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Check out these titles: Balanced and Barefoot by Angela Hanscom and Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt 

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Check out these titles: Balanced and Barefoot by Angela Hanscom and Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt 

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Why Fostering Creativity in Early Childhood is Crucial 

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Why Fostering Creativity in Early Childhood is Crucial 

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Babies and young children are taking their first steps in creative exploration from birth as they begin to make connections and make sense of the world; they are natural explorers.
"Everyone has huge creative capacities; the challenge is to develop them".
Ken Robinson. [1]

The importance of play
"The truly great advances of this generation will be made by those who can make outrageous connections and only a mind which know how to play can do that."
Nagale Jackson. (American author and playwright).

Making these outrageous connections sounds like lots of fun! There is an overwhelming amount of evidence that young children learn and develop best through play, in fact play is often called the 'highest form of learning.' Through play babies and young children have the chance to develop their confidence, self-esteem, communication and core attitudes (or dispositions) to learning. While they are playing they can build upon their natural curiosity and their desire to explore and make sense of the world around them. These dispositions are attitudes and behaviours such as persistence, resilience, collaboration, and risk taking. These provide the foundations for learning. Through play and our support children will naturally develop the skills to cultivate their creativity.

Possibilities are generated by children (and adults) in all areas of learning, whether imaginative play, exploring music and composition, cooking, mark-making or writing, outdoor physical play, mathematical development or early understanding of the world. Possibility thinking is the means by which questions are posed and explored. One way to think about this is the way children are often considering the question 'What if?'. [3]

Cognitive skills is one of our six streams of development at My First Five Years. Creative play supports the development of cognition in multiple ways, predominantly, creative play allows young children the freedom to be able to explore their thoughts and feelings and come up with new and original ideas.

Research also supports creativity as a route of developing cognitive skills. Psychologist, Lev Vygotsky believed that creativity is present when any discovery is made, whether that is artistic, scientific, or technical. Vygotsky also believed that creativity was linked to previous experience, saying:

"...the more a child sees, hears, and experiences, the more he knows and assimilates, the more elements of reality he will have in his experience, and the more productive will be the operation of his imagination." [ 4 ].

This highlights how creativity and cognitive skills interlink through early childhood, how creativity supports cognition and vice versa. Supporting this, more recent research by Durham University also pointed to the importance of creativity across different aspects of development and growth, saying:

"Exposure to a creative learning environment helps children to develop physically, socially, emotionally and cognitively. Creative opportunities stimulate young children's curiosity, creativity and imagination, and support the development of communication skills; being creative helps children to cope with their feelings and fears and to manage their emotional states and develop positive dispositions towards challenge, change and self-initiated learning." [ 5 ]

Social psychologist , Graham Wallas, offered the idea that creative development follows stages. He named and described these as:

Preparation:

This is known as the 'planning' stage of creativity, where the thinker readies themselves to think through what they are going to do.

Incubation:

This stage is described as 'unconscious processing'. The incubation stage is where the thinker steps back to contemplate their creative goal, or planned outlet.

Illumination:

The illumination stage is the moment where everything falls into place for the thinker, it is easy to think of this stage as the 'lightbulb moment' of the creative process.

Verification:

This is the final step of the creative process, and the part where everything is tied together. The verification stage is where the thinker finalises their ideas, and may evaluate what they have done. [6 ]

These stages are flexible and children can move forward and backwards, as they think, explore, encounter barriers, return to think and explore again. This process involves the resilience to keep going!

In her work on creativity with babies and toddlers, Early years expert, Professor Tina Bruce proposes the idea of 'cultivating' creativity, emphasising the role of adults in supporting rather than imposing ideas. This acknowledges the vital role that parents and other adults play can play in the early years by following the child's lead as they investigate and explore. Bruce argues that, without sensitive engagement with children, "emergent possibilities for creativity that are in every child do not develop or can be quickly extinguished." [7]

Positive interactions allow the child to take the lead and let them be in charge of their play and explorations. When children have the space to make their own decisions and choices, they will develop creative dispositions. It can be hard not to step in with a cautionary word or a piece of advice but children need the freedom to take risks and make mistakes.

