A Prescription for Play
It turns out that Play — all that time children spend having fun playing with each over and their families — is actually crucial to their development! A burgeoning load of research defines the importance of Play in children’s lives. I’d go as far as saying that Play is one of the key elements in a child’s development.
What is Play (with a capital P)? Play is hard to define but easy to witness. It is all the time children spend running around, chasing each other, creating imaginary worlds, dressing up, building creations, flying kites, blowing bubbles, and screaming and yelling. It is easy to hear children at Play — because it is loud! Play is shared joys, and occasional tears and exercise of the body, mind and soul.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) came out with a paper stressing the importance of Play in 2007, and then again in 2018. These papers reviewed dozens of scientific studies that all explored and supported the importance of Play.*
Research has shown that developmentally appropriate Play with other children and parents has a multitude o f positive benefits, including but not limited to: social-emotional development, cognitive development, language skills acquisition, self-regulation skills, the formation of executive functioning (learning the process of learning, which leads to the ability to make thoughtful decisions), nurtures relationships, creates an atmosphere of mutual joy and attunement to others.
Play increases listening skills. Children who Play more are more likely to follow directions, pay attention to others, and solve disputes. Play allows children to focus on tasks and follow them to completion without supervision! Research has shown that despite earlier introduction of academic curriculum into preschools, Play is more important than academics in readying children for learning later in life. One study suggested that play deprivation is associated with the increasing prevalence of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.**
Play is a part of our evolutionary heritage! This idea was first described in a book published in the 1970s. I’m going to quote directly from it: “Play is part of our evolutionary heritage, occurs in a wide spectrum of species, is fundamental to health, and gives us opportunities to practice and hone the skills needed to live in a complex world.” *** How true is this!
Play is not just about having fun but about allowing children to take risks, experiment, test boundaries and to fail and to lose. Much research has focused on the importance of childhood resiliency in overcoming Adverse Childhood Events (ACEs). Studies suggest that Play is an antidote to stress in the environment — as well as suggesting that children who Played more during childhood had better educational outcomes, less depression, and less violent behavior than children not allowed to Play.****
Increasing screen time is currently one of the biggest barriers to Play. Research has shown that toddlers left to their own devices have better language and cognitive skills than those watching educational programming. Research has shown a direct relationship between increased screen time leading to sedentary lifestyles and obesity. In 2016, the AAP published two new policies on digital media affecting young children, school-aged children, and adolescents.***** These policies included recommendations for parents, pediatricians, and researchers to promote healthy media use (supervised watching, and less than two hours/day). The AAP also launched a Family Media Use Plan to help parents and families create healthy guidelines for their children’s media use to avoid displacing activities such as active play. These guidelines can be found on the HealthyChildren.org and Common Sense Media (commonsensemedia.org) Web sites.
The funny thing about all this research is that it feels almost redundant. Children naturally Play — they don’t need scientific studies to tell them to! The most important thing that all of this research supports is that we adults should get out of their way and let them simply be. They’ll figure it out — they’ll Play! And if you are still reading this blog — stop reading it, and go out and Play with your kids!
*https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/142/3/e20182058.
**Panksepp J. Can PLAY diminish ADHD and facilitate the construction of the social brain? J Can Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2007;16(2):57–66pmid:18392153.
***Bruner JS, Jolly A, Sylva K, eds. Play: Its Role in Development and Evolution. 1st ed. New York, NY: Basic Books; 1976.
****Walker SP, Chang SM, Vera-Hernández M, Grantham-McGregor S. Early childhood stimulation benefits adult competence and reduces violent behavior. Pediatrics. 2011;127(5):849–857pmid:21518715
*****American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Communications and Media. Policy statement: media and young minds. Pediatrics. 2016;138(5):89–92
