Rovaniemi Polytechnic studied one group of 40 people, aged between 65 and 81, and found there were significant improvements in balance, speed and co-ordination after just three months of larking about on the climbing frames and play equipment.Given that more than a third of elderly people say they are nervous moving about because of a fear of falling, these are statistics that interest people working with senior citizens."

Continue reading the rest of the story here, then, no matter what your age, remember to get some play time today - for your health!