Risky play as pedagogy for the development of motor skills

When discussing risk-taking and motor development, the literature often focuses on the prevalence of injuries for children and, subsequently, injury prevention strategies. Further, discussions regarding pedagogy in physical education usually do not consider play, let alone risky play, as a viable pedagogical strategy for promoting the development of motor skills. Consequently, this chapter aims to draw attention to the unrecognised potential of risky play as a pedagogical strategy to promote and enhance motor skill development. We posit that the discussion of risk-taking should move beyond its focus on injuries and injury prevention and consider how risk-taking and risky play might contribute to the development of motor skills. Further, we explore how the adoption of tenets from the ecological approach to perception and action can help to reframe the discussion of risky play away from a focus on injury and towards a focus on positive developmental outcomes. Couching our discussion within the ecological approach to perception and action, we highlight how play, particularly play that encourages risk, can contribute to the development of the perception of affordances for action within the broader skill acquisition process.