Changes

With the establishment of Playground Association of America, playgrounds spread throughout the United States soon after. However, playgrounds were still very much seen as educational areas as well as for play. Playgrounds tended to be much more formal and required trained supervisors to watch and train children on lessons and activities. Early Playgrounds were also often dangerous, which included acrobatic equipment and climbing devices that led to injuries. Also, early playgrounds had a somewhat different layout than modern playgrounds. There were separate play sections for different activities; areas were also created for athletic play, including fields for boys and girls. Many playgrounds had shelters and toilet or even bathing facilities. Playgrounds were also integrated as part of urban gardens and parks, with garden plots, shaded areas, and swimming pools all part of formal playgrounds. Playgrounds were almost always supervised and children could not simply go to the playground without prior permission from supervisors of these playgrounds. Playground time was often a scheduled activity that formed part of the wider education of children.<ref>For more on the design of early playgrounds, see: Brett, Arlene, Robin C. Moore, and Eugene F. Provenzo. 1993. <i>The Complete Playground Book</i>. 1st ed. Syracuse, N.Y: Syracuse University Press.</ref>

Change to playgrounds though began to appear by the next decades in the 1910s-1920s, as manufacturers realized that playgrounds provided financial opportunities for them. They began to create new forms of entertainment for children, with ladders, chains, and new types climbing areas created, although playgrounds were still relatively dangerous by modern standards, with injuries common. The 1910s-1920s was considered an experimental time for playgrounds, as manufacturers began to develop different forms of equipment for play and activities. In 1922, the first playground slide may have been installed, with Wicksteed Park in Kettering, England installing the slide. Swings appeared more regularly, although the swing existed as a leisure device since antiquity. Slides had been around since the turn of the century, but they were mostly installed in amusement parks such as Coney Island. After the 19201920s, the 1930s-1940s saw little development or even expansion of playgrounds, as the Depression and World War II slowed their construction. In the late 1940s-1950s, landscape playgrounds became a new novelty. At this point, the formality of playgrounds began to wane and people began to see playgrounds as places mostly for children entertainment or place places to burn off children energy became a more accepted concept. Already the formality of playgrounds began to wane by the 1910s-1920s, when new equipment was introduced, but this now accelerated (Figure 2).<ref>For more on changing concepts and looks to playgrounds in the 20th century, see: Kozlovsky, Roy. 2013. <i>The Architectures of Childhood: Children, Modern Architecture and Reconstruction in Postwar England. Ashgate Studies in Architecture</i>. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company.</ref>