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Child's play isn't just child's play. It's so crucial, it's now a
prescription.
BY ALEXIS HAMBY 14 hrs ago

Splattered with orange and pink paint, two paint trays lie unattended during playtime on Wednesday at the Atelier
School of Creative Learning. The Atelier School of Creative Learning is a play-based preschool, where students can
choose to do a variety of activities throughout their school day.

DEREK RIEKE/MISSOURIAN

Kira Mack’s son is the only 5-year-old she knows who has no
What is play? idea how to use an iPad. But she wouldn’t have it any other
The new report on the way.
importance of playtime from
Academy of American
And when Anderson came home messy from preschool, she
Pediatrics discusses play

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through the four following remembers being ecstatic.

categories:

Object play is when “If he’s exhausted and filthy, it was a good day,” said Mack,
a child examines an who sees his messiness as a sign that he boosted his
object and
understands its creativity, problem-solving and social skills.
characteristics. This
play can develope a The American Academy of Pediatrics agrees with Mack’s
child's
assessment of the benefits of play. The Academy
"communication,
language and recommends that pediatricians prescribe playtime at every
abstract thought."
checkup for children under age 2 in a new report released in
Physical, locomotor
or rough-and- August. It emphasizes playtime with infants because
tumble play is seen
children’s brains develop substantially right after birth.
in pat-a-cake games
with infants and free
play in toddlers and
“Play facilitates the progression from dependence to
children during independence and from parental regulation to self-
school recess. These
"foundational motor
regulation,” the report states.
skills" are crucial in
"promoting an active The Academy’s report called the definition of play “elusive”
lifestyle and the
but described it as “an activity that is intrinsically motivated,
prevention of
obesity." entails active engagement, and results in joyful discovery.”
Outdoor play can
enhance "sensory The typical preschooler watches 4.5 hours of television per
integration skills." For
day, according to the report, which said that regular use of
children actively
participating, it can technology can create a habit of passivity in children, hinder
develop "motor,
their development of social skills and increase their risk of
cognitive, social and
linguistic skills."  obesity.
Social or pretend
play alone or with One in five children in the U.S. is obese, a rate that has more
others is when
children explore than tripled since the 1970s, the CDC reported in January.
different "social roles"
in an imaginative way. The child who misses out on playtime misses opportunities
This play can
to development problem solving skills, said Amy Williams, a
enhance a child's
negotiation and family physician and assistant professor at the MU School of
cooperation skills. 
Medicine. Play, said Williams, is “the natural work of
children.”

“We need to emphasize kids spontaneously playing,”

Williams said. “The (Academy’s) recommendation just
makes sense.”

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Play is also one of the most important routes to a healthy

love of learning and some social interactive skills, she said.

“Kids should be playing in dirt, running and dancing,” she

said, “not spending excessive time on the iPad.”

Isaiah Gurantz, 2, pours water into a bowl of pink paint before mixing
the solution with a bowl of water and orange paint on Wednesday at
The Atelier School of Creative Learning. Kara Hook, the co-owner of
the school, said that students are currently learning about primary
and secondary colors. Many students recognize these colors outside
of the classroom, and also know how mix paint to make them. 

DEREK RIEKE/MISSOURIAN

Technology and children

Some parents see technology as an escape — surprisingly, an
escape from the judgement of other parents.

Meghan Goade, full-time mother of three children who

recently moved from Columbia to Holts Summit, admits that
her children, unfortunately, spend up to four hours a day on
electronics.

She said parents are pressured to treat their children too

delicately.

“When I was a kid, my mom would send us out to play for

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hours, with no phones,” she said. “Now, I can’t even imagine

my 7-year-old being gone for that long without having some
sort of contact. We’ve just lost that.”

Parents get shamed for letting their kids play in fenced yards
without constant supervision, she said. When she grew up,
she was given much more responsibility than kids have now.

Mack, the mother of Anderson, who doesn’t know how to use

an iPad, said she feels as if she’s raising her son in a different
world than the one she grew up in.

“We have to always look over our shoulders about what other
people think about our parenting,” she said. “There’s no way
my mom worried about that when she raised me.”

Like Goade, Mack also feels that if she left Anderson alone
outside, other parents might think of her as neglectful.

Both the Columbia Police Department and the Missouri State

Highway Patrol do not keep statistics specifically on the
number of stranger abductions, but the National Center for
Missing and Exploited Children says of the 27,000 missing
children cases they assisted with in 2017, 1 percent were
non-family abductions. Ninety-one percent were runaways.

Jean Ispa, professor emeritus and former co-chair of the

Department of Human Development and Family Science at
MU, said the loss of community parenting has contributed to
the decline in real playtime.

“Now parents say, ‘Lock the door and stay inside,’ partly
because parents are at work,” she said. “They are not
available to help or keep an occasional eye out for the
children playing outside. It’s unfortunate.”

The Academy’s report says that learning is more successful

in “person-to-person exchanges” versus “machine-to-person
interactions.”

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Owen Lynn, 1, sways to the beat of the music while parents and
teachers sang "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" on Wednesday at The
Atelier School of Creative Learning. The inside of the school is
divided into three sections: one where students sing, dance and do
yoga; another where students draw and paint; and finally where
students play without restriction. They also have an outdoor
classroom located behind the building.

DEREK RIEKE/MISSOURIAN

Maria Bernabe, a pediatrician from the Boone Medical

Group, said the increasing use of technology often
encourages passivity, one of its greatest risks for children.

