Letter for Mr Mah (By Brian)

Pasir Ris Secondary School
390 Tampines Street 21
Singapore 529400

21 July 2008


Mr Mah Bow Tan
The Minister of National Development
Minister of Tampines GRC

Dear Minister Mah

Feedback and suggestions to improve the playground in Tampines

The playgrounds in Tampines are quite beautiful and creative. However, some of them are quite worn-out and are dangerous; some children might get hurt if they are not careful. I feel that there are still some rooms for improvement to provide a safer and more attractive playground for children with Down’s syndrome after some researching.

The Down’s syndrome children mostly have skeletal problems and are prone to diseases easily. We have think of ways to design a suitable playground for them.

Actually, there are quite a few ways for improving the playgrounds for Down’s syndrome children. Firstly, the playgrounds should be more colourful and attractive in a way to them. One example is to have cartoons characters painted on it. This might motivate them to play in spite of their disability. Secondly, it should be safer. For example, there should not be any sharp edges should they not know the danger and hurt themselves. Also, there must not be any gaps or holes fro them to trip and fall. Hard cushions can also be wrapped around the frames of the playground to decrease their injuries if they hit themselves. The monkey bars should not be too high and the slides should not be too steep.

Our group’s playground model has been designed to suit the Down’s syndrome children. There are safety precautions taken and carefully built to decrease any injuries. Next, the slides have just the right gradient for them to slide down slowly and also not roll down if they are too steep. The swings are designed to swing the right way for them, they are very easy to climb up and it swings just the right distance in case they fall forward or backward. Lastly, the playgrounds should be cleaned regularly to practice good hygiene.

These are my suggestions and feedbacks, I greatly appreciate that you take your busy time to read this letter and I hope that you could have my suggestions in mind.

Yours truly
Brian Chong Kah Joon
Student