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An easy-to-understand article explaining why recess helps kids stay healthy, make friends, and learn better at school.

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The benefits of recess extend beyond physical health. During this scheduled period, students engage with peers and get a much needed break from the structure of the classroom. Studies have found that recess benefits students by improving their memory and attention, helping them stay on topic in class, reducing their disruptive behavior, and improving their social development, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Despite its benefits, however, when schools shifted their focus to student academic outcomes with the No Child Left Behind Act, recess was cut down or eliminated altogether. Recently, parents, teachers, legislatures, and even students have fought to expand the amount of time children spend in recess and make it mandatory nationwide.

Physical Activity and Learning

The elimination of mandatory recess spurred researchers to study its benefits on students. According to Scholastic, recess has positive cognitive, social, emotional, and physical outcomes for students. Physical activity increases blood flow, which sends oxygen to the brain. This process boosts neural connectivity and the growth of nerve cells in the learning and memory areas of the brain, which leads to improved attention and increased memory span, according to Edutopia. In addition, students who have this unstructured, physical time in their school day show an increase in creativity and problem solving.

Social Benefits of Recess

Getting a break from classwork, exploring their own creativity, and enjoying unstructured time leads to many social benefits for students. Recess is one of the few times of day when students get to interact with their peers under less rigorous teacher supervision. From engaging leadership and negotiation skills to learning conflict resolution, recess has numerous social benefits.

Creativity

With little structure in place, students are left to dictate their own activities during recess. They can use their imaginations and create new games without the fear of failure or stress. This gives students the opportunity to broaden their views and ways of thinking. The creativity skills they put into action during recess can help them with writing assignments, art projects, and creative problem solving.

Leadership

Recess also provides opportunities for students to practice their leadership skills, whether it's teaching classmates a game, getting a team together to play soccer, or deciding who gets to be the server in four square. The leadership skills students gain during recess will stick with them throughout their lives.

Negotiation

Negotiation is a large part of recess. Many recess supplies are limited; games have player limits. These realities force students to decide who gets to play what game, or who will be the first players in the game. The environment naturally encourages students to negotiate and make decisions. These negotiation skills will carry on in students' day-to-day lives and help them address workplace conflicts.

Conflict Resolution

Students at play during recess often end up in conflict. Although they are supervised, students generally must resolve their minor recess disputes themselves. Research has proven that students will learn how to resolve conflicts during their daily recess as well as how to solve problems and take turns, according to Edutopia.

The Push to Reinstate Recess in Schools

The benefits of recess are clear-from better memory and brain function to lifelong conflict resolution skills. However, schools cut back on recess time or discontinued it completely when the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 was passed. This federal legislation focused on raising the test scores of students across the country, so schools fit in as much instruction during the school day as they could. According to the CDC, 40 percent of school districts reduced or cut recess altogether since the early 2000s.

The effects of this reduction are still felt today. Currently, only eight states require daily recess. While this doesn't mean the rest of the states don't have recess, it does mean they have no regulation as to how much time students must spend outside. Recently, legislators, teachers, parent groups, and even students have fought to reinstate recess in schools.

Advocacy groups such as Peaceful Playgrounds and the National PTA, lobbyists, and teachers have fought for legislative change. The ultimate goal in this movement is to pass legislation so recess cannot be eliminated by individual schools.

For example, the National PTA has presented a proposal to require a 20-minute recess per day. To date, seven states require 20 to 30 minutes of recess a day. Connecticut recently passed a bill that requires 50 minutes. These advocates continue to push for legislative change.

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Benefits of Recess on Students' Health | American University

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Research has shown that recess improves learning and social skills for students. Learn about the benefits of recess and the push to make it mandatory.

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Move Your Body: The Benefits of Exercise

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Move Your Body: The Benefits of Exercise

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A kid-friendly article about how moving and playing during recess helps keep our bodies strong and healthy.

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What’s your opinion? Cast your vote in this debate.

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A fun picture book that teaches children about being kind and inclusive during recess while staying active.

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An article discussing how recess games and activities help children develop social skills and stay physically active.

