A time to play…
Calvin posted this on Sep 19th 2007 under Children, Evening Echo Column, Parenting
Published in the WOW! supplement of the Evening Echo 19/09/2007
Over the last week debate has been raging in Britain, and further afield, about the lamentable decline of childhood play. It was all sparked by a letter to The Daily Telegraph newspaper in London, signed by no fewer than 270 international child “experts”, including more than 40 professors, 60 psychologists, and leaders of the main children’s charities and teaching unions.
In the letter these venerable authorities link a disturbing rise in clinically diagnosable children’s mental health problems with a “marked decline over the last 15 years in children’s play”.
You’ll struggle to find anyone who disagrees with the statement that play is an important element in a child’s natural development, and that it’s a vital contributor to their overall wellbeing. In this regard, according to the experts, unstructured outdoor play with minimal adult interference reigns supreme. Yet in today’s busy world our children rarely have the freedom to play outside unfettered.
