Building happier, healthier lives and communities through play - http://www.playforlife.org.au/ Follow us on twitter https://twitter.com/#!/PlayforLifeAUS
All children have a right to play. This is enshrined in Article 31 of the UN Declaration on the Rights of the Child. We believe that learning to play is not something adults need to teach. Provide a suitable environment, and children will naturally play. Yet our attitudes to play have changed over the generation.
Not only is play fun, it is how children learn and is one of the principle ways in which their brains develop. Play teaches children the skills they need to read, share, create, and become happy, well-adjusted adults.
Much has changed since you were young - what you took for granted in your childhood experience of play simply is not happening for many of our children these days.
Are our children getting the play they need to thrive in the 21st century? According to reports from sources such as Harvard University, Time magazine, Newsweek, and The Futurist, the answer is no. Such studies show us that play is changing dramatically from a world invented by children to a world prescribed by parents and other adults. Environments where children get to be the authors of their own play are declining.
Many families now choose structured play at commercial facilities, and organised activities such as ballet and sports; and solitary, screen-based activities among children aged between six and 11 are on the increase, with more than 28 hours a week devoted to computers, mobile phones, television and other electronic devices.
As a result, the school playground is now, for many children, one of the few places where they can interact with their peers in an open, outdoor environment.
As the Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget once said, "Play is the answer to how anything new comes about." A playful mind thrives on ambiguity, complexity, and improvisation—the very things needed to innovate and come up with creative solutions to the massive global challenges in economics, the environment, education, and more.
- Category:
- Non-profit organization