News
Are children being deprived of play skills by parents?
3 May 2006
Children are being stripped of their natural creativity by structured activities and hi-tech toys, leading academics warned yesterday.
Innate play skills are lost as parents pay for them to attend classes and clubs or buy televisions and video game machines for their bedrooms. Even at school they are told what games to play in sports lessons and sometimes even in the playground. But the regimentation of their leisure time is stifling their initiative, says a report.
Entitled the Trouble With 21st Century Kids, it was compiled by Peter Smith, professor of psychology at Goldsmiths College, University of London, and nutritionist Rachel Biggins. It says: "Some structuring of play can be helpful now and then to get children going or help children who have difficulty playing. But this should not go too far.
Regimented play activities can have negative consequences on the social and emotional development of a child because they are too organised and take away a child's initiative and freedom of choice. In contrast, freeform play encourages the creative and multi-sensory development of a child because it has no structure."
It adds: "Play or games with rules, where it is the outcome that motivates the participation, train a child's thought patterns, leaving less time for their imagination or creative thought process to establish itself and mature." The report warns of the stifling potential of television and videos.
"Although it can be said that there are some positive effects to these activities, such as hand-eye co-ordination, there is growing concern that children are spending too much time on sedentary, solitary pursuits that can inhibit their mental and physical well-being," it says. "Experts agree that pre-programmed electronic toys monopolise the brain, because children respond to a scenario constructed by someone else and this is having an impact on their creativity."
(Extracted from an article by Sarah Harris, Education Correspondent, Daily Mail, 3 May 2006)
