Child’s play

Child’s play

Children have less opportunity to play today, yet research shows a strong link between real play and creativity, flexibility, and healthy social and physical development

Published: The Vancouver Sun, Kingston Whig-Standard March, 2001, Op-ed column
Deborah Jones

As a horse-crazy little kid, my favourite toys were a collection of sticks and old broom handles. The sticks "lived," along with a fine herd of other stick-horses owned by another girl, in my back yard, which in our imaginations was really a ranch.

There was a stable area where the sticks were quartered (by the barbecue, in which a few stick-horses came to a sad end as charcoal- starters), there were riding trails through the woods (around the lawn furniture) and a big field where the sticks were turned out to graze (the lawn).

At this point, I imagine you're wondering what this childish memory is doing on your erstwhile serious Commentary page. But bear with me, please, and I'll explain: Play, it turns out, is a whole lot more complex and important than most of us would have imagined, even when we were happily playing as children.

I remembered my stick-horses the other day because I was reading a Sun story entitled, "Too many toys can hurt kids, study says." The story quoted researchers who speculate children are losing the ability to play properly because they are being given too many toys and games. The idea is that an abundance of riches overwhelms kids, perhaps because they can't concentrate long enough on one thing.

Kids with too many toys actually play less than those with few toys, the story said. It quoted an Oxford University educational psychologist who criticized parents for substituting toys, computers and television for time spent with kids.

Most of us parents -- and childless observers -- are acutely aware that we don't have enough time for kids. The last thing we want is another guilt trip. Many of us know intuitively that giving kids too much stuff is bad; it's called "spoiling" them. But this story snagged my attention because of the notion there's a "proper" way to play.

I've always bought into the idea that play is important in all of our lives, from infancy to old age, and research shows that play is especially crucial for developing children. But the notion that there could be right and wrong ways to play tweaked my curiosity, and so I called up Valerie Fronczek, whose expertise is in the sublime and delightful field of play, and who is a Canadian board member of the International Association for the Child's Right to Play.

"There is a lot of misunderstanding about what play is," says Fronczek, executive director of the Society for Children and Youth of B.C. She argues there are too many barriers to children playing today, despite research that shows play is fundamental to human development, as well as "a key component in preserving community and culture, in the broadest sense."

The problem, says Fronczek, is that most of us don't have a clue about what play is and is not.
Play is not the same as giving a child activities to help them learn, she says, like beads to count, or a puzzle that has only one correct solution. Such activities might be important, but real play "is a way of children learning what no one can teach them." And play is not necessarily about toys.

Children need stuff to play with, but sand and water are as good as anything else. "(Commercial) toys aren't nearly as important to children's play as you would think," says Fronczek. "If all the toys disappeared, children would still play."

I believe her, because when I was a kid, I spent more happy hours playing with my bunch of sticks and using my imagination than I ever did with the plethora of real toys I was given, most of which I've long forgotten.

I also believe her because of my observations as a mother. When my two kids were little and received presents, they delighted first in ripping off the wrapping. After that, they spent endless hours with the boxes. Oh, eventually, they gave some attention to the contents of the boxes, but only until they dreamed up new ways of playing with the boxes. They hid in them, chopped them up, made them into houses or vehicles, and as they got older added on more and more boxes, becoming architects of wonderful box cities.

Fronczek's kids are all grown up now, but when they were small she used to load them into a Volkswagen bus and drive them around on garbage days, picking up other people's junk. The family would haul home treasures, like bits of wood and plywood, and pile them in the back yard of their Vancouver home, where the kids would do whatever they wanted with their improvised adventure playground. "It was an eyesore, but it was lovely for them," remembers Fronczek. "You couldn't get them inside."

The neighbours didn't mind, even when the adventure playground became adventure tree houses, until the Fronczek kids began painting their tree houses bright colours. "We started getting some complaints, so we had to tear down some of the bright yellows and purples," she laughs.

Adventure playgrounds, box cities or stick-horse ranches are not found in toy superstores or electronic games shops. You'll never see them advertised on cartoon shows. They spring from the mind and are best constructed with improvised materials. "Children learn by experience, and by doing. If they want to play with mud and water and push around sticks and stones and junk and make little cities, it is hugely important for them to do that," says Fronczek.

The problem is that children have less and less opportunity to play in today's world. "They don't play on the streets as much as they used to, because now we're afraid to let our kids out in the front garden, because they might be picked up by predators," says Fronczek. "All kinds of things are forcing children into confined places in front of small screens, for large portions of their time."

Yet research shows us there's a strong connection between real play and desirable traits including creativity, flexibility, and healthy social and physical development. North Americans -- like many other cultures -- have got it all wrong, says Fronczek, because in our effort to turn out well- educated kids for a competitive global economy, we emphasize directed learning rather than play. It's because we misunderstand the importance of play, which we dismiss it as a frivolous activity. If we gave thought to how children learn, we'd change.

"Play is one of the ways children learn and it's enjoyable as well. It's not an activity with one answer at the end of it, like doing mathematics," points out Fronczek, adding that children have equal need for play and formal learning activities.

Next time I have occasion to give a toy to a kid, I'll get a big strong cardboard box and throw put in a few sticks. I'll wrap up the whole lot with several layers of brown kraft paper and, instead of garnishing it with ribbons, I might tie on a box of crayons. Deborah Jones is a member of The Vancouver Sun editorial board.
Copyright Deborah Jones 2001
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"If all the toys disappeared, children would still play."

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