Play creates resilient kids – a necessity for our dynamic world

Depressed economy? Let the parks go. Low test scores? Eliminate recess. Worried about vandals? Close the playgrounds. Whatever the problem, too many policy-makers seem to think that cutting back on play is the answer. For them, play is optional. Nice to have, but not essential and certainly not every day.

In reality, the future of our world depends on it. And parents know this – 91% of parents agree that playing outside is extremely or very important, while only 19% feel that way about video games for their kids.

Why? Because active play is vital to every child’s health and well-being, and it helps set the stage for happiness and success later in life. On the playground, kids exercise their minds, bodies and spirits. They run, climb and slide. They also experiment, collaborate, problem-solve, master new skills, make friends and think creatively. Research proves this, and I have personally witnessed it throughout my years leading the national non-profit, KaBOOM!, whose vision is a great place to play within walking distance of every child.

As our world becomes more complex, future generations will need to be even more adaptable and resilient. Children gravitate toward play to cope with adversity, as demonstrated in this striking photo essay from Reuters which shows children at play in some of the harshest environments around the world. For a child whose life has been turned upside down, play is absolutely essential for maintaining a sense of stability amid turmoil and helping to work through emotional trauma. This is because play is simple, familiar and joyful – all the things that adversity is not.

Paul Tough, author of How Children Succeed, contends that the very character traits play helps children develop and nurture – like grit, curiosity and social intelligence – “are at least as important [as IQ] in a child’s success and quite possibly more important”. Play becomes even more critical for children coping with adversity, according to Tough. “Children who grow up in stressful environments generally find it harder to concentrate, harder to sit still, harder to rebound from disappointments and harder to follow directions.”

Following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which devastated America’s Gulf Coast, we built nearly 150 playgrounds in some of the hardest hit communities. At one of these sites – a school in Kiln, Mississippi – the principal reported:

“The psychologists in our area have been doing studies on kids in the schools in our district, and they reported seeing things… like thoughts about suicide, murder and other types of violence – truly terrible things. But, they also reported that they didn’t see those things in the kids at North Central Elementary and they attribute a lot of that to the playground.”

Recently, it seems we have faced greater challenges at a faster pace than ever before. From our lingering sluggish economy to the senseless killings of young school children in Newton, Connecticut, kids today are confronted with incredibly difficult situations. Active play is essential for a child’s own future, and for the future of our global community.

We must invest in our children today because we are counting on them to solve the problems of tomorrow. Yet, only one in five American kids live within walking distance of a park or playground. We need to push play up the priority list, particularly for the kids who need it most. We must commit to providing all children with great play spaces that will challenge them, cultivate their curiosity and creativity, and help them learn how to adapt to new environments and situations.

The result will be a generation of resilient kids who help build resilient communities for us all.

 

Author: Darell Hammond, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, KaBOOM!, USA; Social Entrepreneur of the Year, USA, 2011

Hammond founded KaBOOM! In 1996 after reading a story in the Washington Post about two children who suffocated while playing in a car, because they did not have any other safe place to play. Over the past fifteen years, KaBOOM! has raised more than USD200 million for its efforts to ensure that every child has a great place to play within walking distance. KaBOOM! has used its community-led model to inspire more than 1 million volunteers to build more than 2,000 play spaces across North America that serve more than 5.5 million low-income children.

Image: Girls play on a swing during the Hindu festival – REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar