@sozobe,
When I was growing up one of the standard playground 'toys' was a series of telephone poles sunk at ascending/descending levels in a spiraled line. The highest pole was likely 5 - 6 feet in height. The idea was that you would walk from one line to the other, spaced a foot and a half apart, without falling.
Kids used to line up to prove they could do it. Boys and girls would repeatedly fall, get scraped and banged up, laugh, and run back around to try again.
I have neighbors across the street who's son is scared to death to balance-walk along the 3 inch curb because he's afraid of falling. Their playground consists of a padded swing set and a rubber slide (we had metal . . in Texas). I have to believe these things are linked.
This is just one example I know of, but it's not by any means the only one I know of. There's definitely something to this.