Chapter 9: The Decline of Play
***play is essential for wiring a mannal’s brain to create a functioning adult
Experiment: rat pups raised in one of these conditions:
1-totally alone in a cage
2-alone except for one hour a day with a normal, playful young rat, during which time normal rough-and tumble play occurred
3-same as condition 2, except that the visiting young rat was treated with a drug that knocked out the rough-and-tumble play while leaving other social behaviors, such as sniffling and nuzzling
The young pups were then put into new situation:
-those that had engaged in rough-and-tumble play showed fewer signs of fearfulness and engaged in more exploration of the new environment
Key Concepts:
-from development biology is “experience-expectant development”
-human beings have 22,000 genes, but our brains have approximately 100 billion neurons, with hundreds of trillions of synaptic connections
-Genes are essential for getting the various cell lines started in the embryo
-genes guide the brain development toward a “first draft” in utero
-But experience matters
-the brain includes a strong motivation to practice behaviors that will give the brain the right kind of feedback to optimize itself for success in the environment that happens to surround it
-the genes get the ball running on the development of brain structures for language, but the child must encounter and practice language to finish the process therefore motivated to engage in back-and-forth reciprocal exchanges with others in order to get that input
Children:
-it is fun for them to exchange sounds, and later, real words, with other people
-a child who is deprived of these linguistic interactions until puberty would be unable to fully acquire a language or learn to speak normally, having missed the “critical period” for language learning which is part of the normal developmental process
-it’s the same logic for physical and social skills such as:
1-fleeing from predators
2-negotiating conflicts and cooperation
-the brain is expecting the child to engage in thousands of hours of play
-this includes thousands of falls, scrapes, conflicts, insults, alliances, betrayals, status competitions, and acts of expulsion
-children who are deprived of play are less likely to develop into physically and socially competent teens and adults
Research:
-there is a link of play deprivation to later anxiety and depression
-anxious children may elicit overprotective behavior from others
-reinforcing the child’s perception of threat decreases their perception of controlling the danger
-overprotection results in exaggerated levels of anxiety
-overprotection through governmental control of playgrounds and exaggerated fear of playground accidents results in an increase of anxiety in society
-we need to provide more stimulating environments for children, rather than hamper their development
***parenting practices should offer kids more time for free play
The Decline of Free Play:
“Free play” is “activity that is freely chosen and directed by the participants and undertaken for its own sake, not consciously pursued to achieve ends that are distinct from the activity itself.”
-all play is not equal
-vigorous physical free play–outdoors, and with other kids–is crucial kind of play, one that our evolved minds are “expecting”
-it is also important for kids to have imaginative or pretend play
-free play introduces kids to danger and risk like climbing walls and trees, or skateboarding down staircases and railings
***dosing kids with moderate degrees of fear, as if deliberately learning how to deal with both the physical and emotional challenges of the moderately dangerous conditions they generate
-Unfortunately, outdoor physical play is the kind that has declined the most in the lives of American children
-indoor activities involving a computer does not build physical strength and is not as effective at building psychological resilience or social competence
-iGen shows that the drop in free play has accelerated
-iGen spends less time going out with friends, more time interacting with parents, and much more time interacting with screens
-screen time is a form of social interaction, but can have negative effects
-iGen have less unsupervised free play
-they have been deprived of opportunities to experience risk
-this generation is programmed to avoid all risk at all times
-they will see ordinary life tasks as beyond their ability to handle on their own without help from an adult
-these kids have high anxiety and depression on school and college campuses
Childhood has become a Test Prep:
1979
- when asked if your child ready for 1st grade it focused on physical and emotional maturation and independence
-kindergarten was devoted mostly to social interactions and self directed play with instruction in art, music, numbers, and the alphabet
-kindergarten classrooms would be organized to build social relationships and facilitate hands-on exploration (such as blocks and LIncoln Logs) and Imaginative and symbolic play (such as store or housekeeping corner with props and costumes)
-the structure was a a half day
-consited of open-ended free play, snack, singing songs with rhyming words for a little oral language exposure, a story, art projects, and sorting games or block building for math awareness
Today:
-when asked if your child is ready for 1st grade it focused on 30 items of academic content
-kindergarten is a much more structured and sedentary
-children spend more time sitting at their desks receiving direct instruction in academic subjects
-this is known as “drill and skill”
-this method if effective to communicate academic information to older children, but they are not appropriate for use with young children
-this method produces negative effects on creativity as well as social and emotional development
-there is far more time spent on advanced reading and mat content
-childrens’ days are now more rigidly structured
-opportunities for self-direction, social exploration, and scientific discovery are increasingly being lost
-direct instruction in the core curriculum is driven by the school’s focus on preparing children to meet state testing requirements
-the sole focus is to prepare the student to be able to qualify for college
The Resume Race:
-given the fierce competition, parents in some social circles convey a sense of panic about children’s grades, even in middle school
-if they don’t get an A in sixth-grade math, it means they won’t get into Stanford
-the college admissions process nowadays makes it harder for high school students to enjoy school and pursue intrinsic fulfillment
-the process “warps” the values of students drawn into a competitive frenzy and jeopardizes their mental health
-this high level of stress has led to suicide clusters at highly competitive high school
Ex. 2015, 95% of students at Lexington High School in Massachusetts reported “a lot of stress” or “extreme stress”
-students are prepared academically, but they are not prepared to deal with day-to-day life
Childhood as Democracy Prep: the consequences of a liberal democracy
-the effects of play deprivation and oversupervision may extend far beyond college
-there must be an education on self-governing in communities to resolve conflicts peacefully
“Successful democracies do this by developing a variety of institutions and norms that enable people with different goals and conflicting desires to resolve their problems while rarely appealing to the police or the state to coerce their fellow citizens. This is the art of association.”
-it takes years to cultivate these skills and are learned during free play
“Denying children the freedom to explore on their own takes away important learning opportunities that help them to develop not just independence and responsibility, but a whole variety of social skills that are central to living with others in a free society.”
-parenting strategies and laws make it harder for kids to play on their own
-kids are not learning how to figure it out for themselves
-kids are not taught how to figure out how to solve conflicts on their own
-when conflicts arise, a third party intervenes invoking forced consequences
-2013: administrators and professors are regulated on what they can say
-2013: administrators and professors can’t say who gets to speak on campus
-to promote antifragility kids need to learn how to deal with painful experiences that will make them better people
Points:
-when you are treated unfairly, you lean the value of justice
-when you suffer betrayal, you learn the importance of loyalty
-when you feel lonely, you learn to not take your friends for granted
-when you have bad luck, you are conscious of the role of chance in life
-you need to learn that failure of others is not completely deserved either
-when you lose, your opponent may gloat over your failure, but you come to understand the importance of sportsmanship
-when you are ignored, you learn the importance of listening to others
-when you experience just enough pain, you learn compassion
In Sum:
-there has been a huge decline of unsupervised free play
-children need free play in order to finish the intricate wiring process of neural development
-the decline of free play is driven by several factors
-the rise of smartphones and social media has impacted how children spend their time
-children are missing out on the kinds of physical and social experiences that guide the intricate wiring process of neural development
-free play helps children develop skills of cooperation and dispute resolution that are closely related to the “art of association”