Since the late 1970’s there has been a dramatic decline in kid’s free play and unstructured outdoor activities. Children have gone from watching too much television to spending several hours per day looking into a computer or smart phone screen. Almost all play is carefully structured.
Peter Gray
Ph.D. is a research professor of psychology at Boston College and author of Free
to Learn: Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier,
More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life. He writes in his monthly column:
“Children
love to play in emotionally exciting ways.
Little ones delight in being tossed into the air or swung around by
adults or teenagers (but only if the children themselves determine the height
of the tosses and the vigor of the swinging). They also love to be chased by a
‘monster.’ Somewhat older children enjoy somersaulting, pirouetting,
cartwheeling, and other forms of spinning around; sliding, swinging high, and
teeter-tottering on playground equipment; climbing trees or up the sides of
buildings; leaping from heights onto water or snowbanks; and zipping around on
scooters, bikes, skateboards, skis, and other devices that permit speed.
Children of all ages seem to have a sense of their limits in such play. They
typically start at low heights or slow speeds and move gradually up. They take
risks in moderation. The joy of play combined with a modicum of fear is the
exquisite sensation we all identify as thrill.”
There are
numerous benefits for kids play in general. Social, emotional, cognitive and
physical growth is enhanced. Here are some of the added benefits of
unstructured, self-directed play that are not as evident in programmed,
structured play:
1. Unstructured play boosts
children’s creativity and imagination:
Bright
Horizons Family Solutions encourages this type of play:
“Einstein
said, ‘Imagination is more important than knowledge.’ Imagination is the door
to possibilities. It is where creativity, ingenuity, and thinking outside the
box begin for child development. Imaginative and pretend play is how children
learn about the world. During imaginative play, children manipulate materials,
express themselves verbally and non-verbally, plan (intentionally or
unintentionally), act, interact, react, and try different roles. Great
opportunities for learning are possible when children participate in pretend
play with dolls, vehicles, blocks, rocks, cardboard, boxes, or manipulate play
dough, create recipes by mixing dirt and water, work with art materials, splash
in puddles, or pretend to fly.”
2. Play boosts self-confidence and self-regulation:
Kids
learn to become masters of their own destiny without an adult directing,
pushing, managing or scheduling. They become more confident when making their
own choices in a play setting. Consequences of right or wrong choices are
usually immediate. From this children adapt, correct mistakes, are encouraged
by right choices, learn, grow.
3. Play forges friendships, strengthens social competence and
teaches social skills:
Undirected
(which means an adult isn’t there guiding and directing each moment) play
allows kids to learn how to work in groups, share, negotiate, communicate and
develop core social skills they need not only now but for the rest of their
lives.
From The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Pediatrics “Resurrecting Free Play In Young Children”:
“Play provides opportunities for children to learn social interaction, and all parents aspire for their children to be successful in these interactions. This success is a measure of the children’s social well-being and is marked by the ability of children to develop and sustain friendships, to cooperate, to lead, and to follow. Unstructured active play with others, including with parents, siblings, and peers, is a major opportunity to cultivate social skills. This is because all play with others requires solving some form of a social problem, such as deciding what to play, who can play, when to start, when to stop, and the rules of engagement.
“Solving these dilemmas and conflicts that arise in play encourages children to compromise and to cooperate. This process can cultivate a range of social and emotional capabilities such as empathy, flexibility, self-awareness, and self-regulation. Such capabilities, sometimes referred to together as ‘emotional intelligence,’ are essential for successful social interactions in adult life. Emotional intelligence contributes to success in the workplace, and it is the foundation for success in the intimate social relationships, such as between parents, that become the primary models for children’s social development.”
“Play provides opportunities for children to learn social interaction, and all parents aspire for their children to be successful in these interactions. This success is a measure of the children’s social well-being and is marked by the ability of children to develop and sustain friendships, to cooperate, to lead, and to follow. Unstructured active play with others, including with parents, siblings, and peers, is a major opportunity to cultivate social skills. This is because all play with others requires solving some form of a social problem, such as deciding what to play, who can play, when to start, when to stop, and the rules of engagement.
“Solving these dilemmas and conflicts that arise in play encourages children to compromise and to cooperate. This process can cultivate a range of social and emotional capabilities such as empathy, flexibility, self-awareness, and self-regulation. Such capabilities, sometimes referred to together as ‘emotional intelligence,’ are essential for successful social interactions in adult life. Emotional intelligence contributes to success in the workplace, and it is the foundation for success in the intimate social relationships, such as between parents, that become the primary models for children’s social development.”
4. Play helps kids learn to enjoy just being in their own company,
entertain themselves and develop identity:
In our age of mindfulness, what about for kids? Free play gives kids time and opportunity to explore their own thoughts, imagination, wishes, hopes. Personality and character is developed as they began to discover who they are and what their talents are. What they truly enjoy and what they would rather avoid.
In our age of mindfulness, what about for kids? Free play gives kids time and opportunity to explore their own thoughts, imagination, wishes, hopes. Personality and character is developed as they began to discover who they are and what their talents are. What they truly enjoy and what they would rather avoid.
5. Play creates joyful memories of childhood:
One prominent free play advocate, Mike Lanza, says it best: “Think about
your own 10 best memories of childhood, and chances are most of them involve
free play outdoors. How many of them took place with a grown-up around? I
remember that when the grown-ups came over, we stopped playing and waited for
them to go away. But moms nowadays never go away.”
