Observing at Kids-N-Action

While observing young children at Kids-N-Action its important to try not to let yourself be distracted by all the loud noises and visual stimulus. Kids-N-Action is a warehouse size playspace located in outer Brooklyn near the Ave. I subway stop. It has a extremely large climbing and tunnel structure located in the center of the space and is surrounded by various rides with ten rooms for birthday parties located around the perimeter and an infant area to one side.

One is first bombarded by the bright graphics on the walls, murals of comic characters and scenes of choo choo trains. Next there is a row of video/carnival games which continually beep and flash bright lights. The children are immediately drawn to the video/carnival games. Parents tend to think its because these actually cost extra and are not included in the price of admission and are momentary distractions. The youngest children don’t even require the coins needed to operate the games and are content to merely sit in the bright red race car and forcefully turn the steering wheel to the left and right. They get so much enjoyment out of banging the mallet on the buzzer, even without the payment, its easy to see how the flashing lights attract them. Once you actually do put a token in the machine it spits out a random amount of reward tickets no matter the effort put forth. The amount of excitement generated by these little cardboard tickets is akin to winning the lotto. Even when the child realized there is only a tiny eraser shaped like a basketball to be gained from the awarding of their many tickets there doesn’t seem to be much disappointment. The winning of anything, even a prize which can only be valued in pennies, elicts an abundance of joy in the children. Apparently the idea of winning, to even young children, is more exciting than the task required to gain it.

When they are exhausted from the games they eventually move to the climbing apparatus and spend their time creating games of climbing, searching, sliding down the tunnels, and hiding. The apparatus itself gives the children an environment for them to explore without fear of actually getting lost or being too far from a parent. They seem to move between the climbing apparatus and the rides with a frenzy. The train is the most mild, being suitable even for infants and parents. The circle shaped roller coaster the most frightening, moving with a mechanical lurching forward on its track till the operator flips the switch that causes it to reverse. The children seems to enjoy its loud, bumpy ride and laugh and exclaim as they whiz around the circle. When it reverses several of the children’s smiles turn to cries of fear as their shock and surprise at being mislead is realized.

What’s amazing about environments manufactured for children like this is how they manage to give children both what they desire most and give them what we, as adults, think they should want. Do they care that each birthday party room has a different character painted on a massive scale on the wall? In fact, I don’t think they even notice. The stimulus of being in the actual space mentally exhausts them as much as partaking in the activities there. At the end of the day, the lights, noise, brightly colored murals have done the job better than the rides.