How And Why Childrens Play Has Changed Over the Last 50 - Essay Example

How And Why Children’s Play Has changed Over the Last 50 Introduction “Without this playing with fantasy, no creative work has ever come to birth. The debt we owe to the play of imagination is incalculable”. Carl Jung, 1875 (Foster, 2001, P. 269). These words by psychologist Carl Jung all but affirm the importance of play in the cognitive development of children. That children have always engaged in play as part of their development in various aspects cannot be disputed. What have given rise to the debate is the changes children’s play has undergone over the last 50 or more years? Various developments have taken place leading to tremendous change in the overall nature of children’s play across the last 50 years. The digital revolution in the world has brought along with it its related technologies such as the smartphone, digital cameras, video game consoles, e-book readers among others that have led to the decline of outdoors play and given rise to what has come to be known as digital play (Buckingham, 2006). Children’s’ play has significantly been transformed with the advancing technology and children today spend more time indoors rather than playing outdoor games. While children of the 1950s and 60s would spend their play time outdoors in the fields and terraces interacting with nature, children in our modern era are more likely to be found holed up in their cosy homes playing their favourite video games or browsing on their smartphones (Livingstone, Bober & Helsper, 2005). Thus, it is evident that the amount of play time outdoors and the rise of digital play are two related developments where the rise of the latter has led to the fall of the former. A third related development has been the reduction of the amount of time available for children’s play. This has been attributed to economic circumstances of parents where parents in the modern economies spend most of their time at the workplace and lesser time with their children at home (Marsh, 2014). A related factor has been the fact that schools have decided to cut down on the time allocated to play in favour of more time for instructional teaching. These two factors have conspired to reduce the amount of time children have left to play. Examination of the Three Elements Separately. The Rise of Digital Play The integration of digital media technology into homes, schools, workplace and other areas of life is now ubiquitous. Digital technology, in terms of smartphones, digital cameras, game consoles, et cetera has now transcended into almost every facet of the human life to such an extent that it would be hard to evade it (Livingstone, Bober & Helsper, 2005). Digital technology has engulfed children’s lives too, and they are now more than ever before interacting with it in their various environments, be it home, schools or the streets they walk through. Some researchers claim that children seem to be spending an increasing amount of times in their homes interacting with the digital media technology (Livingstone & Helsper, 2007) partly due to advances in television and gaming technology. Conversely, schools, where schooling kids spend most of their time, have opted to embrace digital technology into their environments on the rationale that technology should be seen as a means of play that enhances the play experience by extending and supporting play. The schools, along with other proponents of integrating technology into the school play routine, argue that digital media technology, when used in intentional and developmentally appropriate ways in addition to other traditional tools and materials, can support development and learning in young children (Gros, 2007). Some other researchers point to building a range of practical skills and even building peer relationships as some of the benefits for children interacting with digital technology (Byron, 2008). However, some early childhood experts have raised the red flag on exposing young school going children to digital media technology such as smartphones, computers, and e-book readers. These experts recommend that authorities keep such technologies out of childcare, preschool or kindergarten settings. They argue that screen technologies tend to replace activities known to be educational and beneficial to children and those hands on play and interaction with parents. Susan Linn, an instructor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, argues that the kids 24/7 “unregulated, unfettered access” to the commercial media and technology hinders them from “flexing their creative muscles” (Singer & Singer, 2000). She blames access as that which is responsible for modern children’s habits being so different from those in the past, making children spend their days surrounded by digital media (Singer & Singer, 2000). Although she agrees that new virtual worlds, games, and apps provide creativity for young children, she argues that these spaces don’t meet young children’s developmental need for imaginative play (Singer & Singer, 2000). Conversely, some researchers oppose the proliferation of digital technology around young children by linking it to problems such as attention deficit, behavioural problems, and higher psychological difficulty scores, less physical activity, obesity, irregular sleeping habits, impaired academic performance, violence and less time for active and imaginative play (Livingstone & Helsper, 2007). Digital play among children in the UK is expected to keep rising with the rapid growth of cheaper and better-designed children’s digital tools and the access of more of these tools by children (Livingstone & Bober, 2004). This is expected to add more to the already growing concern of the negative impact of proliferating digital technologies in children’s environments. However, the situation could be contained if lobby groups such as Playday can carry successful campaigns to sway school managements and parents to reverse course. The Decline of Outdoors Play Childcare providers, parents, and instructors have it that outdoor play is natural and an essential part in the children’s heath development. Through unrestricted outdoor play activities children get to learn some essential skills required during their adult life, for instance, social competence, problem-solving, safety skills as well as problem-solving (Byron, 2008). As children play outdoor games, they grow academically as well as emotionally. They develop an appreciation for