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The Value of Free Play
Why Parents Need to Step Back and Just Observe Sometimes
By Rae Pica, Children's Physical Activity Specialist
Because we lay around and imagined creatures in the clouds, we now have the imagination to prepare a meal from a refrigerator full of leftovers. Because we mastered turning cartwheels and climbing trees, we have the confidence to tackle tennis or technology. We invented games when there was nobody to play with and learned resourcefulness and how to handle solitude. We invented games with our friends, creating and re-creating the rules, and learned the fine arts of sharing, cooperation, conflict resolution, negotiation and perspective taking. Because the lives of today's children are so structured, and because I've seen free play disappearing from the landscape of childhood, I worry that today's children have too few opportunities to acquire these important life skills.
Many experts believe the adult personality is built upon the child's play. According to Playing for Keeps (www.playingforkeeps.org), all of the skills children need to develop into functioning, productive adults originate from play. These skills include literacy, mathematical reasoning, creativity and the above-mentioned social skills.
Additionally, free play enables children to deal with stress and to cope with fears they can't yet understand or express. Today's youn children are exposed to so much so early and must cope with more stress than their predecessors ever did. Free play gives them a necessary emotional release and helps them make sense of everything they're experiencing. And as Playing for Keeps points out, when young children act out emotion-laden scenes in their play, such as reassuring a doll that mommy will return, they learn to cope with fears and gain the self-control that will bring them to the next state of development.
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Re: The Value of Free Play by Selina on 10/10/2008 04:09PM
I am a current ECE student and I really enjoyed this article on the value of play. Since I have entered the program it has really changed the way I look at children playing. I feel this is a great article on why we should let children have lots of time to play.