Inclusively designed outdoor playgrounds for kindergartens

Public kindergarten should follow the idea of contemporary, open educational institution, which is obligated to create and maintain equal opportunities for optimal development of every child. To follow the idea of inclusion, they have to remove every hampering factor which is in a way on providing good quality, balanced and meaningful play opportunities. In order to do that some changes in the physical and social environment are needed. This work will describe changes from outdoor playground spheres. Specific features of outdoor playgrounds support authentic experiences, which makes this place such an important part of preschool education. Even though these experiences can't be replaced and gained in indoor places, the national curriculum doesn't put much attention on the outdoor space. Also, some recent observations conclude that current outdoor playgrounds mainly aren't stimulative or flexible, because of dominant criteria of safety and the high level of structure of the place. This leads to playgrounds that are not answering a variety of needs of a very diverse group of users. To achieve the goal – create a space where every child will feel like a part of the community, as respected, heard, and equal member – the literature review and reflection on the quality of play opportunities in the outdoor playground is very much needed. Reflection should contain changes in the physical environment taking into account knowledge of inclusion design and also changes in a social environment – the role of a kindergarten teacher and his everyday use of space and support of children play. The purpose of this work is to describe the criteria of the inclusive outdoor playground from practices and theory. I will define inclusive play, inclusive design, the role of a kindergarten teacher, and the active participation of children. The goal of the paper is guidelines for (re)design and (re)organization of kindergarten outdoor playgrounds. I will also include ways in which kindergarten teachers can support children's play; both with attention to increasing the level of inclusion. Guidelines will be a starting point for evaluating the current outdoor playground and for reflection of current actions and maybe good support to make explicit ideas for change