The Magic of Play
I felt a strange wave of nostalgia mingled with pity for kids today as I read Beverly Cleary books with my child the other night. Cleary’s characters Henry Huggins, Beezus, and Ramona play “brick factory” and smash bricks into dust. They tie a jump rope between two trees to make a tightrope. They put on plays and build boats out of scrap lumber. Compare that to our kids’ carefully structured and supervised playtime.
Today we call unstructured fun “free play.” But many kids don’t get nearly enough of it anymore, a growing chorus of child-development experts is warning.
Hide-and-seek: Where’s the play?
It may seem obvious that kids need to play. Trouble is, a lot of what passes for play lately doesn’t quite cut it. “Playing” organized sports, for instance, isn’t child-led or open-ended — two key traits of true play. Neither is “playing” computer games — and today’s kids spend more time with computers, TV, and game screens than on any other activity except school and sleeping. Even babies miss playtime while watching “brain-building videos,” going to classes, or being dazzled by toys that do the talking (and thinking) for them.
Add in the fact that the number of schools providing recess dropped from 96 percent in 1989 to 70 percent in 1999, leading the National PTA to launch a Rescuing Recess campaign. Playgrounds go unused by kids too busy with extracurriculars. A planned New York City playground even promises “play workers” to help kids get the job — I mean play — done!
Some fun.
It’s true that classes, supervised sports, and even video games can have a useful place in modern childhood. Extracurricular activities can put kids on a path to academic success. But too much of even a good thing crowds out what we know is as crucial for kids as food, water, and air: plain old play.
When your baby drops a spoon off a high chair over and over, it’s a game that makes him smarter: Hmm, will Mom give it back again? What if I drop it off the other side? Will it make a different sound? From day one, play is how kids figure out the way things work, practice social skills, learn to think creatively, develop self-sufficiency, and discover their true interests.
“Silencing play is as harmful to healthy development — if not more so — as hurrying kids to grow up too soon,” says psychologist David Elkind, author of The Power of Play.
Too little time for fun leads to increased stress for kids, and could lead to anxiety and depression, according to a major report from the American Academy of Pediatrics. Jill Stamm, Ph.D., director of the New Directions Institute for Infant Brain Development in Phoenix, notes that it can even lead to stress in adults. And forsaking active play for academics isn’t helping our growing obesity epidemic one bit.
Nobody’s suggesting that playtime should be another “to do” penciled on a parent’s list and programmed into a child’s day. Just the opposite, in fact. Providing it is as easy as stepping back and encouraging what comes naturally to your child, age by age:
BABIES (Birth to 12 months)
How they play: Kicking at a mobile or gumming a block may not look like much, but nearly every “idle” activity is both fun and essential to a baby. As she plays, her brain works to organize the incoming information into meaningful patterns, and she gains control over herself and her environment.
Ways to support them:
Have fun every chance you get. “Play should fill most of your baby’s waking hours, aside from feeding,” says Stamm. And her favorite plaything is you. You don’t have to work too hard: Oldies but goodies like peekaboo, for instance, teach object permanence (that when something can’t be seen, it’s still there). Patty-cake builds coordination. Bonus: They help you bond, too.
