Pediatrician prescription: More Play!

If you’ve read out blog articles we’ve argued for more play time for children. Kindergarten has gotten so structured and demanding that public schools are killing the fun of learning. Lack of recesses in the name of more time in the classroom leads to poorer grades, obesity and more children given medications to treat Attention Deficit Disorder.

So we were startled to see the American Academy of Pediatrics come out and say…children need more play time! You can read the full article at:  http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2018/08/16/peds.2018-2058 

Here we offer their abstract:

Children need to develop a variety of skill sets to optimize their development and manage toxic stress. Research demonstrates that developmentally appropriate play with parents and peers is a singular opportunity to promote the social-emotional, cognitive, language, and self-regulation skills that build executive function and a prosocial brain. Furthermore, play supports the formation of the safe, stable, and nurturing relationships with all caregivers that children need to thrive.

Play is not frivolous: it enhances brain structure and function and promotes executive function (ie, the process of learning, rather than the content), which allow us to pursue goals and ignore distractions.

When play and safe, stable, nurturing relationships are missing in a child’s life, toxic stress can disrupt the development of executive function and the learning of prosocial behavior; in the presence of childhood adversity, play becomes even more important. The mutual joy and shared communication and attunement (harmonious serve and return interactions) that parents and children can experience during play regulate the body’s stress response. This clinical report provides pediatric providers with the information they need to promote the benefits of play and to write a prescription for play at well visits to complement reach out and read. At a time when early childhood programs are pressured to add more didactic components and less playful learning, pediatricians can play an important role in emphasizing the role of a balanced curriculum that includes the importance of playful learning for the promotion of healthy child developmen

You, the parent/s have a choice. Do you demand that schools allow children to be children or do you let public schools turn them into good little robots?