Play Time is Serious Business
Decline in hours spent on unstructured play worries researchers
Dylan Lowman didn't need a blueprint to begin stacking wooden blocks in a symmetrical pattern on the floor of the Delaware Children’s Museum last week. The design for a combination gas station and bridge was all in his head, and he made it a reality one strategically placed piece at a time.
But the structure wasn’t for everyone. “It’s a secret bridge,” he whispered as he lay on the floor.
Hands-on play is a favorite pastime for the curious kindergartner, said his grandfather, Eric Lawson. He remembers when Dylan’s mom, his daughter, used to spend hours making her favorite Barbie dolls come to life. But he doesn’t see creative play from a lot of kids these days. Many seem as technologically savvy as their parents, some even more so, but struggle to use their imaginations.
“Other kids don’t seem to like the hands-on playing," Lawson said. “They need more direction."
Turns out, child’s play isn’t as much a part of childhood as it used to be. Researchers estimate kids have lost about eight hours of unstructured play time a week in the last two decades, time poached by academic endeavors and adult-led play activities like organized sports. At the same time, kids are spending as many as 40 hours a week in front of a screen—playing video games, watching TV or using another electronic device like an iPod or cell phone.
Play is an important part of growing, researchers say, particularly unrestricted or child-led play, the kind kids do on the playground at recess or when they’re riding their bikes in the neighborhood. As simple as it sounds, this kind of play helps kids develop their creativity, imagination and social skills, not to mention physical strength.
But with increasingly busy schedules for both children and parents, some education professionals are concerned that kids are missing out, not just on the joys of impromptu games like freeze tag or make-believe Barbie weddings, but in the long term, with a stunted ability to negotiate conflicts, display initiative or change direction when something goes wrong.
“The skills you need in the boardroom are developed in the sandbox,” said Robert Golinkoff, a University of Delaware education professor and author who has written about the importance of play in child development. “We are all worried about the future and for us as a country to stay economically strong, but what kids need for the 21st century is the opportunity not to learn with a laser-beam focus—that’s too narrow—but to learn in a playful way. We need to help parents feel it’s not only OK for kids to play, but it’s really important for kids to play.”
Play is declared a right
Experts define “play” as an activity initiated and directed by children. So while being on a youth soccer team might be fun and social, it’s technically not play because adults organize and oversee the players. From that perspective, the impromptu basketball game that starts in the neighborhood cul-de-sac is considered play because kids control the direction and outcome. Among older kids and teens, the definition is loosened to include any free time not relying on technology.
The way Golinkoff sees it, Americans never really stop playing when they grow up. “It just goes by different names,” she said. “We say we have hobbies.”
The connection between childhood and play hasn’t always been so clear in American society. Before the late 1800s and early 1900s, when people began advocating childhood as a time for education and play, children were frequently used to meet increase labor needs.
The expansion of the nation’s park system coincided with this change in beliefs about the importance of play, said Fran Mainella, former national director of the U.S. Park Service and co-director of the U.S. Play Coalition. By 1989, the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights declared play as a right of every child.
Play is important because it gives kids an opportunity to use their creativity to work together, solve a problem or even make themselves happy, Golinkoff said. Whether it’s putting together the pieces of a puzzle or planting a plastic pot on their head, grabbing a baseball bat or declaring themselves a pirate sailing aboard the USS Couch, kids are using their environment to make important connections.
“Kids need the space to figure out who they are and what they like,” Golinkoff said. “They need time to process.”
'Can you make it fly?'
But play isn’t something that necessarily comes naturally. Kathy Overman has discovered this as she teaches her 5-year-old daughter, Alexa, how to pretend that stuffed birds can talk and trees can be a place to play. Alexa was adopted a few months ago from China, and was quickly overwhelmed by her surroundings.
So Overman, of Chadds Ford, Pa., has taken to teaching Alexa what it means to play. When her daughter picked up a stuffed beaver that was part of an exhibit at the Delaware Children’s Museum last week, Overman grabbed a stuffed bald eagle and started talking.
“What is that?” she asked Alexa, holding the stuffed toy in front of her.
“A bird,” Alexa whispered.
“Can you make it fly?” Overman said, handing over the stuffed toy. “Make it land on something.”
Overman nodded approvingly as Alexa made the bird’s wings flap up and down. Getting her sons, who are 7 and 8, to play wasn’t as much of a challenge as it has been for Alexa.
