Sofia Rebehy

The evidence shows that play is essential to early childhood development. In recent years, however, the time and space devoted to play have declined (Milteer and Ginsburg, 2012; Liu and others, 2017). Increasingly urbanized communities, unsafe public spaces, the convenient availability of electronic equipment and consequent overuse of screens, packed schedules of afterschool activities: these are some of the factors that explain why many parents say their children are playing less than they did when they were children themselves.

In early childhood education, discussions about the need to design the curriculum to prepare children for primary school relegate play to the sidelines. According to research conducted by Outdoor Classroom Day (2019), a global movement to encourage outdoor play and learning, educators in a number of countries report that children have less time for play because formal classroom instruction is prioritized.

However, if the idea is to prepare them for academic and professional success in later stages of the life cycle, the focus in the early years should be precisely on learning through play. According to UNESCO (2022), children concentrate better in the classroom after periods of outdoor play, as the increased blood flow to the brain helps with activities that involve executive functions, including cognitive skills such as self-regulation and self-control. Thus, when curiosity and exploration are placed at the centre of the curriculum, with the provision of educational and play activities that guide learning at each child’s own pace, education is able to foster child development in a comprehensive way, reducing inequalities and breaking intergenerational cycles of poverty in the long run.

Within the household, it is not uncommon for the demands of work and household tasks to determine the time available for playing with children. My experience in social projects aimed at improving social well-being from early childhood onward by strengthening positive parenting practices has shown clearly that the success looked for from such initiatives in the short term, in the form of changes in parents’ and caregivers’ behaviour, depends directly on the ability to design strategies and offer activities that fit their daily reality. The project should help people cope with the excessive burdens on their time in modern life, particularly mothers’, and not just impose a fresh load of demands and obligations. Thus, people can be encouraged to turn everyday activities such as bath time or waiting at the bus stop into times for play, making the care routine easier and more fun for everyone. And why not include children in activities around the house, turning things like cooking and cleaning into a game?

Play is so essential that it is even guaranteed by the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989). Children are curious and exploratory by nature, and play is their most authentic form of expression. Let them play—and us too!

Bibliografía

Liu, C. and others (2017), Neuroscience and learning through play: a review of the evidence (research summary), The LEGO Foundation, DK [online] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325171628_Neuroscience_and_learning_through_play_a_review_of_the_evidence.

Milteer, R. M. and K. R. Ginsburg (2012), “Council on Communications and Media, & Committee on Psychosocial Aspects of Child and Family Health. The importance of play in promoting healthy child development and maintaining strong parent-child bond: Focus on children in poverty”, Pediatrics, vol. 129, e204–e213 [online] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22201149/

Outdoor Classroom Day (2019), Playtime matters [online] https://outdoorclassroomday.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Outdoor-Classroom-Day-Playtime-matters-report-May-2019.pdf.

UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) (2022), Time to go out and play [online] https://courier.unesco.org/en/articles/time-go-out-and-play.