> Children and Parenting > Emotional and Mental Health

On a rare morning when she had time for a break, Jenny took a big sip of her coffee and sighed. The expensive Barbie doll she had bought for her daughter Emma had been sitting unused in the closet ever since she unwrapped it.

“Emma really wanted that doll,” Jenny complained, “but she’s only played with it half a dozen times.”

Jenny’s sister delicately replied, “When has she had the time? You have almost every moment of her life scheduled for her.” Jenny paused. It was true. She had enrolled her young daughter in baseball, basketball, an after-school club, and ballet lessons.

Best of Intentions

Like so many parents, Jenny wanted her daughter to be well-rounded, to get a feel for the arts and for sports, to have as many diverse experiences as possible. She wanted Emma to have all the opportunities that she missed out on herself as a child. Besides, she thought, it was better for Emma to be out and about than to be tempted to sit in front of the TV.

But Jenny also didn’t realize that filling in every available block of Emma’s time could be doing more harm than good. In her quest to provide Emma with the perfect childhood, Jenny was glossing over one of its most basic and crucial facets: play.

The world has changed dramatically since the good old days, when kids spent more time in playgrounds than huddled up indoors with video games. Yet while the pace of kids’ lives has quickened to keep up with adult-driven, modern-day demands, more and more people–parents and professionals alike–are worried that free, unstructured play is being neglected, to our children’s detriment.

A Universal Right

Gillian McNamee, director of teacher education at Chicago’s Erikson Institute, a graduate school in child development, describes playing as one of the four pillars of a child’s health, alongside eating, sleeping, and toileting. The United Nations High Commission for Human Rights has declared play to be a right of every child. Stuart Brown, a former psychiatrist who founded the California-based National Institute for Play, which aims to bring the knowledge and benefits of play into public life, says that when it comes to learning and memory, play is as fundamental as sleep and dreams.

To put things in perspective, North Americans are blessed to be even contemplating the place of fun and games in society. So many other nations offer proof that it’s not a hurried lifestyle that gets in the way of play but far more sinister factors, such as war, violence, child labour, prostitution, and poverty.

But back on home turf, kids in Canada and the United States are often not getting the full benefits of free play, because it’s frequently considered not as important–or at least not as vital–as more worthy pursuits, such as academics. With North American children scoring lower grades in subjects such as science than pupils in other countries, many schools have shortened free-play periods or recess to make more time for reading and math. And with fierce competition facing hopeful university students, many parents feel that their young kids should be picking up pencils instead of sticks, building their resumés instead of tree forts.

Importance of Play

The fact that play is so often brushed aside is ironic given that such authoritative bodies as the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recognize its importance. “Play is essential to development because it contributes to the cognitive, physical, social, and emotional well-being of children and youth,” the organization states in a 2007 clinical report called “The Importance of Play in Promoting Healthy Child Development and Maintaining Strong Parent-Child Bonds.”

The AAP explains that free play enables kids to learn to work in groups, resolve conflicts, use their creativity, become leaders, and create a world they can master, conquering their fears while practising adult roles. Through play, less verbal kids have the opportunity to express themselves in alternative ways. Play also boosts kids’ physical activity levels, an urgent need given today’s staggering rates of childhood obesity. Read alive’s interview with Silken Laumann on page 106 to discover how her Active Kids Movement is combatting this problem.

Gail Johnson is an award-winning Vancouver writer.

Source: alive #311, September 2008