The importance of unstructured play

Last week there was a story in our local paper around concerns a group of child psychologists have regarding children being over-supervised and spending too much time in front of a monitor. I wrote a letter to the editor in response to the story and it was published in Friday’s paper. This is what I wrote:

Re: Lack of play hurting children’s mental health

I was very interested in your story about the letter published in the UK’s Daily Telegraph regarding the deterioration in children’s mental health. I’ve had frequent conversations with parents over the years around how “hands on” we all are compared to the way we were raised in the 60′s. We all remember the only requirement when we went out was to be home for dinner. Our whereabouts didn’t seem to matter and we seldom remember parents at school.

My own children are now grown but I notice an even greater vigilance around supervision and over-involvement by parents since mine were young. What does it say to a child whose every move is supervised? How can they learn to trust the outside world and gain confidence in themselves? If we intervene with every conflict how can they learn to effectively resolve issues? How can they learn to develop their imaginations if their eyes are always on a screen? How can they learn to form healthy relationships if they’re not encouraged to be with groups of children in an un-structured environment?

I remember while studying Early Childhood Education we were told over and over how play was a child’s work and how important it was for children to engage in free-play and be given plenty of opportunity to create, explore and discover on their own. This applies to children of all ages.