Child psychologists have long known that play is essential for children’s cognitive development because it boosts their social, physical, and emotional skills. But beginning in the 21st century, specialists repeatedly sounded the alarm that ‘play is under siege’ for US children. Kids were playing less, and – it was feared – with a lesser quality.
But are today’s parents sufficiently aware of the importance of letting their children play? Yes, found a team of researchers who tested this through a survey of the opinions of 1,172 US parents. Their results showed that today’s parents understand how important play is for children’s well-being. However, they also showed that work needs to be done to educate parents about the value of playful learning (or ‘guided play’) for learning goals in reading and math. The results are published in Frontiers in Developmental Psychology.
