Listen up, parents. It’s time for some old-fashioned, pixel-free fun. Not for you — for your kids. (Although if you’ll put down your BlackBerry and turn off “Grey’s Anatomy,” they’ll probably let you play along.)
All but gone are the days of make-believe and improvisation. Sandboxes and swing sets too rarely are transformed into lava pits and pretend houses. What used to be quiet time is often couch time, spent with a TV and video games. Today’s play tends to consist of toys with programmed scripts (You will make the Hannah Montana doll sing), rigid lessons (Tennis, anyone?) and day camps (This morning’s schedule starts with calisthenics). Instead of sending kids out of the house with nothing but an encouraging “… and don’t come back till dinnertime!” parents are controlling their children’s environment, keeping them safely monitored with structured activities. That’s not always a good thing.
A new study by two Colorado researchers has found that kids’ play has changed radically in the last half-century in ways that have lowered the emphasis on imagination. This overly scheduled, synthesized “play” insulates children in safe and secure settings — a logical response to the dangers of the streets. But too tight a leash can retard the development of necessary cognitive and emotional skills. This has the effect, as one researcher put it, of shrinking the size of children’s imaginative space. That’s the wide-open mind venue where kids go to dream, to invent — to, for example, turn a simple stick into a jewel-encrusted sword.
Imagination and freestyle play promote self-regulation, or the ability to gauge emotions and behaviors; in other words, self-control and self-discipline. Why so? Because when imagination is the real toy, the kids write the rules. And if they don’t get many opportunities to do that? Children lacking experience in the world of imagination and improvisation are less verbally active. They don’t babble or talk to themselves, work through dilemmas or figure out tasks independently.
The result: Problem-solving skills, concentration and task success suffer. There are long-run implications, too. Children who mostly play by doing what they’re told don’t have the opportunity to “police” themselves: to manage their feelings and learn to make choices.
So give your kids an occasional break from today’s swim lesson and piano practice. Turn off the TV. Encourage them to do what you did: Turn a cardboard box into a spaceship, teach Hannah Montana how to read out loud. Stockpile lumber to build a treehouse come spring. Pass down your old toys.
Then vamoose. No teachers, tutors, instructors, coaches. Walk away, and let your children discover their own adventures.
Let kids be kids. Let them play.
