Benefits of Open-Ended Playtime

Studies show that, compared with controls, kids allowed a specific type of open-ended play time were:

��More creative.�On average they came up with three times as many nonstandard creative uses for specific objects (a standard lab measure) as did controls.

��Better at language.�The children�s use of language was more facile. They displayed a richer store of vocabulary and a more varied use of words.

��Better at problem solving.�This is fluid intelligence, one of the basic ingredients in the intelligence stew.

��Less stressed.�Children regularly exposed to such activity had half the anxiety levels of controls. This may help explain the problem-solving benefit, as problem-solving skills are notoriously sensitive to anxiety.

��Better at memory.�Play situations improved memory scores; for example, kids who pretended they were at the supermarket remembered twice as many words on a grocery list as controls.

��More socially skilled.�The social-buffering benefits of play are reflected in the crime statistics of inner-city kids. If low-income kids were exposed to play-oriented preschools in their earliest years, fewer than 7 percent had been arrested for a felony by age 23. For children exposed to instruction-oriented preschools, that figure was 33 percent.

Notes:

Lots of boosts to a child's creativity and cognition when they are allowed free playtime.

Folksonomies: parenting play child development

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Brain Rules for Baby: How to Raise a Smart and Happy Child from Zero to Five

Books, Brochures, and Chapters>Book: Medina , John (2010-10-12), Brain Rules for Baby: How to Raise a Smart and Happy Child from Zero to Five, Pear Press, Retrieved on 2011-07-27

Folksonomies: parenting pregnancy babies child development