News from Early Intervention Support

By Tamara Guo, M. Ed.

Everyone has heard the statement "A child's work is his play". As a development specialist working in the field of early intervention for over 18 years, I wholeheartedly agree with this statement. However, in the past few years there has been a push by both parents and professionals toward more academics and structure in preschool programs.

It is not uncommon for me to evaluate a 2 year old child, who demonstrates little functional play skills with developmentally appropriate toys, yet the parents tout how the child can count to 10, recite the ABC's and name 30 or more pictures presented on flash cards. They say "My child is so smart, how can he have a delay?" Many parents fail to see how play in and of itself is a major learning experience and impacts not only cognitive (thinking, memory and attention span) development, but also social, motor, language and creative skills. Knowing the ABC's and 1,2, 3's by age two may make your child look gifted to outsiders, but when the child can name the cow, but not tell you who says "moo" or count to three, but cannot give you "one" cookie out of the three on his plate, we can then see how these rote memorization tasks lack function in every day life.

Play has become a "four letter word"

Play has always been a hotly debated topic among professionals and parents, but an article in the September 2009 Journal of Zero to Three states that play is now "under serious attack" and has become a "four letter word". The journal cited several recent studies that showed that 30% of third graders receive minimal or no recess period, and it is even less for disadvantaged children and minority children. They state that many kindergartens have eliminated play in favor of academics and structured activities and that some preschools have even removed block corners and dress up areas altogether. The fear is that this emphasis on academics is trickling down to the birth to three set as well.

Some of this latest push toward academics in early childhood stemmed from government programs created to enhance literacy. Some teachers felt forced to eliminate activities which were seen as "just play by administrators and policy makers" in favor of more academic oriented curricula. Many teachers also stated that parents wanted to see work sheets and concrete evidence of academics and cognitive learning. Literacy is absolutely vital, but so is play. The Journal of Zero to Three advocates a "Whole Child Approach" to learning, where programs can continue to teach literacy, but understand that reading is only one part of an entire set of cognitive skills, and cognitive skills are meshed with social/emotional skills, physical skills and language skills. All these skills are imporant and therefore a curriculum which focuses on the whole child should be preferred over one that only focuses on one narrow area of development.

Over-scheduling does not allow for free play

What some parents and some policy makers fail to see is that play is so very vital to development in young children. Young children simply do not have the attention spans to sit for long periods of time attending to structured tasks and being forced to do so at such a young age often results in new behavioral problems in the classroom. When kids' lives are so overbooked and pre-scheduled with sports, lessons and clubs children do not have time for themselves or for unstructured play. Also, when children view too much television, or spend too much time playing video games or sitting in front of a computer, their play too often mimics what they see on the tv, video games or on the computer screen. The more time they spend doing these types of activities, the less time for self-directed, unscheduled, creative play time, which truly enhances cognitive, social, language, motor and creative skills. Children need "me" time, just as adults do.

The American Academy of Pediatrics states that " free and unstructured play is healthy and - in fact - essential for helping children reach important social, emotional, and cognitive developmental milestones as well as helping them manage stress and become resilient. "

Play should never have to be defended.

For more interesting articles on the benefits of play for your child, check out these links:

NPR

The Atlantic

AAP

Sources:

September 2009 Journal of Zero to Three "Play Under Seige: A Historical Overview" Joseph F. Zigler and Sandra J. Bishop-Yosef Yale University

American Academy of Pediatrics online www.aap.org

Illinois Early Learning Project http://illinoisearlylearning.org/tipsheets/importanceofplay.htm