Play is an essential activity for all children. It is one-way children explore their world. It helps children to exercise imaginative and creative thinking in a safe, secure setting. Playing in groups help childrenv alidate their thinking with that of other children. Through such play activities, children develop social maturity. They learn how to cooperate with others, what makes others happy or unhappy and what they must do to obtain the cooperation of others. Through play activities, children get an opportunity to learn from their discoveries with minimum risk. Many children with special needs require more supporti n the areas of social/emotional development than do other children. Children with a physical or a sensory disability may have had limited opportunities to interact with other children or may have seen treated differently by the children they did encounter. Emotional immaturity is more commonly found in children with special needs particularly until they acquire the experience required to develop acceptable social behaviour. Children with severe social or emotional problems may lack internal controls or may be too internalized to be readily accepted by other children. Children with limite intellectual development often respond socially and emotionally like younger children. The universal playground environment should have areas that encourage social interaction and be easily supervised. Most children with special needs have normal intellectual development. However, it may be more difficult for some with pronounced physical, sensory, motor or emotional challenges to demonstrate this. Play areas which encourage intellectual exchanges can help facilitate integration among all children. Children with delayed development need to enhance social, emotional and motor development. The universal playground needs to have a broad range of equipment and activities which appeal to all children, regardless of intellectual development. Playground facilities for pre-school and school-age children. In cases where there are dual playground facilities exist, the more challenging playground should also be supplied with a wide variety of equipment that might appeal to all ages. The basis for this is contained in the variations noted in the developmental scales. Since many children develop socially, emotionally and intellectually at varying rates, the universal playground needs to have a broader range of play experiences available to accommodate everyone.