Free play
Photo by Ben Hershey on Unsplash
As someone who was born in the 80’s, I often look back and wish my children could have experienced my childhood. Every generation comes with its fair share of pro’s and con’s and I’m not saying my generation was better than what my children are experiencing but I wish they could experience a childhood free of technology, devices and social media. I wish they were able to stay children longer. I wish their imaginations and sense of freedom was inspired by more free play. Now I realize my children have it pretty good. I think they have a decent life balance between school, recreation, sport etc., but I do wish free play was more evident in their teenage lives. Why?? Because I think it’s at the core of human happiness.
The Canadian Public Health Association states the following:
“In Canada, between 1996 and 2010, the use of health services for youth mental illness increased by 43.8% among ten to fourteen year olds and 34.5% among five to nine year olds. Evidence shows that play enables factors that support good mental health and is important to children’s overall wellbeing. Further research is needed to confirm these finding. This project is funded with the generous support of the Lawson Foundation.”
And the above statement was made before the boom of social media!! I can only guess it’s now worse.
The research found that unstructured play promotes positive feelings, builds resilience, improves concentration, helps develop and maintain healthy relationships and improves undesirable behaviours. All these factors also play a huge role in social emotional development. Therefore, free play or unstructured play is a key aspect in SEL and mental health.
https://www.cpha.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/resources/play/play_5reasons_infographic_e.pdf
Now it’s not only technology that has limited free play in children of today. We have also developed a culture that is dominated by structured routines and overbearing or overprotective adult supervision. The following article/podcast suggests that this type of societal structure can hold children back from developing a locus of control which can set a child up for depression and anxiety.
https://www.gse.harvard.edu/edcast
What can we take away from this? Free play can help children with the following in relation to SEL:
- Allows children to practice social skills, learn to negotiate, cooperate, and resolve conflicts, all of which are essential for building healthy relationships.
- It provides opportunities for children to explore their emotions, learn to manage frustration, and develop empathy for others.
- Unstructured play enables children to self-regulate and learn to deal with a range of emotions, including anger and frustration.
As we can see, the topic of SEL what is best for children is complex. As we are deep in a mental health crisis it’s important to not just blame technology. Although it play a major role in causation, we can see there are other factors that relate to children learning and health. Finding the balance can be hard and it will look different for every child.
Photo by Robert Collins on Unsplash