Dimensions and Design of swimming pool fences and balcony - ANEC

Age
(years)
7–9
10–14
Climbingbehaviour
Children like to play fantasy games. They play a lot outside
the house without someone watching them. They like to
climb on playground equipment and are experts at finding
newwaystodothis.Alotofthemcanstillnotclimbarope.
Some of them because they are frightened, some of them
becausetheydonotunderstandthetechniqueofusingtheir
legsandsomeofthembecausetheyaretooheavyandthey
arenotstrongenoughtocarrytheirownbodyweight.Their
body mass is becoming more important for the ability to
climb.
Children of this age are starting to play more sport games.
Pubertywillstartaroundtheageof12andthiswillchangea
lotinthelivesofthechildren.Someofthemwillhavetoget
used to their new body forms and will become averse to
physical movement. Differences between boys and girls are
becomingbigger.Boysaregettingstronger.
Safetyconcerns
At the age of about 910 years
childrenstarttounderstandwhat
height means. From this time on
some kids can become more
scared of heights than they were
before. Especially girls can show
some regression in climbing skills
atthisage.
As adolescents the children will
climb a climbing frame or other
objectsbuttheydonotplayonit,
theyuseitasaplacewherethey
can sit and look over the area
whilst talking to each other. The
chancethattheywillfallfromthe
objectisthereforeverysmall.
A very limited number of studies using
acceptable scientific methods and focused on
children’s climbing ability was identified.
Rabinovitch, Lerner and Huey (1994) examined
children in the age range of 24 to 54 months in
a climbing task with commonly used fences, up
to 5 feet height. The results observed in the
highest fence (5 ft) showed that the older group
(48-54 months) ranged from 8 to 100 percent
success rate. Only one fence (ornamental iron
fence) offered more than a 90% restriction rate.
In this age group, three of the five tested fences
were crossed with a success rate of more than
55%. Two fences offered more than 80% success
rate. Three-fourths of the children in the
youngest groups were able to climb the
common chain-link fence at 4 ft.
On the other hand, 4 feet fences seemed very
effective in preventing younger children’s (24-
36 months) climbing behavior. At this age group,
60% of all 4 ft high fences offered total security
(no crossings at all). In this study the time to cross
the barriers was also analyzed: the 4 ft fences were
crossed in less than 76 seconds (in average) by
children of all age groups. This means that some
fences were effective in preventing crossing, but
if the child can cross it then the time they need
Dimensions and design of swimming pool fences and balcony and stairs barreirs to protect children from falling and from passing through, bellow or above
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