Alliance for Childhood
Contact: Joan Almon
301-779-1033(Office)
From the Alliance's fact sheet on healthy play, available for free at www.allianceforchildhood.org:
Five reasons why imaginative, child-powered play is disappearing:
- Pressures on 3-to-6 year olds to sit still for academic lessons and standard testing.
- Too many sedentary hours—often alone—spent looking at screens: televisions, computers and video games, with their prepackaged scripts that stunt imagination.
- Loss of school recess and safe green spaces for children to freely explore nature.
- Rushed and overscheduled lives, full of adult-organized or adult-oriented activities.
- A glut of toys that take control of play away from children and channel them into violent behavior modeled on popular TV, movie, and video game characters.
Five tips for reviving play:
- Reduce or eliminate screen time: Children may be bored or anxious at first, unsure of how to entertain themselves. Be prepared with simple playthings, good storybooks, and suggestions for make-believe play to inspire their inner creativity.
- Choose simple toys: The child's imagination is the engine of healthy play. Simple toys and natural materials, like wood, boxes, balls, sand and shovels, beeswax, clay, stuffed animals, and generic dolls invite children to create their own scenes—and then knock them down and start over. Battery-driven gadgets distract them from real play.
- Encourage outdoor adventures: Sticks, mud, water, rocks, wind—even bugs and weeds—make a paradise for play. Reserve time every day, when possible, for outdoor play where children can run, climb, find secret hiding places, and dream up dramas.
- Let your work inspire play: When adults are deeply engaged in work—like cooking, raking, cleaning, or washing the car—their example inspires children to deeply immerse themselves in their play. Avoid interrupting or taking over play, but be available as needed. Let children know their play is important.
- Become an advocate for pro-play policies: Share the evidence about the importance of imaginative play in preschool and kindergarten, and of recess for older children with other parents, teachers, and school officials. Lobby for safe, well-maintained parks in your community. Start an annual local Play Day. (For how-to tips, see www.ipausa.org.)