There is often a dilemma between structure and freedom, which is individual to each parent and child. The balance perhaps is found by careful watching and reflecting, and often subject to adjusting your interactions based on your child's responses. It's a learning curve for everyone.

When we are thinking about encouraging creativity, we are really talking about encouraging the thinking skills that lead us in the direction of creativity. These skills are creative-thinking skills (essentially generating ideas) and critical-thinking skills (thinking as children analyse and reflect upon what they are experiencing). Talking together can be important for developing these as part of a collaborative process, supporting children to keep their flow and enthusiasm.

"Creativity is contagious - pass it on."
Albert Einstein

Fewer plans, more time

Outdoor nature play

Nature can provide wonderful inspiration for children's creative explorations. It is a changing landscape that offers lots to explore, from playing with shadows, creating with natural loose parts or exploring and experimenting with sand, water and mud. It's a great way to relax too and notice and connect with nature, the clouds, birds, insects, new shoots and leaves. Older children could draw, take photographs or collect some of the things they see, and this might inspire further explorations. Exploring the natural world is a wonderful way to promote problem-solving and imaginative play. Your child can use outdoor resources to explore, mark-make (the creation of patterns and shapes), make arrangements with pebbles, or even create habitats for creatures that they see in the garden with things that they find.

Loose parts - searching and collecting

Loose parts are simply collections of objects that can be moved and combined, in a temporary way. There is no pre-determined way of playing with them, instead, the possibilities of how they are used are open-ended and determined by the child. Encourage your child to go on journeys to search and collect, choosing things that appeal to them and from this they can create a collection. For example, pebbles, sticks, buttons, blocks of wood, fabrics, lids, containers etcetera all make great loose parts.

Mark-making

Offer your baby or child different media for making marks, on different surfaces and on different scales. Children often enjoy the sensory and physical aspects of mark-making. Outdoor mark-making is great fun too and offers different possibilities. For example, children could draw swirls in sand or soil with their fingers. As children get older, drawing is an opportunity for children to represent their thoughts and ideas and 'get them down on paper' in an open-ended way. In this way, they can make their thoughts and ideas visible, which helps you to understand and engage with their thinking. You may notice themes emerging in these marks which you can talk about together, such as enclosures or map-making.

Shake up the environment!

Shaking up and changing your usual home or garden environment is a great way to spark curiosity. Perhaps you could move some furniture from its usual position, to create a tunnel behind an armchair or sofa, or build a den with a clothes airer. It's great for children to explore the possibility of using something in a novel, unusual or different way. Similarly, perhaps hang some sheets in the garden and watch how they move in the wind, or explore some shadows.

Malleable materials

Malleable materials are simply materials that children can shape themselves, perhaps by pulling, stretching, pushing, roll ing , squeez ing, poking or pinching. Playdough or clay is great for this. You could make your own playdough and combine this with twigs, straws, stones, lids or feathers. Simple tools from around the house can be introduced alongside the malleable materials, developing children's coordination and agility. You could use items such as garlic presses, pastry r ollers and spoons.

Imaginative play

More open-ended play and creative-thinking can be sparked by providing a range of 'open-ended' items to allow children to create their own 'what-ever-they-want-it-to-be' play. This could be anything from old cardboard boxes, plain rolls of old wallpaper and old pieces of fabric.

Sharing stories

Sharing stories together orally and with books often sparks the imagination. Stories can be explored in an active way through play and costume. For instance, if your child loves the story of 'The Three Little Pigs', seek out materials to build your own little pigs house together, and take turns " huffing, puffing and blowing the house down" as the Big Bad Wolf.

