My Connections to Play


"Children need the freedom and time to play. Play is not a luxury. Play is a necessity."
                                                  Kay Redfield Jamison

                                                                   "Play is the highest form of research."
                                                                                         Albert Einstein

  

Some of my favorite childhood memories involve playing in and around the house where I grew up, and my ideal childhood connection to play would involve this very same environment. My father was in the military, and my mother was a stay-at-home mom, so my days were typically filled with unstructured and unrestrained creative freedom. I shared these experiences with my siblings, and had fond memories of playing with my dolls and pretending to play "school" in my garage with my brothers, sisters, and numerous neighbor friends. In fact, our house was the popular destination for all of our childhood friends and schoolmates; my mother often made homemade cookies for us and let us play freely as we saw fit. She also provided resources by sewing clothes for my dolls and checking on us periodically to see if there was anything we needed. My time during these days was often spent playing tether ball, swimming at the pool across the street, and riding my bike wherever my feet decided to pedal me that day, as long as I was back before the streetlights turned on. I also enjoyed reading and generally being content with the fact that my every need was met and I was allowed to enjoy myself with a minimal amount of supervision. We all came together for our nightly family dinners, and that bonding rounded out the balance between my free play and structured development.

In many ways, I feel my childhood play experiences are similar to those of the children of today, but there are also obvious differences between the two as well. Ask any four or five year old child today about the joys of riding a bike or of role playing with dolls or action figures, and you will most likely find similar enthusiasm. These toys serve the same purpose as they always have; they provided an outlet for a child's imagination to go wild and they promote creativity. A quick survey of my daycare children in this age range shows that swimming is also a popular form of play. And what childhood would be complete without playtime involving school friends or play dates with neighborhood children?

That being said, the world has changed in many ways since my childhood and the impact of technological advances has certainly had an effect on the concept of play. You are just as likely today to find a child happily engaged with swiping their fingers around an interactive learning game on an Ipad or smartphone as you would be seeing them learning their shapes and colors with their parents or in a structured daycare environment. The state of today's economy has also led to many situations where both parents must work full time, and many children are not exposed to traditional family meal routines and grounded home lives in their immediate environments. As the children of today are shuffled around more and more between hectic adult schedules and often become lost in the mix, adequate play time and bonding time between the children and their peers can become diminished.

As an early childhood professional, and drawing on personal experience, I firmly believe that adequate play should be one of the most important functions of one's childhood. By allowing the child to explore creative opportunities with as much or as little material as they are given, the child will learn early on to develop important life skills ranging from problem solving and logical reasoning, to teamwork and social interaction. This provides the foundation for a bright and curious mind that can transition into a healthy adulthood. As an added bonus, it will provide irreplaceable memories that will stay with the child forever, a fact that I can personally attest to. As quoted above by Kay Redfield Jamison, "Play is not a luxury. Play is a necessity." I couldn't agree more.