Attention: Children at Play

We have heard it before, “The Power of Play”, “Play is Learning”, “ Play is FUNdamental”. Despite these messages, American children are spending less and less time just “playing”, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics in their report: “The Importance of Play in Promoting Healthy Child Development and Maintaining Strong Parent-Child Bonds”. Instead of using their imaginations to build something from a set of wooden blocks, children are pushing buttons to activate an electronic toy programmed by an adult. Instead of kicking around a ball just for fun, young children, sometimes as young as 4, maybe younger, are signed up for weekly lessons for soccer and other sports. But what is play? According to Dr. Bruce Perry, play takes many forms, but the heart of all play is pleasure. 

If it isn’t fun, it isn’t play.

Humans are by nature curious. This curiosity drives a child to explore. A child, who explores, discovers her world and these discoveries bring her pleasure. And with pleasure comes the powerful drive to repeat the pleasurable activity. So the child continues to explore her world through play. This repetition brings mastery; the child really begins to understand her world, which gives her a sense of accomplishment and confidence. A confident child feels comfortable with her world and will be more likely to explore and as a result will continue to discover and learn more than a child driven to memorize their letters and numbers with little internal motivation. ( Curiosity: The Fuel of Development by Bruce Perry, MD, PhD )



 But the benefits of free play are not limited to cognitive development. Children engaged in self-directed play can de-stress and try to make sense of their world. For example, a young girl whose baby brother requires surgery may pretend she is a surgeon saving patients. This helps her feel in control of her world during a stressful time. Free play can help children strengthen their gross motor skills as they push an overturned laundry basket or skip rope. Children can strengthen their fine motor skills as they scribble grocery lists or tie fabric scraps together to make a fort. Children enhance their language skills when they play “copy cat”. Children learn social skills when they play together. If children disagree, they must learn to come up with a win-win situation before they will agree to continue playing. Through free-play, children learn problem solving, strategizing, planning, trial and error- all skills that are priceless in the classroom.



            With all of the evidence supporting child-directed play, why is it so hard to allow children time to play on their own? Media and society often send parents messages that conflict with the principles of free-play. Parents often feel they should buy their children “educational” toys, videos, and other gadgets and enroll them in lots of activities rather than just letting them play. There is a real fear that their children will be left behind their peers if they are not diligent to provide these resources. In the book, “Einstein Never Used Flashcards” by Kathy Hirsh-Pasek and Roberta Michnick Golinkoff, the authors suggest balance is the key. It’s not that signing children up for activities or buying educational products is entirely bad. The emphasis should be on the process not the product. Lessons should be based upon children’s expressed or observed interests and limited in time commitments. Caregivers should always be sure to preserve plenty of free-time with open-ended toys, such as dolls, blocks, playdough and balls. Encourage creativity and imagination. We can’t let play be lost. It’s too important for our children’s health, happiness and future.



(The book Einstein Never Used Flashcards by Kathy Hirsh-Pasek and Roberta Michnick Golinkoff is available in our Resource Lending Library)