6. Regular play expands our kids minds and neurological
development (free play augments these benefits):
Research
associate Jeffrey Goldstein, Ph.D. is on the Editorial Board of the
International Journal of Early Childhood Education and the author of Toys, Play and Child Development and Why We Watch: The Attractions of Violent
Entertainment. He writes:
“Play
increases brain development
and growth, establishes
new neural connections,
and in a
sense makes the
player more intelligent …. Play is more frequent during
the periods of
most rapid brain
growth. Because
adult brains are
also capable of learning
and developing new
neural circuits, adults also continue to play.
“Play
theorist Brian Sutton-Smith believes that the human child is born with a huge
neuronal over-capacity, which if not used will die. Not only are children
developing the neurological foundations that will enable problem solving,
language and creativity, they are also learning while they are playing. They
are learning how to relate to
others, how to
calibrate their muscles and
bodies and how to think
in abstract terms. Through their play children learn how
to learn. What
is acquired through
play is not
specific information but a
general mind set
towards solving problems that
includes both abstraction and combinatorial
flexibility where children
string bits of
behaviour together to
form novel solutions
to problems requiring
the restructuring of
thought or action….
“A child who
is not being stimulated, by being ... played with, and who has few
opportunities to explore his
or her surroundings,
may fail to link up fully those
neural connections and pathways which will
be needed for
later learning.”
7. Self-directed play builds new competencies, leadership skills,
teaches lifelong hobbies, and develops resilience:
“Play
is what allows kids to manipulate their environment,” says a report written by
Kenneth Ginsburg, M.D. of the American Academy of Pediatrics. “And how you manipulate
your environment is about how you begin to take control, how you begin to
develop your senses, how you view the world.”
Silicon
Valley free play advocate Mike Lanza laments the recent upsurge in suicides
among Palo Alto high school students:
“‘It’s been
pretty clear to me since I moved here eight years ago that kids are just not
happy here,’ Mike says, and ‘the suicides are just the extreme examples of the
broader problem.’ He believes ‘the poor quality of children’s lives around
here’ stems from their lack of autonomy. Basic developmental psychology posits
that if children develop a fundamental sense that they (not their parents) are
masters of their own destiny, they will be successful adults, and that without
that belief they will flounder: It’s easy to want to rid yourself of a life
that doesn’t feel truly your own.”
8. Boys benefit
from free play:
Advocates
believe boys “are being deprived of masculine experiences by overprotective
moms, who are allowed to dominate passive dads. Central …. is the importance of
physical danger: of encouraging boys to take risks and play rough and tumble
and get — or inflict — a scrape or two.”
9. Unstructured
play mitigates against anxiety and depression:
“Research
suggests that students with controlling ‘helicopter’ parents are less flexible
and more vulnerable, anxious and self-conscious, as well as more likely to be
medicated for anxiety or depression. Similarly, children whose time is highly
structured — crammed with lessons and adult-supervised activities — may have
more difficulty developing their own “executive function” capabilities, the
ability to devise their own plans and carry them out. Conversely, the more time
children spend in free play, the better they develop these capabilities.”
Some of the
emotional-behavioural benefits of normal play, all enhanced with free play,
are:
----Play
reduces fear, anxiety, stress, irritability
----Creates
joy, intimacy, self-esteem and mastery not based on other’s loss of esteem
----Improves
emotional flexibility and openness
----Increases
calmness, resilience and adaptability and ability to deal with surprise and
change
----Play can
heal emotional pain
10. Physical benefits (all enhanced with free play)
----Positive
emotions increase the efficiency of immune, endocrine, and cardiovascular
systems
----Decreases
stress, fatigue, injury, and depression
----Increases
range of motion, agility, coordination, balance, flexibility, and fine and
gross motor exploration
REALITY CHECK: Could Your Kids Be ‘Play Deprived’? (from Pediatric Safety)
---- How
much are your kids plugged into some kind of a digital device?
---- How often are your kids glued to that TV or clicking that keypad?
---- How much free time do your kids have that is unscheduled, unplanned, unsupervised?
---- How often do your kids go outdoors to just recompress?
---- Do your kids know how to entertain themselves solo an adult, coach, teacher, or you whether it be indoors or out?
---- Do your kids enjoy the great outdoors?
---- How often (if ever) do your kids see you throwing off your shoes and joining in the unplanned, spontaneous fun with them?
---- Do your kids know outdoor age-appropriate games and have the equipment for those activities whether it be hopscotch, jump rope, Red Rover, I Spy, basketball, freeze-tag, kick the can, skateboarding?
---- Do your kids know how to self-entertain and do activities that would nurture their creativity or imagination on a regular basis?
---- Do you set a rule that when friends come to the house a minimum or no plugged-in devices are allowed?
---- Would your kid say that you encourage them to play unstructured?
---- How do you respond when your kids get messy? (Just asking…but remember letting your kids get messy every now and then is actually a great way to teach them that nobody’s perfect, accidents do happen, and teaches them to enjoy themselves and their own company).
Primary Sources
Additional Resources
Photo: http://rockandrollpussycat.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Child-Tunnel.jpg
Jerry De Luca is a Christian freelance writer who loves perusing dozens of interesting and informative publications. When he finds any useful info he summarizes it, taking the main points, and creates a (hopefully) helpful blog post.
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