Further information

At My First Five Years, we will keep reading the research about child development and sharing this through our app. The app will support you to notice and celebrate your child's individual journey as they  master  skills during their first five years. You can remember and celebrate these skills using the scrapbook and read more about the science behind the skills through further reading and longer explanations.

References:

[1] Robinson, K. (2010) The Element; How finding your passion changes everything. Penguin.

[2] Moorehouse. P (2020) Online; https://irresistible-learning.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Creativity-with-young-Children-Guidence-for-parents.pdf

[3] Craft, A. (2001) Little c Creativity. In A. Craft, B. Jeffrey and M. Leibling Creativity in Education, London: Continuum.

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Why creativity is important in early child development

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Creativity is a key part of learning new skills when it comes to early years development. Throughout the first few years of a child's life, they will be taking their first steps in creative exploration.

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60 Fun and Easy Process Art Ideas for Kids 🎨

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Process Art Ideas for Kids. Fun and easy process art and craft activities for toddlers, preschoolers and kindergarteners.

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What is Process Art and why is it important?

Process Art is art that is child-directed, choice-driven, and celebrates the experience of discovery. In process art, the final product is always unique and the focus lies in the creation of the work, not the outcome.

What we're going to cover...
The benefits of process art How the process art approach benefits adults Why this is the best approach for preschool art How to Get Started with Process Art The differences between process art and product art Process art is... Product art is... What materials are used in process art projects? What is an example of process art? Common Pitfalls with Process Art How do you teach process art in early childhood? Favorite process art activities for kids
What are the benefits of process art?

There are so many benefits to process art! Process art is developmentally appropriate for toddlers, preschoolers, and young children because it meets them where they are as sensory explorers.

Through process art, children...

will have more opportunities for creativity, independence, and imagination

will learn about the physical limitations and possibilities of materials.

are encouraged to use creative and critical thinking skills.

will gain confidence to realize their own ideas.

are motivated to ask questions and experiment.

will embrace experimentation and mistakes as part of the learning process.

How the process art approach benefits adults

As much as process art is age appropriate and engaging toddlers and preschoolers, parents and early childhood educators generally find that it is easier to facilitate than product-focussed art lessons because it aligns naturally with child development.

Here are a few reasons why:

Adults facilitate projects and act as co-learners, so they don't have to hold all the answers. In fact, not knowing the answers can be a huge benefit because it gives adults room to play and experiment themselves.

Process-focussed projects don't require a lot of fancy set up or unique materials that are hard to come by. This saves both time and money.

Because the goal of process art is to explore and discover, rather than achieve perfection, adults are also emotionally free to support whatever the child dreams up as an ideal solution or end result. No fighting, tears, or half-completed projects.

Why this is the best approach for preschool art

After reading up on all these amazing benefits are you still wondering if process art is the best way to teach art to toddlers, preschoolers, and kids?

There are plenty of good reasons to introduce kids to crafts projects, namely connecting to history and culture, developing hand-eye coordination, learning skills like paper folding, and bonding with family members or friends over craft traditions.

Crafts have their place and I happen to love them, even for kids. But when it comes down to helping children think like artists and inventors, process art, rich with open ended explorations that follow the child's interests, is always the way to go.

How to Get Started with Process Art

Offer self-serve supplies that the child can easily use independently

Allow children to come and go as they please

Provide interesting art materials

Allow the child to follow his or her interests

Keep the focus on open-ended activities that don't have just one outcome

Be playful and joyful in the art-making process

Ask open-ended questions and make objective comments about the child's artwork

The differences between process art and product art

Sometimes I'll hear people talk about process art versus product art as if they're opposing ideas. In some sense they are, and I'll explain what that's about in a moment. First, however, I'd like to dispel a myth that process and product can't work together, when in fact they can!

When people pit process against product, they're generally referring to how children make art. Process art's goals relate to what happens during the art sessions, while product art's goals relate to the final outcome.

