LEAVE THE POOR KIDS ALONE

Kids who play by themselves learn to think for themselves: 'Privacy may play key role' (Anne Marie Owens, April 26, 2003, National Post)

Parents anxiously arranging play dates for their children and schools intent on building social skills might be better off leaving kids more time to play alone, according to new research.

Children develop critical thinking skills when they play on their own, says a study by a Nova Scotia researcher who specializes in what she calls "the forgotten play."

"Play in general is not valued enough, and there is a real stigma to solitary play," says Bronwen Lloyd, whose findings on the cognitive merits of solitary play have just been published in Early Childhood Research Quarterly.

"Parents are bombarded with so much information about what it takes to stimulate their children: They have a play date here, a ballet lesson there, and so on ... In today's fast-paced world, young children also need a time and a place for independent play and solitary endeavours."

Ms. Lloyd observed the play habits of 4- and 5-year-olds in organized child care programs in Halifax and found that functional play, such as climbing and running, and constructive play, such as painting and puzzle-making, were both strongly associated with cognitive thinking skills.

The findings run counter to the traditional notion that active solitary play in particular detracts from cognitive processing and contributes to anti-social behaviour.

We're all familiar with those miserable kids who get rushed from one structured activity to the next, just so their parents can imagine that they've filled the day with stimulating activity. Meanwhile, their children have all the spontaneity of house plants and can never be more than six feet from an adult. You wonder what they think kids did before there were soccer leagues. Posted by Orrin Judd at April 27, 2003 8:19 AM