This post will deal with the upswing in children who do not know how to engage in creative play. I will first talk about possible reasons for the upswing and then solutions for helping children become more adept at creative play.
No Play Experience
I don't know about you, but in the last few years I have had only a handful of children walk through my door knowing how to play. These children know how to destroy, create chaos, and manipulate people, but they have no idea how to sit down and play with toys. They cannot even parallel play much less cooperate in a group to create a dramatic play theme. I am not talking about 2 year olds. These are 3, 4, and 5 year olds.
Instant Gratification Society
What is causing this? Like most problems this one has multiple causes. The biggest cause is our instant, entertain-me society. These same children who are incapable of creative play can sit down with a smartphone, etc. and be playing games on it in no time. These games do not really call for much thought but give the children lots of instant gratification. However, this problem goes much deeper than technology. It is the underlying belief in our society that children must be entertained constantly. Even the educational system in our county has fallen prey to that belief. Have children really changed that much in the last half century? Has something biological taken place that has rewired these children's brains to where they must be constantly stimulated or they will blow up the world? Or could it be that philosophical underpinnings have shifted in a direction that has caused this? I have talked before about the philosophy that childhood should be perfect and how destructive that has turned out to be. Here again we have that same philosophy rearing its ugly head and reeking havoc.
Perfect Childhood
I want to dig a little deeper into the "perfect childhood" philosophy and how it is causing harm. As parents and caregivers we are lead to believe that our lives should revolve around our children and making them happy. To do this we must make sure they never do without or heaven forbid, be bored. We must provide them with stimulating activities from the time they get up to the time they go to bed or they will become discipline problems. We keep them so busy doing stuff that they have no time to ponder anything. They may enjoy what they are doing most of the time, but they have no down time to just play and be kids. Children need time to process life and emotions. They do this through unstructured play. Tons of research tells us this.
Learning through Play
You might ask, what about the "learning through play" movement? Isn't that bringing play back? The answer to that is yes and no. The early childhood movement as a whole is putting a lot more emphasis on play. However, a lot of this still has adults always "controlling" the play experience. In order to teach through play, the activities must occur during the children's playtime. This interferes with the unstructured play that is truly the goal for which the "learning through play" movement is striving. It is during this unstructured play that children truly explore and experiment. Children also work out emotional issues in this type of play, but usually when adults are not in the picture. Another point that the "learning through play" movement misses is that only half the population actually learns through play. Children who are right-brain leaning or dominant are the ones who truly explore and experiment without having to be prompted. Children who are left-brain leaning or dominant actually practice what they learn through play. There is a subtle difference. The left-brain leaning or dominant children will take something they have been exposed to in direct instruction and tinker with it. These children have to have the initial introduction before they will explore and experiment, and they represent the other half of the population.
How to Fix It
This brings us back to the initial problem. How can we get children to participate in unstructured, creative play on their own? The first part of the solution is to make sure children have opportunity for big hunks of time devoted to unstructured play. In other words, adults need to back off. If we as adults are constantly dictating how the children play, they will never learn to do it on their own. The second part of the solution has to do with the destruction and chaos factor. When unstructured play is scheduled, certain ground rules must be in place or all you will get is destruction and chaos. How you set those rules is up to you, but it must be made clear that simply roaming around the room dumping everything and destroying things is not acceptable. Make it clear what you expect because many of these children do not know what playing looks like. All they know is destruction and chaos. Have an abundance of open-ended toys such as blocks available and show the children how to use them. Then back off. It is okay to have an initial point of instruction especially for your left-brain leaning or dominant children. However, once they get the idea, get out of the way and let them play. Understand that when you first begin to switch around to where the children have unstructured playtime, some children will simply sit in the floor and demand to be entertained. You will have discipline issues. Stand your ground and enforce your ground rules. It will be what you do for the first month or two. However, after that initial time of transition, you will begin to see creative play flowing from children that you never thought would actually be able to do that. You have to provide the opportunity, the structure, and the know-how before you can see the results.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!! Check out Natalie's children's books at: https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457
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