“According to a research done that compared preschoolers

playing with blocks independently with toddlers watching
Baby Einstein tapes, the children playing with blocks
independently developed better language and cognitive
skills,” she said.

Play as stress management

The problem-solving skills developed through play and
discovery help children manage toxic stress and build
resilience by developing executive functioning skills,
Bernabe said.

Toxic stress can occur when a child experiences strong or

prolonged adversity from situations like nutritionally

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deficient diets, food scarcity, household dysfunction or

violence, she said.

“The families that use less or no technology, their kids seem

happier,” Bernabe said. “They can actually handle and adapt
to stress.”

The Academy’s report validates that idea. “The mutual joy

and shared communication and attunement (harmonious
serve and return interactions) that parents and children can
experience during play regulate the body’s stress response,”
the report states.

Mack believes her son wouldn’t have become a creative and

resourceful person if he hadn’t attended a play-based
preschool, Little Miracles Preschool.

“Anderson wouldn’t have the independence and self-

motivation if it wasn’t for the environment that encouraged
him to do it every day,” she said.

The Atelier, another play-based preschool in Columbia,

embraces the Reggio Emilia approach — a philosophy where
children explore ideas through the creative process.

Kara Hook, the owner and director of the preschool, has

taught in big cities, small towns and in Canada. While in
Virginia, she fell in love with the Reggio Emilia approach.

The Academy’s report discusses play-integration in

preschool education and named the Reggio Emilia
philosophy as an innovative approach for helping children
enhance executive functioning skills.

“The false dichotomy between play versus formal learning is

now being challenged by educational reformers who
acknowledge the value of playful learning or guided play,
which captures the strengths of both approaches and may be
essential to improving executive functioning,” the report

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said.

Hook said the school’s newfound focus on butterflies

emerged from the children’s fascination with the caterpillars
they saw outside.

“Now we have a habitat and have been observing the

butterflies emerge,” Hook said.

Through their play, the children demonstrated their

understanding of the concept of metamorphosis, she said.

Hattie Beschore and Annabella Barba, both 4, scatter translucent

spheres on a light-up grid while playing on Wednesday at the Atelier
School of Creative Learning. The class is currently learning about
caterpillars and butterflies, and the girls called the spheres caterpillar
eggs.

DEREK RIEKE/MISSOURIAN

Transition to traditional school

Mack said her son’s transition to junior kindergarten at
Columbia Independent School has diminished his usual free
play at home.

“He is so much more challenged now,” she said. “We are

definitely struggling to make sure he has enough free time at

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home.”

Goade, the mother of three, also doesn’t think her son is

getting enough playtime. He is a second-grader at North
Elementary School in Holts Summit.

“They expect a lot of focus for giving two or three recesses a

day,” Goade said. “It’s unrealistic, since we as adults can
barely handle two to three breaks in a day at work and
expect kids to do the same.”

At The Atelier preschool, teachers incorporate academics

into art and independent play.

“Worksheets are often not age-appropriate for young kids,”

Hook said. “Our kids learned their primary and secondary
colors through music and experimentation with powdered
paints.”

As a boy splashed his hands and feet in orange paint, Hook

said her philosophy is to never shy away from messes
because this is often when meaningful learning occurs.

“Because they have choices and are shown respect, the

children actually take ownership of their supplies,” Hook
said. “They clean up on their own, and we don’t worry about
it.”

Mack thinks most day care facilities avoid such messes.

“I think this can hold back a lot of day cares because parents
have the expectation to pick up a clean and happy child,” she
said. “I believe the exact opposite.”

Technology and parents

Along with fearing the judgement of other parents, some
hesitate to leave their children outside due to the hyper-
awareness of crime and violence, Goade said.

“Now, everyone is attached to their phones and social media;

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these things have always been out there, it’s just more well
known,” she said. “There’s a spotlight on it, so people are
more protective than they ever have been.”

Mack said her neighbors sometimes feel more like

watchdogs than neighbors.

“Because of and being so connected, we are all

hypersensitive to crime now,” she said. “I don’t want my
neighbor judging me for not checking on my kid in his own
backyard for 20 minutes.”

Jean Ispa, the MU professor and parent-child relationships

researcher, said the media bears some responsibility for
parents hesitating to let their children play outside without
direct and constant adult supervision.

Neighborhood associations and various neighborhood

centers might be part of the solution, she said.

“Maybe a place in the neighborhood with available adults to

watch the children would help,” Ispa said.

Bernabe said being in rural Missouri should be seen as a

great advantage for parents encouraging playtime.

“The parks are so enjoyable,” she said. “They are smaller and
safer. It’s easily monitored.”

Williams also sees Columbia’s environment as promoting

healthy childhood experiences.

“With the trails and parks we have here,” she said, “there is
certainly more we can do to promote play for healthy
children.”

Kristin Sohl, president-elect of the Missouri Chapter of the

American Academy of Pediatrics and associate professor of
pediatrics at the MU School of Medicine, said the
organization’s board of directors plans to talk about the

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national organization’s recommendation soon.

“(It) highlights the importance of physicians being explicit

about actual play, such as with a ball, baby doll or with
blocks,” she said, “and how it is just as important as learning
the ABCs.”

Supervising editor is Katherine Reed

Alexis Hamby
Fall 2018 public safety and health reporter. I am a junior studying investigative journalism.

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