My Plea for Play

Children’s play presents both one of the greatest opportunities and greatest challenges of our time. The opportunity is that something as wonderful as play has the power to make our children healthier, happier, and set them on an early trajectory toward success. The challenge is that multiple societal forces are conspiring against the kinds of experiences that allow children to benefit from the time they spend playing.

To understand how something as seemingly basic as play can be so important, let’s consider the dramatic difference between today’s play and the unstructured, free time that used to dominate childhood just a few short generations ago.

Today, play often takes place inside or in highly controlled outdoor environments where movement is restricted, occurs in short spurts between other scheduled activities, involves single-purpose toys (toys designed to look like one thing and be used in one way), happens in front of “screens”, includes only children of the same ages and/or abilities, is directed or very closely supervised by adults, and/or has a specific external goal related to learning.

While play like this can provide great joy and many benefits for children and families, these experiences alone do not enable children to thrive. To thrive, we need to focus less on what children are playing, and more on why and how and where.

• Children benefit from having the choice to decide what to play, what the rules will be, who they will play with, where and how they will play, and when they are finished.
• Children benefit when play includes opportunities to interact, communicate, negotiate, and resolve disagreements with peers of varying ages and abilities.
• Children benefit when play allows them to challenge themselves, and to learn and test their own comfort levels in a variety of physical, social, and emotional situations.
• Children benefit when play includes deep creative, imaginary, and/or emotional experiences.
• Children benefit from play that offers a variety of physical and sensory experiences, includes a connection to the natural world, and offers a sense of adventure and awe.

Each of these benefits is supported by the science of early childhood development. Children can learn and grow through play far more effectively than we can or should ever hope to teach them through structured activities. The challenge is to provide the right balance of time and space and freedom, beginning in infancy. Children’s brains are literally designed for active learning through play, and children will naturally seek out play experiences that match their physical, social, emotional, and cognitive needs. Through play, children can learn to navigate social relationships, gain skills in problem solving and experimentation, build resiliency, develop imagination, creativity, empathy, and so much more. Where play succeeds, children are more likely to become competent, confident, self-motivated, active lifelong learners who are prepared to navigate the world around them and meet life’s challenges.

Unfortunately, today’s children are often not being given the chance to fully benefit from play. Over the last few decades, changing social norms relating to technology and media, emergence of an ever more risk-averse and fear-based “helicopter” society, rise of the “edutainment” industry, focus on enrichment and educational outcomes for children at earlier ages, and unprecedented judgement and expectations placed on parents are all changing the way children play. Physical environments offer fewer opportunities for physical and sensory development, as natural elements and activities deemed to be “risky” have been removed from many houses, yards, playgrounds, and communities. There is also a popular but false perception that every moment of play should look happy and free of conflict. Adding to the challenge is that many of today’s young adults don’t have truly playful experiences from their own childhood to draw upon.

All these factors are leading us to underestimate children’s capabilities and undervalue the kind of play that children so desperately need. This is part of the reason why so many young people are struggling. It shouldn’t have to be this hard for children to develop basic physical and sensory skills. It shouldn’t have to be this hard for children to navigate their emotions and social relationships. It shouldn’t have to be this hard for children to arrive at school happy and ready to learn, and it shouldn’t be this hard for young adults to develop the resilience to handle life’s adversities. It simply shouldn’t be this hard for children to grow up healthy. Play isn’t the only thing we need to do to make it easier for children to grow up healthy, but it is a critically important element.

We have a lot of work to do, but I am optimistic that we can make life better for children and families. I titled this post, “my plea for play” because mine is just one voice in a growing movement. I am heartened by how many parents and family members, educators, recreation, health, and outdoor professionals, policy makers, and many many others already recognize what play has to offer.

We must restore the experience of childhood to one that allows children to thrive, and this includes restoring balance to children’s play. Children have a right to play and we all share the collective responsibility to make it happen. Future posts will dive deeper into the ways that we can join together to restore the power of play.