Something I'd like you to keep in mind with all of this is that we shouldn't think about process and product as polar opposites because product is almost always embedded in process. When a child goes through the process of making a work of art, it's likely that he or she has an idea, question, curiosity, or even product in his or her mind. It may not be evident to us as viewers, but there's always an intention behind the process, and sometimes that intention connects to a final product.

This isn't really what people are getting at, however, when they talk about process versus product. The debate is actually about the intention behind the art experience itself. Let's take a look at the breakdown in terms of how a process project and a product project might look...

Process Art...

is child-directed

celebrates the experience of discovery

has unique outcomes with no two pieces looking alike

is open-ended with multiple avenues for discovery

Product Art...

is adult driven

offers the child clear steps that have to be followed

expects the final product to look like a sample

what you might think of as crafts projects

has expectations around a right and wrong way to do it

What materials are used in process art projects?

Any and all materials can be used in process art. It's less about what is used and more about how it's used, but I do have a tip for assembling a successful process art prompt. Gather supplies that fall into four different categories and you'll have something fabulous to play with: base, connector, tool, and treasure

The base: paper, clay, cardboard, or wood, cardboard rolls,

Connectors: glue, yarn, tape, slip (mushy wet clay)

Tools: a pencil, paint brush and paint, fork, sponges, crayon, skewer, markers, scissors

Treasures: foil, tissue paper, bubble wrap, beads, sequins

Example #1: clay, slip, skewer, bubble wrap

Example #2: cardboard, hot glue gun, tempera paint sticks, foil
9 Process Art Projects from TinkerLab
What is an example of process art?

Maybe it would help to see this type of open ended making actually looks like with toddlers, preschoolers, and kids? Let's take a look to see what ideas children have when given the opportunity to create with materials, with no product oriented expectation in mind.

Large sheet of paper (base) + washi tape (connector and treasure) + crayons (tool)

This started as an invitation to create with a bundle of three crayons, connected together with a loop of washi tape. The child had no interest in drawing with a crayon bundle, deconstructed it by removing the tape, asked for more tape, and made this energetic composition with crayon and tape. Marvelous!

Paper (base) + stencil (tool)+ office stickers (connector and treasure)+ markers (tool)+ paint brushes with paint (tool) colored pencils (tool)

Although this is a semi-realistic illustration inspired by the stencil, the child was not guided to do anything specific and this is the direction they chose to take this in.

Clay (base and connector) + Beads and Buttons (treasure and tool)

Notice how the beads double as a treasure and mark-making tool. The child decided to pull all the beads and buttons out when they were done, returning the clay to its original state. There was literally no product with this creation, as it all got returned to the art shelf when they were done.

Heavy paper (base) + White glue and paint brush (connector) + Tissue paper (treasure), Marker (tool - off camera)

In this example, notice how two children used the same materials to create two entirely different outcomes. On the left, an organized design with symmetrical balance. On the right, a whimsical animal is taking shape.

If you're digging this topic, I wrote this fun piece for Americans for the Arts that I think you'll enjoy: Process over Product: Building Creative Thinkers Through Art.

Common Pitfalls with Process Art

There's not much you can do wrong with this kind of art making because children lead the way once the materials are laid out. However, getting to that place where we simply step back can be hard for a lot of people. Here are three things that can block a good process art experience:

Don't stop your child to tell them what you think they should do. Instead, just pause, take a deep breath, and give your child room to keep making. You can ask them to tell you more about what they're doing. Usually this little bit of information helps us see their intention, reminding us they're on the right track.

Don't doubt the process. Maybe you thought your child would use the materials one way, but they're doing something else, and you think: "This is not working. They're not learning anything. What's the point of all of this?" This is a totally normal reaction to process art. Instead, trust the process. If you're not sure where it's all leading, ask your child to tell you more about their ideas. I promise you'll be amazed at what they have to share.

