Just let kids play
Taking a break recently to enjoy a healthy lunch at Canonsburg Town Park are, from left, Saylor Behanna, 3, and her 2-year-old sister, Finley, daughters of Kristi and Shawn Behanna of Chartiers Township, and Chloe Surich, 4, daughter of Ashley and Chad Surich of Canonsburg.
Saylor Behanna, 3, left, daughter of Kristi and Shawn Behanna of Chartiers Township, steps carefully as her friend, Chloe Surich, 4, daughter of Ashley and Chad Surich of Canonsburg, holds the pole swing steady while they play at Canonsburg Town Park.
David Cushey plays during recess at Wylandville Elementary School. Wylandville is one of several area schools that emphasize the importance of playing outdoors.
Second-grader Chloe Ault, daughter of Tracy and Mike Ault, jumps rope during recess at Wylandville Elementary School.
William Nopwaskey, 5, son of Eva and William Nopwaskey of Vestaburg, climbs on a rock wall at Ten Mile Creek Park.
Many adults remember a childhood filled with long days outside making up games, riding bikes and exploring the outdoors.
“I used to ride bikes with my friends with no particular destination in mind. We would ride and ride and ride for hours,” said Dr. Edward Foley, a pediatrician at Cornerstone Care Pediatric in Washington. “That doesn’t happen as much anymore.”
Today, outdoor playtime has diminished for children – since the 1990s kids have lost an average of nine hours of free playtime a week – because of electronic media and video games, reduced recess time at school and worried parents afraid to let their children roam outside.
But, it turns out, play is essential to growing up healthy, according to the National Institutes of Health.
Research shows that active, creative play benefits practically every aspect of child development, including academic performance.
“Play is huge to kids of all ages,” said Joe Mahoney, a therapeutic programs coordinator for the Washington County Intermediate Unit 1. “It’s very important to mental and intellectual growth, and it teaches greater life lessons we want kids to apply in the real world.”
Experts speculate that playing helps children in several ways: burning off pent-up energy helps them pay attention better and focus on their school work; boosting self-esteem; increasing blood flow to the brain, which helps with memory and concentration; and releasing serotonin, which regulates mood.
Mahoney pointed to one recent study that shows children scored higher on tests on days they had gym class – an important finding at a time when schools across the country have reduced or eliminated gym classes and recess.
Foley also cited studies that backed the importance of playtime.
“There has been a lot of research on playtime and the value of it. Play certainly has an impact on the way the brain and the nervous system develop,” said Foley. “It’s vital, especially in elementary school, that schools have some play time and recess time, and that gym class is available for kids in the older grades.”
Unstructured, creative physical play also helps kids develop strengths such as learning how to navigate their way in the world. During free play, children choose the games, set the rules, learn to negotiate and figure out how to handle stress.
“When they play, kids learn how to interact with peers and adults, how to mediate and negotiate – we’ll play what you want for 15 minutes and then play what I want for 15 minutes – and the major life lessons of compromising, sharing, winning and losing gracefully. It prepares them for the give-and-take they’ll need as adults,” said Mahoney.
Play allows children to use their creativity and imagination in ways that organized sports and activities don’t.
By sending children outside, or giving them inanimate objects to play with, they use their minds to explore their world creatively, Mahoney believes.
“We force them in a way to rely on their imagination to create their alternate ‘play world’ and they have free rein to create and live in whatever world they imagine for themselves and their friends, within the limits, of course, of safety,” said Mahoney.
Free playtime is different than organized sports, which children are playing at an ever-increasing rate. According to the National Council of Youth Sports, more than 44 million boys and girls participate in organized youth sports in the United States.
But in structured sports, the kids don’t get to call the shots.
“For kids that are in sports activities, so many of them are organized and structured where adults are in charge and making the decisions,” said Foley, while noting that the physical activity kids get from organized sports is important. “It’s about playing the game and enjoying yourself that sometimes gets lost in organized sports, where sometimes winning is the only thing.”
As Xbox 360s and surfing the Web draw kids indoors, there’s the risk that hours of sitting will lead to obesity and related diseases.
“Kids spend a lot of time sitting in front of the TV or playing video games by themselves. That’s hindering them,” said Mahoney. “It’s bad for their weight, but they also lose that interaction with other kids and they don’t get a chance to express curiosity or explore interests.”
Gary and Jenny Pernisek of North Strabane Township have made an effort to balance organized sports and video game time with playtime for their children, twins Jonathan and Brandon, 8, and Stefan, 13.
Jonathan and Brandon play in a soccer league throughout the year and Stefan plays basketball, but their parents are conscious about making sure they get outdoors to play.
“They spend a lot more time outside. The kids have Playstation and Wii, but we limit it so they spend more time outside, which is a good thing,” said Gary Pernisek. “They play football in the wintertime. They’ll go outside and shoot basketball, they have soccer nets, and they also play baseball in the backyard. Jonathan is more sports-minded and Brandon likes more imaginative play, so he plays Army and hide-and-seek type games.”
Pernisek recalled his childhood, and noted how different it was from his children’s.
“We’d wake up and leave the house in the morning, come back for lunch, then we went back out and played baseball, basketball or football, or we’d jump on our 10-speeds with a backpack and just ride. I had so much fun,” he said. “We didn’t need organized sports. We had enough people to make teams for pickup games. But we live in a different time.”