There was a time when children played from morning till night.

They ran, jumped, played dress-up, and created endless stories out of their active imaginations.

Now, many scarcely play this way at all. What happened?

• Over four and a half hours per day watching TV, video game, and computer screens;1

• Academic pressure and testing, beginning with three-year-olds;

• Overscheduled lives full of adult-organized activities;

• Loss of school recess and safe green space for outdoor play.

Decades of research clearly demonstrate that play—active and full of imagination—is more than just fun and games. It boosts healthy development across a broad spectrum of critical areas: intellectual, social, emotional, and physical. The benefits are so impressive that every day of childhood should be a day of play.
                THE BENEFITS OF PLAY

Child-initiated play lays a foundation for learning and academic success. Through play, children learn to interact with others, develop language skills, recognize and solve problems, and discover their human potential. In short, play helps children make sense of and find their place in the world.

• Physical development: The rough and tumble of active play facilitates children's sensorimotor development. It is a natural preventive for the current epidemic of childhood obesity. Research suggests that recess also boosts school children's academic performance.2

• Academics: There is a close link between play and healthy cognitive growth. It lays the foundation for later academic success in reading and writing. It provides hands-on experiences with real-life materials that help children develop abstract scientific and mathematical concepts. Play is critical for the development of imagination and creative problem-solving skills.3

• Social and emotional learning: Research suggests that social make-believe play is related to increases in cooperation, empathy, and impulse control, reduced aggression, and better overall emotional and social health.4

• Sheer joy: The evidence is clear—healthy children of all ages love to play. Experts in child development say that plenty of time for childhood play is one of the key factors leading to happiness in adulthood.5

What's the smartest thing a young child can do with a computer or TV? Play with the box it came in! Computers tend to insist on being just computers, programmed by adults. But an empty box becomes a cave, a canoe, a cabin, a candy shop—whatever and whenever the child's magic wand of imagination decrees.

It's Fun — and Fundamental

OTHER RESOURCES FOR REVIVING PLAY:

Footnotes

1 Emory Woodard, "Media in the Home 2000," Annenberg Public

Policy Center, U. of Penn., 2000.

2 Anthony D. Pellegrini and P.K. Smith, "Physical Activity Play: The

Nature and Function of a Neglected Aspect of Play," Child

Development 69(3), June 1998; Susan J. Oliver and Edgar Klugman,

"What We Know About Play," Child Care Information Exchange, Sept.

2002.

3 Doris Bergen, "The Role of Pretend Play in Children's Cognitive

Development," Early Childhood Research and Practice, 4(1), Spring

2002; Jerome L. Singer, "Cognitive and Affective Implications of

Imaginative Play in Childhood," in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry: A

Comprehensive Textbook, Melvin Lewis, ed., 2002; Oliver and

Klugman, op. cit.; Edgar Klugman and Sara Smilansky, Children's Play

and Learning: Perspectives and Policy Implications, New York: Teachers

College Press, 1990; Pellegrini and Smith, op. cit.

4 Robert J. Coplan and K.H. Rubin, "Social Play," Play from Birth to

Twelve and Beyond, Garland Press, 1998; Klugman and Smilansky,

op.cit.; Singer, op. cit.

5 Edward Hallowell, The Childhood Roots of Adult Happiness, New

York: Ballantine, 2002.

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP YOUR

CHILD PLAY

BECOME AN ADVOCATE FOR PLAY

Alliance for Childhood