Nothing is as natural as a child at play. Free play is important for optimal development. The United Nations recognizes play as a basic right of every child. Article 31 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child says that “every child has the right to rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreational activities appropriate to the age of the child and to participate freely in cultural life and the arts.”
Play can broadly be categorized into two groups – free play or unstructured play and structured play.
Free play is child-centered, child-initiated, and child-controlled. ‘what children do when they follow their own ideas and interests, in their own tone and pace, and for their own reasons is free play.’ Free play is unplanned.
Structured play is organized by adults, pace and tone are set by adults, and happens in fixed time and place. A group of children playing cricket in the backyard versus children training with a coach reflects the difference between free play and structured play.
Some examples of free play are imaginative play like role play, pretend play, creating objects using things that is available around the child, creative play (including artistic and musical games), exploring places, objects, nature, etc. Some examples of structured play are swimming classes, hobby classes, storytelling sessions, star-gazing sessions, sports classes, etc.
Free play benefits children, families, and societies at large.
Benefits for Children
Scientific evidence shows that free play can have many benefits – from improved physicality, health, and self-affirmation to cognitive and neurological development. If they have the opportunities to follow their curiosity, do what they enjoy, and discover and experiment with the world around them, children will thrive. They will be vibrant and healthy kids. The apparent randomness of play is its secret genius. Here we will focus on the development of social skills, personality development, and mental health benefits.
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Children learn social skills.
Free play helps kids socialize, develop social skills, grow and nurture friendships, create a lasting bond with parents and playmates. Peer interactions help in socio-emotional development. Every interaction on the playground is a crash course in social skills – learning what works and what doesn’t.
Kids understand their boundaries (what feels right and what doesn’t) and learn about others’ boundaries. They learn the need for assertiveness. They learn to say no. They learn to articulate their thoughts and communicate. They learn to persuade others. How the play will take place is more than the play itself. Children get the opportunity to create their own games and guidelines using their imagination. Deciding on who takes the first turn, how to resolve a conflict between playmates, etc., allows children to develop problem-solving skills. Teamwork, listening to others, creating imaginary scenarios, making decisions together, changing rules when a new child joins. Regulates each other’s behavior, etc., develops their social skills.
Free play with other kids helps them to learn sharing, self-control, understand power dynamics in groups, develop self-advocacy, learn to negotiate and resolve conflicts, develop leadership skills. Kids learn to regulate their own emotions, value others, and be sensitive to other children. Free play helps kids understand their emotions and encourages kids to articulate and communicate their feelings, views, experiences better, act in a socially acceptable manner. They learn to manage their big feelings. Demands and tantrums may work at home, but children learn how to measure their own emotional responses and communicate with others appropriately with peers.
Playing outdoors provides endless opportunities to explore and interact with the world, learn about their environment and the wider community.
Recommended reading: Is your child getting enough play time?
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Free play shapes children’s personalities.
Free play helps increase their self-awareness, self-esteem, and self-respect. Free play builds resilience through risk-taking and challenge, problem-solving, and dealing with new and novel situations. Kids build a sense of self and grow through exploration and experiences. Children learn what they can control, what they can change, and what they can’t. This shapes kids’ beliefs about the world. Having this understanding, kids learn to develop and adopt strategies for problem-solving differently based on the given situation. Children learn to cooperate and their openness to feedback improves.
Free play teaches kids to recover from setbacks quickly. Say, for example, when stacking blocks, if their masterpiece topples while placing the last block or if the color they wanted to reach out to has dried up and they have to use a different shade for painting the flowers. Such experiences are important for healthy brain development. Such experiences allow kids to learn to bounce back quickly and develop problem-solving skills.
Free play gives the opportunity to make decisions, decide the pace, For example: Who gets to bat? What’s the order? Where are the boundaries? Who gets to bowl? What are the rules? How are ambiguous calls decided? Discover areas of interest and passion without the pressure to prove themselves by excelling. Free play eliminates pressure and stress. Free play boosts a child’s imagination. When playing without restrictions, kids can explore ideas. This helps kids to explore their passion and interest, which otherwise a scheduled play activity would fail to do.
Roleplay prepares children for adult roles and improves their maturity as they might pretend to be a doctor or an astronaut and try to explore and experience the world from that position. Such play allows them to put themselves in another person’s shoes. Kids become more empathetic. Playing together, be it with parents or other children, helps them learn to predict and respond in a dynamic environment and understand others’ expectations.
Free play promotes free and flexible thinking. When playing, children need to change and adjust to the circumstances of the game. This increases their flexibility, adaptability, and responsiveness.
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Free play has mental health benefits.
In spite of so many benefits today, play is becoming an endangered activity. Enrichment classes are taking over. There is a significant increase in pressure on children score well on standardized tests. Experts believe these changes have had a lasting negative impact on children. Health concerns like major depression, anxiety, and the suicide rate are on the rise. Recent researches show that free play can increase neural structures, assist in learning, and can also help children cope with mental health concerns. It reduces decreases level of stress, fear, and anxiety in children. Free play like fantasy play or roleplay helps cognitive development important for understanding and overcoming traumatic experiences and distressing feelings.
Benefits to families
This one is very simple. Families benefit from having healthier, happier children. This can help parents be secure and less anxious. Parents can be relieved of the stress. Kids develop life skills through free play. This will undoubtedly make parents happy and satisfied to know that kids are getting better prepared for the future.
Benefits to society
Free play provides opportunities for social interaction for the wider community, develops community spirit, promoting social cohesion. This helps develop empathy. From a broad perspective and having an eye on the future, having empathetic adults creates a better society, makes the world a better place, and creates future generations of empathetic people. How many times has it occurred to you that you hoped to have more empathetic people around you? So you get the point.
In an age of intense academic competition, with increased AI and robots that are expected to rule the future, there are two skills that no robot can replace: creativity and teamwork. The one skill that every adult would need to make the world a happier place is emotional intelligence. These skills develop in the playground.
Free play is not a luxury. It is a necessity. Its apparent randomness is its secret sauce. In the current social practice that seems to devalue free time and is increasingly inclined to a scheduled world, it is important to strike a balance between structured and unstructured play depending on your child, their stage of development, their interests, and their abilities is the key to holistic development of children.