“It takes a lot of work,” she said. “But it does help bring her out of her shell.”
Schools cutting recess
Parents and grandparents may remember ditching their bookbags after school and heading out on their bikes, with the only warning to be home by dinner time. But times have changed. Those same parents who once roamed the neighborhood without abandon now worry about the safety of their own kids doing the same thing. Video games, computer time and television, passive though they may be, let parents keep one eye on their children, particularly if they’ve got the other one on their laptop or BlackBerry.
Increased academic demands also are keeping some kids cooped up indoors. Although 90 percent of elementary school students still have recess, according to a 2006 survey by the U.S. Department of Education, it’s only for an average of 30 minutes a day.
A 2008 survey by the Center for Public Education found that about 20 percent of school districts nationwide have decreased their length of recess to get more instructional time for subjects like math and language arts.
It’s not just schools. Parents also can pressure kids to spend more time hitting the books for academic success. In the new book “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother,” Yale law professor Amy Chua documents her attempts to extract excellence from her two daughters through intense study, at the expense of school-age activities like sleepovers and playdates.
But spending all that time in organized learning doesn’t always translate to more academic success. In fact, Mainella argues, taking away opportunities for unrestricted play, particularly outdoors, can have a negative impact on a child’s cognitive abilities, particularly creativity, decision-making and imagination. And that’s to say nothing of the impact on physical health, worth considering for a country where a third of children are considered overweight or obese.
“You have to figure out how it is you might skip a rock across the water or find a way across a stream,” said Mainella. “Physical activity makes them feel better about themselves. You look at studies on kids’ attention deficit disorder whose symptoms go down drastically with access to outdoor play. It is really an important part of our lives.”
“They’re pushing a button”
Thinking back to his own kids, Lawson remembers how toys seemed to invite discovery and imagination. And while the computer programs and electronic gadgets do seem to captivate kids’ attentions, they don’t invite the same kind of play the older toys did.
“My daughter was 10 and she was still playing and talking with those Barbies,” he said. “Most kids today aren’t doing that. They’re pushing a button.”
When you boil it down, kids need to learn six important lessons, said Golinkoff, who calls them the “Six Cs.” They include communication, collaboration, critical thinking, creative innovation and confidence. The last “C” refers to content—such as reading, writing and math—and this is the area where most education focuses its attention.
But in play, kids get to learn the other five Cs by interacting with their environment and the people around them. Golinkoff feels so strongly about the importance of play she was part of a group called Play for Tomorrow, which organized the “Ultimate Block Party,” a daylong event last fall in New York’s Central Park. The party featured kid-friendly activities and games and drew 50,000 people. The hope is to bring the block party to other cities across the country, Golinkoff said.
“If parents want their kids to grow up and be successful and be a boss, they have to give them the experiences that will help develop those skills,” she said. “We want to help parents be comfortable with doing that.”
Among educators, Newark Center for Creative Learning School is in the minority when it comes to the time its devotes to play. The K-8 school, now in its 40th year, has two opportunities for students to unwind: a 30-minute morning recess and an hour-long lunch and afternoon play time. Marilynn Magnani, education director at the school, said that time is an extension of the school’s core belief that children learn best when they are given time to experiment, create and choose.
“We know the kids, if given a bit of time to unwind, they’re much better learners,” she said. “They’re able to bring a focus back into the day.”
The idea of creative exploration is a key part of the day at the school, but three times a year it takes on an even bigger aspect of the learning. Three times a year, students in grades five through eight participate in “Workshop Week.” Students get the chance to sample several different kinds of experiences, including Italian cooking, improvisation, sports and art classes. Classrooms are transformed during this time, but one of the biggest chances is in the room housing the box forts. It is just as it sounds—a compilation of cardboard boxes that students turn into settlements, historical moments, whatever their imagination dreams up.
While the kids love the experience, it’s also good for teachers. “We also get to see the kids in a different environment. That helps some kids absolutely shine,” she said. “You get the, 'Oh, I didn't know that about that child.' ”
The focus on play goes back to the idea that for learning to be successful, it can’t be rushed. Just as a sponge doesn’t soak in everything all at once, neither do kids.
“Most of us don’t work at our edge of learning for six hours a day. We would pass out,” Magnani said. “Somehow we are expecting kids to maintain that kind of regimen without breaks that we ourself couldn’t go without. They need that time to just ponder and wonder. ”
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