Synopsis: We tend to think that playfulness comes naturally to children, yet evidence suggests that overscheduling young minds restricts their opportunity to learn from free play. In other words reduced playtime hinders a child’s capacity for development.  And the same applies to adults too. So why not take a few of our tips below and make playtime a family priority this week? After all, what’s not to love about having fun?

Schiller: “Man only plays when he is in the fullest sense of the word a human being, and he is only fully a human being when he plays.”

So important is play to every child’s development that The United Nations High Commission for Human Rights has declared play to be a right of every child.

Why is play so important?

This article published in the official journal of the American Academy of Paediatrics explains why neither children (nor their carers) will thrive unless they are allowed proper playtime.

‘Play is essential to development because it contributes to the cognitive, physical, social, and emotional well-being of children and youth. Play also offers an ideal opportunity for parents to engage fully with their children.’

The article states, going on to list the many advantages of play:

‘Play, particularly undirected free play is important to healthy brain development. Play allows children to develop their own  interests and prepare for the adult world, play encourages them to navigate the world around them, overcome fears, build confidence, learn about social relationships, develop empathy as well as self reliance, learn decision-making skills, participate in healthy exercise, learn to role play and  experience joy.’

And there’s good news from the play-ground for us parents too! For when we are involved in our children’s play we gain much from it ourselves. Playing with our children offers enhanced communication between us, and allows us to experience the joys of playfulness too. And the article goes on to stress the key role play plays within our children’s academic world, showing that children’s cognitive development gains much when learning takes place within a playful environment.

But do we as parents need to be told about the importance of play?

Surely half the fun of having children is being able to tune in to their wavelength and rediscover the joy of playfulness ourselves?

Apparently we do need reminding about the importance of play, because ‘real’ playtime is now seen to be at risk:

This important article , written by Dr Peter Gray,  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’ explains why we need to reminded of the right of children to play.

 ‘Over the past 50 to 60 years, we have been continuously decreasing the opportunities for our own children to play. School became more onerous, as breaks were reduced, homework piled up, and pressure for high grades increased. Outside school, adult-directed sports (which are not truly play) began to replace impromptu games (which are play). Children began to take classes out of school, rather than pursue hobbies on their own. “Play dates”, with adults present, replaced unsupervised neighbourhood play, and adults began to feel it was their duty to intervene rather than let children solve their own problems.’

The recent phenomenon of the Tiger Mom, parents who aspire to the Chinese model of strict, academically focused parenting, or ‘helicopter parenting’ (where parents supervise every aspect of their child’s life) added an extra burden of stress to some children and parent’s lives.

‘Chinese schoolchildren suffer from extraordinarily high levels of anxiety, depression and psychosomatic stress disorders, which appear to be linked to academic pressures and lack of play.’ 

The fact is that when you reduce the opportunity for play, you also reduce the opportunity for the kind of learning that gives you life skills.

‘Play is the natural means by which children and other young mammals educate themselves… The most important skills that children everywhere must learn in order to live happy, productive, moral lives are skills that cannot be taught in school. Such skills cannot be taught at all. They are learned and practiced by children in play. These include the abilities to think creatively, to get along with other people and cooperate effectively, and to control their own impulses and emotions.’

Peter Gray ends his article with a plea.

‘We must give childhood back to children. Children must be allowed to follow their inborn drives to play and explore, so that they can grow into intellectually, socially, emotionally and physically strong and resilient adults. The Chinese are finally beginning to realise this, and so should we.’

So how can we encourage our children to be more playful?

• Make time for playtime.
• Switch off the screen and go back to the drawing board/board game/card games/word games/pens and paper.
• Let your children decide what they want to play (other than a computer or iphone/tablet game!) or offer them a (limited) list of options. Then either leave them to it or join in, allowing them to direct and teach you!
• Let them explore nature, puddle splashing, tree climbing, den building, making mudpies or just gardening and growing things (inside or out)
• Let them get crafty – have a store of empty cartons, glue, glitter, modelling clay, paints, straws and encourage them to make and create.
• Create a Mini-World (tiny garden, doll’s house etc).
• Allow them to role play, which could include dressing up or making use of some of the stuff from your ‘grown up’ world
• Hold a regular family disco at home! Dancing is good for everyone and a great source of exercise.
• Story telling – encourage them make up stories which they can then draw or act out.
• Share a game with them that you played yourself as a child.
• Let them in to the kitchen to do a bit of cooking or just to rattle those pots and pans.
• Take them to art galleries and show them that adults can be playful and creative too.
• And remember you are never too old to play too (and that includes being silly)!