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"We only had one recess today!" Beatrice Dathan complained to her mother after coming home from school one day. That was four years ago. Beatrice's family had moved from California to Connecticut. In California, Beatrice had 50 minutes of recess daily. In Connecticut, she had only 20 minutes.

Lucy Dathan is Beatrice's mom. She wishes Beatrice had more recess time. It "helps kids build relationships and be creative thinkers," she told TIME for Kids.

Clear Benefits

In 2017, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and SHAPE America published a report about recess: Playtime encourages kids to be active. This can build healthy bodies. Plus, physical activity can improve brain function. And recess helps kids form friendships.

MITCHELL FUNK/GETTY IMAGES

The CDC calls for at least 20 minutes of daily recess for elementary school students. The average U.S. school offers 27 minutes of recess. But some schools offer none at all.

Powerful Voices

DARREN IRBY

Asa Hutchinson is the governor of Arkansas. He signed the state's recess reform bill into law on April 1. TFK Kid Reporter Belle Irby was on the scene at the State Capitol that day.

Hutchinson admires the kids' efforts. "Young people can have a powerful voice," he told Belle.

RANDALL LEE

Sidebar: Test Case

There is pressure on schools to ensure students do well on state tests. That's why some of them shorten recess. This makes more time for class. Some schools also take away recess as punishment for poor schoolwork.

JEFF CADGE-GETTY IMAGES

But cutting back on recess may not be the best way to improve test results. According to the 2017 CDC and SHAPE America report, recess can improve a child's memory. It can also improve a child's focus.

Stop & Think! What questions would you ask Izzy Kopsky and Governor Hutchinson if you were a TFK Kid Reporter? Who else would you have interviewed for this story?

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"We only had one recess today!" Beatrice Dathan complained to her mother after coming home from school one day. That was four years ago. Beatrice's family had moved from California to Connecticut. In California, Beatrice had 50 minutes of recess...

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Simple explanation of how taking breaks helps our brains work better and why movement is important for learning.

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For several years, John Snelgrove began his workweek with a lengthy fax from the local police, listing the home addresses where officers had answered domestic violence calls over the weekend.

Snelgrove, head of guidance services for Brockton (Mass.) Public Schools, would check those addresses against the district's student database. When a match came up, he'd alert the counselor at that child's school, who, in turn, would take a red envelope and deliver it to the child's teacher. Inside was a slip of paper with a student's name and a quick prescription for "TLC."

A Sunday night, disrupted by violence, panic, and 911 calls, surely will make it difficult for a child to settle down to learn on Monday morning. But, even more than that, researchers have found that exposure to unrelenting stress and repeated traumas can change a child's brain, making it easier to "fight or flee" from perceived dangers and harder to focus and learn. Understanding this neuroscience makes it possible for educators to create trauma-sensitive classroom.

"It's more than one or two children in your class of 28, it could be closer to 30 percent or more," Snelgrove tells his colleagues. But even children who haven't experienced trauma will benefit from the strategies that Brockton teachers and education support professionals have learned through years of training with the Massachusetts-based Trauma and Learning Policy Initiative, and their partnerships with local police, mental health, and child welfare agencies.

"Be consistent, be kind, focus on connecting with kids," he urges.

The Traumatized Brain

Back in the 1990s, Dr. Vincent Felitti, working with very obese adults, discovered that a shocking majority of his patients had suffered significant traumas during childhood. Eventually, his work led to a mega-study, involving tens of thousands of patients, which showed the long-lasting effects of "adverse childhood experiences," or ACEs, such as child neglect or abuse, or a parent with addiction or imprisoned. Those children often grow up to be adults who are more likely to be sick, to be violent, to miss work, and to marry often.

Since then, it's become clear that the damaging effects of trauma are not saved until adulthood. It starts early and it affects students and teachers: in fact, kindergartners who have had tough experiences score below-average in reading and math, even when other factors like household income and parental education are considered, a study published this year found. Those traumatized 5-year-olds also are three times more likely to have problems with paying attention, and two times more likely to show aggression.

