Play is Not Just a Game
Play has been a topic of concern and study ever since the science of early childhood education began. Play has been considered an avenue for developing in children many essential life skills. Unfortunately, play has diminished through the years. Many researches, articles, and scientific opinion papers have exposed the observation of this phenomenon in children’s lives to be decreasing and limited. Patte, cited by Patte and Brown (2010), stated that “attitudes towards play as being frivolous, impractical and unproductive are pervasive in our postmodern world” (p.58). This essay provides a reflection on some social factors that lead to decreased playtime and on the benefits that play bring to a child’s life.
Social Factors Leading to Decreased Playtime
Researches showing trends of children’s play pattern have been made available in the recent years. Gleave (2009) revealed in a literature report the trend of children’s exposure to play. There are lower percentages of children in the United Kingdom who spend time to play outdoors, whether in the school playground, in local public parks, or in even in organized sports events. The same literature review of Gleave (2009) showed that there is a significant decrease in the number of hours that American children spend for play.
Social factors lead many parents to limiting their children’s play time. These factors that serve as play barriers are identified by Patte and Brown (2010) as the following: fear, access to quality play spaces, increases amounts of screen time, and a reduction in school-based playtime.
Parents are generally anxious of their children’s success in life as well-skilled professionals. This fear they have leads them to “overinvest” (Patte & Brown, 2010, p. 59) in their children’s future by making everything in their present lives as children to be contributory to that success. Thus, activities that they make their children engage in are mostly educational and sophisticated, directed towards developing in them a string of skills that are deemed to be a preparation for an apparently successful adult life. I must say that this overinvestment and over-anxiety towards the future is a sad reality because it somehow impinges on the spontaneous learning path and natural growth of children. Although the anxiety of parents may seem justifiable because of the concern for their children to survive tight competition in the professional world, I believe that children must not be robbed of the childhood years that they go through once in their lifetime. As flowers cannot be forced to bloom, so must children not be pushed to grow old faster than the natural course of time.
Access to quality play spaces is also cited as a barrier for free play among children. This is an external and objective factor that parents do not have strong control over. Patte and Brown (2010) state that many parents look safe and easily-accessible play spaces within walking distance of their residences. Parents still consider the benefits of free play for their children but cannot do much about the lack of access to play space. I believe that local governments have this obligation to consider since play leads to the general wellbeing of their young citizens.
The rapid growth of technology in society and in the hands of children leads to the other play barrier, which is the increase in amounts of screen time. Just with plain observation of young people in public spaces can lead one to conclude that there is becoming less interaction between and among humans and more interaction between a human and his gadget at hand. I believe that availability and access to gadgets is a reality that we cannot but simply accept. It cannot be denied; much less can it be given a blind eye. I think though that the responsibility of control lies greatly on the parents. Once these entertaining gadgets are made available to children and they grow fondness in them, it would take external control to develop internal discipline in children so that they do not lose the chance of still interacting with other humans.
Another reality that is present in schools is having over-packed curriculum, which leads to another play barrier, which is a reduction in school-based playtime. Schools have given more emphasis to academic achievement in the expense of cutting down time for free play. It is an unfortunate reality that parents and children are at the mercy of these schools’ institutional drive to raise their overall academic performance.
Benefits that Play Bring to a Child’s Life
Even before studies on barriers of play proliferated in the field, scientific studies on the benefits of play had always been at the fore. One of these studies is that of Izumi-Taylor, Samuelsson, and Rogers (2010) where it presents a comparison of three nations’ perspectives on play. The findings on the benefits of play perceived by Japan, Sweden, and US educators emerged themes such as play being a “process of learning, source of possibilities, empowerment, creativity, child’s work, and fun activities” (p. 5). These findings cannot be undermined because they are also supported by other scientific studies on the effect of play in children, like that conducted by Rushton, Juola-Rushton and Larkin in 2010. The latter study presents the impact of adults’ actions and even dispositions on the neurons of children, which they called “mirror neurons” (Rushton, Juola-Rushton, & Larkin, 2010, p. 354). As proven by this hard scientific study, I totally agree with the authors who promote the need for teachers to employ developmentally appropriate practices towards their young students. The reality of mirror neurons on children which make them imitate or subtly resemble the littlest actions and slightest disposition of the adults around them is a call for teachers and parents to be extra cautious of what they project to children.
Free play is indeed a part of the learning process that children must necessarily go through. Aside from growth in skills, I believe that play is an avenue for values that are equally important life skills in the life of children as knowledge and professional competencies are. Values that can be caught and developed through social interaction with other children are too important to be considered as negligible and can be removed from a big chunk of children’s lives.
Conclusion
Free play is of the essence in one’s childhood years. Despite scientific studies that prove the benefits that children gain from the opportunities for play, social circumstances have also proved to be barriers to free play. Unfortunate and difficult as it is, parents have greater responsibility to compensate this loss of free play with opportunities that can bring about social growth in children.
References
Gleave, J. (2009). Children’s time to play: A literature review. Playday Make Time! Retrieved from http://www.playday.org.uk/pdf/Childrens-time-to-play-a-literature-review.pdf
Izumi-Taylor, S., Samuelsson, I.P., & Rogers, C.S. (2010). Perspectives of play in three nations: A comparative study in Japan, the United States, and Sweden. Early Childhood Research and Practice, 12(1). Retrieved from http://ecrp.uiuc.edu/v12n1/izumi.html
Patte, M.M., & Brown, F. (2011). Playwork: A profession challenging societal factors devaluing children’s play. Journal of Student Wellbeing, 5(1), 58-70. Retrieved from http://www.ojs.unisa.edu.au/index.php/JSW/article/viewFile/732/562
Rushton, S., Juola-Rushton, A., & Larkin, E. (2010). Neuroscience, play and early childhood education: Connections, implications and assessment. Early Childhood Education Journal, 2010(37), 351-361. DOI 10.1007/s10643-009-0359-3
Smith, P.K., Cowie, H., & Blades, M. (2011). Understanding children’s development. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley.
