Last week, NPR Ed produced several stories about the importance of play in childhood development and why adults need to carve out time for daily play as well. Below are a few of our favorite pieces. Listen or read the entire series at NPR’s website.
When it comes to brain development, time in the classroom may be less important than time on the playground.
“The experience of play changes the connections of the neurons at the front end of your brain,” says , a researcher at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada. “And without play experience, those neurons aren’t changed,” he says.
“It’s really central that kids are able to take their natural and intense play impulses and act on them,” says Dr. Stuart Brown, a psychologist and the founding director of the National Institute for Play.
Children need an environment with “the opportunity to engage in open, free play where they’re allowed to self-organize,” he adds. “It’s really a central part of being human and developing into competent adulthood.”
Brown says this kind of free-range fun is not just good; it’s essential. Wild play helps shape who we become, he says, and it should be embraced, not feared.
More and more research suggests that healthy playtime leads to healthy adulthood.
“Play is something done for its own sake,” he explains. “It’s voluntary, it’s pleasurable, it offers a sense of engagement, it takes you out of time. And the act itself is more important than the outcome.”
Here’s a great video about why humans love to play and why it benefits all of us.
Need a little help getting started? Take this fun quiz and discover what type of play suits you best! Then, go out and enjoy!
Are you ready for summer camp? Are you ready for a completely awesome summer camp? Over the last ten years, the counselors and staff at The Children’s Museum of Atlanta have watched a legion of kids explore a little independence and have a whole lot of fun at our Adventure Camp.
So much of what preschoolers do is built around their growing sense of identity and their cautious steps toward independence. They love to explore, and at our Adventure Camp, which is designed for campers aged four to six, they get some of their first opportunities to take a little control over their surroundings without the comfort of their caregivers. We love seeing them decorate their camp T-shirts, explore each of the Museum’s learning zones in detail and enjoy the calming effects of yoga and the invigorating effects of playing in our “front yard”, Centennial Olympic Park.
April Fresh has been a participating parent for several years. Her older children, Kalea, 8, and Didier, 6, are seasoned veterans of summers with us. Their younger sister Farren, 4, is coming to Adventure Camp for the first time this summer and can’t wait to experience all the fun that her siblings have shared. “Every day, they wanted to go back,” April says. “They want to stay in aftercare when camp had finished for the day. They’re having so much fun that they don’t want to come home!”
Mrs. Fresh was very pleased by the camp’s guest visitors. Last year, the children got to meet some snakes and lizards and were so excited. Getting to see the reptiles up close even minimized some of Kalea’s fear of snakes. They loved coming home every day with something new to talk about with their families and Mrs. Fresh was happy to report that her children pick our camps over any of the others in town.
So, why is traditional day camp important? Let campers be the ones to tell you.
96% of campers say that “camp helped me make new friends.”
92% say, “Camp helped me feel good about myself.”
70% of camp parents say, “My child gained self-confidence at camp”
The American Camp Association additionally believes that among the many benefits of the camp experience, day camp uniquely:
Provides the camp experience for campers that are too young, anxious about being away from home, or just not ready for residential camp.
Can create the foundation needed for successful longer-term experiences away from home.
Allows for a greater partnership between the camp and the camper’s parents surrounding the growth and skill building that takes place at summer camp.
Morris Cohen, author over at DNAinfo.com, recently wrote about the long-term benefits of summer camp. In the article, he discusses psychologist Daniel Goleman’s findings about social intelligence and how summer camp can enhance social intelligence in children.
Camp is a key opportunity for kids to develop both sides of their social intelligence by offering them a way to practice becoming adept at socializing by offering them access to many new people and environments.
The more children can practice their social intelligence, the more smoothly they can incorporate the skills for the rest of their lives.
With children being in school for the first 18-or-so years of their lives, allowing them to branch out in experiences during summer camp certainly will help them become the best versions of themselves.
To introduce our new blog, Growing Into the World, Jane Turner, executive director of The Children’s Museum of Atlanta, writes about what she has learned about the benefits of play.
I believe that I have always known that play is a good thing. I enjoy playing; I feel happy and alive when I play; I forge deep friendships through play, discover new things about the world and myself, and I am refreshed. I have also watched my own children at play and I have innately understood that they were happiest at play. I could watch as they figured things out and began new friendships while pretending to be Presidents or digging in the sand to build entire cities. Listen to your child whenever they meet another child and want to connect with them. It is very likely you will hear, “Want to go play?”. As the famous and beloved Mr. Rogers stated, “Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood.”
What I have learned while working at The Children’s Museum of Atlanta is that play is a serious (but joyful) endeavor which introduces children to topics great and small! The benefits of open-ended and physical play are profound and almost endless. It is through play that children develop their imaginations, dexterity, physical, cognitive and emotional strengths. It is how they are introduced to the greater world in an environment that they control; it is how they “try out” occupations, leadership roles, team-building, problem-solving, and creative endeavors. It is one thing to learn in an academic environment that red and blue mixed together form purple; it is quite another to dip a brush in thick, red paint, draw that brush across a wall, dip the brush in blue paint and mix it into the red and see the purple! Concepts come to life; ideas become reality!
One of the most powerful encounters I have had while working at the Children’s Museum was when we welcomed Dr. Stuart Brown to speak. Dr. Brown has spent decades researching the importance of play, and what I learned from him is that the act of play is powerful and that there is a physiological connection between physical play and brain development. Play truly shapes the brain and has an enormous role in the development of the executive functioning of the brain. This means better ability to think creatively, engage in long-term planning, work effectively as a team, and solve problems. And, these are exactly the skills that are most important when young children grow up and enter the adult world.They are exactly the skills that will lead to new inventions and innovative solutions. Who will invent the next important technological advance in the future? It is likely the little boy or girl who is creating sand sculptures, stacking boxes, taking things apart, or turning somersaults today!
What young children do today makes a difference in what they will do tomorrow and beyond, and if we want a country that shapes the future, we must nurture and enable those who will inherit that future to discover what is possible. That is where the adults come in; it is incumbent upon us to ensure that play is not lost in a sea of over-programmed days for our children; it is why I love the Children’s Museum – it is a place of open-ended, child-directed activity. It is where children become painters, sculptors, dancers, engineers, builders, and chemists. It is a world that responds to their direction, their pace, their ideas, and it is a place that can spark true discovery.
Check out these websites and articles to learn more of the richness of play and the importance of this precious, simple, but profoundly important part of childhood. Then come play with us!
Jane Turner has held the position of Executive Director for The Children’s Museum of Atlanta since September 2004. Prior to joining The Children’s Museum of Atlanta, Jane worked for 15 years in the Healthcare IT industry. She served as President of the Board of Directors of Georgia Shakespeare Festival. Jane graduated from Kenyon College and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. Jane currently serves on the Board of Advisors for the Junior League of Atlanta and Advisory Board of Georgia Shakespeare.
Growing Into the World 