What neuropsychologists have found is that traumatic experiences actually can alter children's brains. In times of great stress, or trauma, the brain activates its deeply instinctive, "fight, flight, or freeze" responses, while dialing down the areas of the brain where learning, especially around language, takes place. When this happens over and again, especially in children under age 5, the brain is fundamentally changed. Basically, it adapts for survival under the worst conditions.

"It's an appropriate adaptation to their circumstances," says Amanda Moreno, professor of early-child development at the Erikson Institute in Chicago. "But it comes at enormous cost to schooling, especially with the way we do schooling in this country, which is very standardized."

Traumatized 5-year-olds are three times more likely to have problems with paying attention, and two times more likely to show aggression.

Veteran Illinois special education teacher Kathi Ritchie knows what this looks like in a classroom: "You will see kids struggling with all areas of language, word retrieval, writing... memory suffers hugely. They tend to be forgetful. They don't remember content-area ideas that have been taught to them; the next day it's like they never were taught," she says. "The other thing that is huge is the behavior."

Living in a constant, fear-activated state of hyper-awareness means these children can be quick to rage, Ritchie has seen. In their subconscious efforts to self-protect, they often can be perceived as defiant, disrespectful or overly aggressive. Others may look like they're zoning out or drifting off, she says. "It can look like kids are shutting down, but their brain is telling them, 'you need to be safe.'"

Calming Colors, Safe Spaces, Mindfulness

So what's an educator to do? First, here's what not to do: Punish a child for showing the symptoms of a medical disorder. Trauma and stressor disorders can be found in the most up-to-date Bible of mental health disorders and diagnoses, the DSM-V, which means they are a real medical issue. Out-of-school suspensions are an inappropriate response and likely feed the school-to-prison pipeline.

Instead, what helps is to create a trauma-sensitive classroom where kids can feel safe and build resilience. Although Snelgrove no longer receives faxes from the local police because of revised confidentiality requirements, he hopes the "universal precautions" that Brockton teachers and education support professionals have embraced will catch any student who has experienced trauma.

Trauma-sensitive teachers often offer a "comfort zone" to their students, a safe space where kids can retreat and calm down. Sometimes it's as simple as a beanbag chair. Their classrooms also are neat and uncluttered. Think about how you feel coming home to a messy house, Snelgrove says. A little overwhelmed, right? It's worse for hyper-aroused children. Cool colors reign on the walls.

Ritchie also recommends teaching strategies that include predictable classroom routines with advance warning to students of any changes; asking students to repeat verbal instructions, using more written instructions, and also using visual prompts for multi-step directions, like a sticky post-it note on a desk. All students can benefit from short "movement breaks" every 30 minutes to "reframe the brain," she says.

Moreno's research currently involves the effects of mindfulness exercises on students in some of Chicago's roughest neighborhoods. Although her study is not yet complete, teachers and principals have told her that the time they are spending on mindfulness actually is leading to more time for instruction. Students refocus more quickly after transitions, and calm down after upsets. This makes classrooms more efficient, but it also helps with an even bigger goal: Helping children grow up to be healthy adults.

You will see kids struggling with all areas of language, word retrieval, writing... memory suffers hugely.

- Kathi Ritchie, special education teacher.

Apart from employing a mindfulness curricula, or classroom yoga practices, which also are gaining popularity, simply greeting students at the start of the day and "acknowledging their humanity" before diving into tasks will help, Moreno says. With all the demands placed on teachers, it can be difficult, even "radical," for teachers to slow down the pace of their classes and to take time with every student, but it will pay dividends, she says.

In Brockton, Snelgrove appreciates his district's leaders for investing in years of trauma-related training for teachers and education support professionals, and developing partnerships with police, mental health, and child welfare agencies. This isn't the stuff that appears on state-mandated standardized tests, he acknowledges. But it is the stuff that engages the "hearts and minds" of teachers and education support professionals, he says.

"We're not perfect, and I know we have a way to go, but when we talk about the 'whole child,' we mean it."

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How Trauma is Changing Children's Brains | NEA

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Understanding how severe stress affects students is the important first step in creating trauma-sensitive classrooms.

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