Fun for all ages: Waterplay's favourite toddler-friendly splash pad features

When thinking about a splash pad, the first things that often come to mind are the big, thrilling splashes from dumping buckets and various sprays being shot out in every direction from other fun and exciting features. While these types of aquatic play features are extremely common in splash pads, they aren’t the only ones that matter. When designing a splash pad, it’s important to keep those who will be using the space in mind. The act of playing is incredibly important in early childhood development and on the splash pad, the addition of water creates amazing sensory experiences for children of all ages.  

On the splash pad, toddlers benefit from being curious and exploring how water moves, whether that be ground sprays, interactive water features, or small splash pad features that produce gentler water flows. Having the freedom to move through an aquatic play space and interact with toddler-friendly splash pad features will help foster their curiosity and encourage the development of fundamental life skills. 

Splash pads can also be an incredible way to build a toddler’s confidence in and around water by allowing them to engage with the features on their own time, at their own pace. Good experiences with water earlier on can have a huge benefit to small children when it comes time for them to learn how to swim.  

Waterplay designs splash pad features for all ages and abilities, including toddlers. Low-flow features such as ground sprays are a great way for small children to enjoy the water without having to worry about being hit by the big splashes of dumping buckets or other free-standing features. Larger features can be intimidating to small children, so ensuring that a splash pad is designed with features for all ages in mind is essential. 

Interactive aquatic play features are also amazing for small children, as they provide the opportunity to explore all the ways water flows. Waterplay’s Discovery Stream is a smart, modular splash pad feature that lets kids move water through by spinning, blocking, and twisting different weirs to affect the water flow. It contains three main components: the Spring, the Bends, and the Ocean. Children start their play journey at the Spring, a bubbling water source, flows through the Bends, the streambed— with customizable sections that can be arranged in countless configurations—and ends at the Ocean, where water gently drains away through tiny fish-shaped holes. Designed to adapt to any play environment, Discovery Stream invites toddlers into a world of curiosity, collaboration, and sensory-rich exploration. 

Tide Pools are another series of fun features that allow toddlers to look, touch, spin, and direct water using the colourful Fidget Nozzles and Wobble Bobbly Nozzle, igniting their sense of adventure and encouraging cause-and-effect learning.  

Waterplay’s Waterways collection is bursting with interactive fun! Designed for any space, this collection includes five unique features—Waterfall 1, Waterfall 2, Waterfall 3, Basin, and Gully—that can be used independently or combined to create an exciting attraction for small or large groups of children. Each feature showcases a variety of activity channels where water cascades through spinners, blockers, and twistable buckets that let little hands direct the flow of water. Waterplayers can team up or face off, splashing, blocking, and flicking water from opposite sides to launch the ultimate splash battle! 

When designing a splash pad with toddlers in mind, one of the most important things to consider (aside from the water features themselves) is the accessibility of the space. Implementing a barrier-free design is a great way to ensure easy access for not only small children who might be walking or crawling, but also for their caregivers. Making sure that there are clear sightlines across the splash pad is essential in ensuring that parents and caregivers on the sidelines can safely watch the children while they play.  

Waterplay’s expert team of designers is well-versed in designing splash pads for all ages and abilities. They can work with municipalities, developers, planners, and landscape architects to ensure the splash pad design meets the needs of everyone, regardless of their age and ability. Leveraging modular features such as the Discovery Stream is a great way to build a feature specifically for the footprint of your splash pad while providing a unique play experience for toddlers.  

Waterplay’s playPHASE™ mounting system is the perfect solution for communities that might want to scale up their splash pad in the future or swap out existing features for new ones down the road. playPHASE™ is flush-to-grade, which also helps improve the safety of a splash pad by eliminating any raised hardware that could be seen as tripping hazards for small children.