the surrounding; develop an initiative as well as getting equipped with the comprehension of the fundamental academic concepts, for instance, investigative properties of objects as well as how to make use of simple tools to perform some tasks. (Byron, 2008). More studies have been carried out help people comprehend the importance of outdoor play. However, apparently our society and the environment at large have been changing, resulting to fewer and fewer children taking part in outdoor activities (Livingstone & Bober, 2004). As a result, several have been carried to determine the extent to which children are playing outdoor games compared to last five decades “Without this playing with fantasy, no creative work has ever come to birth; the debt we owe to the play of imagination is incalculable”. In the past half century, in the most developed nations, opportunities for children to play outdoors especially with other children have greatly declined. This is often attributed to the alluring qualities of the television and, more recently, computer games and internet (Prout, 2000). It is more evident that the change in technology has played a role in this decline of outdoor play. 85% of the mothers cited television viewing whereas 81% cited computer games and internet activities as among the reasons why outdoor play among their children had greatly declined. However some mothers also themselves restrict their children’s outdoor play, some citing safety concerns, including fear of crime and injuries as reasons for doing so (Clements, 2004). It can also be reasonably argued that children do spend most of their free time playing computer games, watching TVs, as well as playing amongst themselves. This because they are not allowed to play freely outdoors, or they do not find any attractive playgrounds as well as other groups of children to play with (“PlayReport”, 2010). However, surveys still point out that children still prefer to play outdoors. In a recent international survey, 54% of the mothers reported that “Playing outside at a playground or a park” ranked the activities that made children happiest (“PlayReport”, 2010). Outdoor play was highly ranked among the activities that that mad children happiest, among all activities including watching television or films and play internet games. These results occurred so although all the children in the study were computer literate and had access to computers at home (“PlayReport”, 2010). Parents today have more fear when it comes to allowing their children to play outdoors than in 5 decades ago. This is attributed to media coverage. For instance, if a child is murdered, kidnaped or molested by a stranger, the crime receives and repeated news coverage. Despite the fact that the rate such cases is small and on the decline, parents still believe otherwise. Parents restrict their children from outdoor play in fear of being exposed to predators, road traffic and bullies (“PlayReport”, 2010). The decline in the children’s outdoor play is also attributed to the increased time and emphasis given to schooling and other adult-directed activities (Marsh, 2014). These days’ children spend more time school, and when at school they spend less time playing compared to the past. The lengths of academic years have also been increased as well as the length school day; more young children are equally attending academically oriented kindergartens and preparatory schools than in the past. Lack of Time Children Have to Play Over the last 50 years, the time children spend playing has significantly declined. For instance, research from the US indicates that children’s free time reduced for more than 7 hours in a week from 1981-1997 and an additional 2 hours per week from 1997 to 2003. Children now have, on average, 9 hours less free time than they used to have 25 years ago (Handy, Cao & Mokhtarian, 2008). This has also been confirmed by research published in the American Journal of play that augments this claim, of which Peter Grey, a research professor of psychology at Boston College who argues that “…over the past five or six decades, the same decades over which play has been declining; as based on unchanged measures and criteria, today children and teenagers are five to eight times more likely to be depressed or anxious to a clinically significant degree than they were in the 1950s, and roughly four times more likely to commit suicide” (“Play as Preparation” n.d.). Various factors have been identified to be behind this decline in the amount of play time available to children. The pre-eminent one in the modern times has been the perpetual fear of child abduction in an increasingly complex world. This has made a lot of parents to adopt a stiffer parenting attitude to keep children indoors for a sense of their safety (Marsh, 2014). Consequentially, a second factor that comes into play in limiting child playtime is the fact that since every child becomes confined to their home, and then there wouldn’t be any child to play with outdoors. Researchers predict that the trend of declining play time for children will continue in the foreseeable future due to a multiplicity of factors. These factors include the fact that parents are spending more and more time at the workplace; schools are cutting down on play time to engage in more teacher instruction, et cetera (Livingstone & Bober, 2004). Conclusion Unstructured free-will play remains an indispensable part of a child’s proper development physically, socially, cognitively and intellectually. However, modern times characterised by busy lifestyles who spend most of their times at the workplace and school managers who favour structured formal instruction to free play looks set to constrain even more the amount of play time available to children. It would be the right thing to do for school managers and parents to acknowledge the indispensable and unsubstitutable roles that free imaginative role that free play performs in children’s proper development and institute measures to guarantee this form of play. Lobby groups such as Payday will perform a crucial role by putting pressure on the responsible parties to ensure this is achieved. We should not let digital technology substitute natural play that is uniquely designed to enable proper learning in children. Bibliography Buckingham, D., 2006. Is there a digital generation. Digital generations: Children, young people, and new media, 1-13. Byron, T., 2008. 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