When we hear “play” we think of toys, or at least what materials we should have available.
Play is not a thing, it is an activity, and an activity than can take place with absolutely no materials whatsoever. Children create play materials from whatever is available and don’t require expensive, commercially produced in order to play or learn. In fact, the more special props and scripts a child has, the less their imagination is used. Television is especially crippling to a child’s imagination because of the preconceived scripts they provide. So while things such as gymnastics class, karate lessons, soccer practice, video games (even Wii), computer games (even educational ones), coloring books, crafts, board games, or any type of adult moderated activity can be educational learning opportunities, they are not play. While theses activities aren’t harmful, if too much time is devoted to adult-oriented activities and screen time, they encroach on the time that children have to play freely.
Adults often, unknowingly, suppress children’s imaginative muscles by providing children materials, directions or activities. If a child is engrossed in play involving- say a flying turkey who escapes the farm Thanksgiving morning, we don’t want interfere by offering a “teachable moment” and telling them that turkeys really can’t fly. In true child’s play, children control the script, improvise props, make the decisions, and plan their course of action. This is also how they try to make sense of their world. Often a child who has visited the doctor may want to play in a situation where the tables are turned and they are the doctor wielding the needle. To do this, they use private speech. They plan in their head what they are going to do, and how they are going to do it. Private speech used in free play is precisely what children use to develop self-regulation. Children who have strong imaginations and have been offered more time to play freely are likely to do better in school than their peers who had less free play.
Advocate for free play and resist the pressure from the academic arena to allow this time to shrink by filling it with adult directed activities and lessons. Our children will be more successful if we just trust in their ability to play and learn while doing so.
Adults often, unknowingly, suppress children’s imaginative muscles by providing children materials, directions or activities. If a child is engrossed in play involving- say a flying turkey who escapes the farm Thanksgiving morning, we don’t want interfere by offering a “teachable moment” and telling them that turkeys really can’t fly. In true child’s play, children control the script, improvise props, make the decisions, and plan their course of action. This is also how they try to make sense of their world. Often a child who has visited the doctor may want to play in a situation where the tables are turned and they are the doctor wielding the needle. To do this, they use private speech. They plan in their head what they are going to do, and how they are going to do it. Private speech used in free play is precisely what children use to develop self-regulation. Children who have strong imaginations and have been offered more time to play freely are likely to do better in school than their peers who had less free play.
Advocate for free play and resist the pressure from the academic arena to allow this time to shrink by filling it with adult directed activities and lessons. Our children will be more successful if we just trust in their ability to play and learn while doing so.
Added bonus….the best kind of play costs nothing at all.
(Remember this during the holiday ad blitz)
(Remember this during the holiday ad blitz)
Recommended Resources:
February 21, 2008 NPR transcript “Old Fashioned Play Builds Serious Skills”
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19212514
February 21, 2008 NPR transcript “Old Fashioned Play Builds Serious Skills”
February 28, 2008 NPR transcript “Creative Play Makes for Kids in Control”
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=76838288
Einstein Never Used Flashcards by Hirsch-Pasek and Golinkoff *
Your Child’s Growing Mind by Jane M. Healy *
Play by Lisa Murphy *
Where Do the Children Play? DVD by PBS and the University of Michigan *
A Place for Play by Elizabeth Goodenough *
* Available in our resource libraries
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