Take off your perfection hat. Cookie cutter projects are now a thing of the past. Paper may be cut at a crooked angle, white spaces may show through quick paint strokes, and lines might be draw so faint that you can barely see them. What you see in your child's work may not live up to your expectations, and instead please just change your expectations. Notice the beauty of the wobbly lines, the personality of the paint strokes, and the energy behind the novice cut lines. Tell yourself how beautiful and charming it all is, and look for evidence of your child's imagination, ideas, and curiosities.

How do you teach process art in early childhood?

Use the tips offered in this post and you'll be well on your way to leading meaningful process art experiences! If you could use a little more assistance, helping families and teachers find easy ways to bring process art to life is my jam and I'd love to welcome you into our tight knit community as a member of our subscription program, TinkerLab Schoolhouse, where we go deeper into process art and you'll gain access to a library of hundreds of playful prompts.

Favorite process art activities for kids

Now that you know more about process art, let's dive into some process art projects that you can try today:
Watercolor Paint on Doilies: Process Art with a Beautiful Outcome - ages 3 and up Collage with Leaves, Glue, and Cardboard - ages 3 and up Sticking Tape to Paper Bags - ages 2 and up Office Stickers inside a Drawn Frame - ages 2 and up Cookie Sheet Monoprints with Tempera Paint - ages 2 and up Shaving cream & food coloring - ages 2 and up

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A Complete Guide To Process Art For Kids - TinkerLab

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Process art is all about creating something new by experimenting with different materials and seeing what happens. Even the process itself is the final piece. Here's how to make it work.

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Encouraging Creative Process Art at Home 

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Encouraging Creative Process Art at Home 

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In this blog post, we'll explore why process art matters, what it looks like and how it can transform your child's creative experience. I'll also share practical tips for incorporating process art into your home, even if you think you aren't naturally creative.

By the end of this read, you'll understand the profound impact process art can have on raising creative kids.

Process art is engaging and exploring with art for the creative process and the joy of creating rather than getting an end product. Unlike traditional art projects where the goal is to create a perfect frame-worthy masterpiece, process art emphasizes exploration, experimentation, and expression. Children are encouraged to use various materials and techniques to create their own unique works without any set expectations or guidelines.
Art is a process, not a product - Maryann F. Kohl
What are the differences between process-focused art versus product-focused art? Are both good and necessary for our children? Is one better than the other?

The product vs process art debate has been around for a long time and the truth is- there is value in both.

Process art centres around the creative experience. It is usually -

Self-directed by the child with little to no direction

Allows the freedom for self-discovery and creativity

No expectation for the end result

Very relaxed and free of pressure

Product art on the other hand centres around skill development. As such, it often involves -

Adults giving directions/ setting expectations

Clear step-by-step instructions to be followed

A clear vision in mind for the end result

Little to no room for creativity

Whilst product-focused art centres around skill development, it can oftentimes lead to pressure and comparison, stifling creativity and self-expression. Process art however encourages children to enjoy the act of creating and to feel proud of their efforts, no matter what the final piece looks like. So, while both types of art have their place, focusing on the process can really help children grow, be creative, and feel happy.

As a child, I used to both hate and fear art (though honestly, it was more fear than hate). I would freeze and have a small panic attack looking at a blank piece of paper 😣 In school, I was often graded poorly in art, which honestly makes no sense at all since art is subjective. Friends and family would look at my pictures and tell me they looked nothing like what they were supposed to be -

"Dog?! It looks more like a mouse", "Chicken? That's the funniest chicken I've ever seen" they'd laugh kindly. I'd laugh along with them, and brush aside all the hurt that came along with it. So yes, art brought up lots of feelings for me, hate, fear, but mostly a deep sense of shame and not being good enough.

As a result of that, I never saw myself as creative and steered as far away as I could from "creative endeavours" as I thought I sucked at it. And that seeped into so many other aspects of my life - the unwillingness to give things a go, the fear of failure, the constant fear of judgment and what people would think. But most importantly - low self-confidence and self-esteem as I never felt that I was good at anything.

It was only years later when I was studying to become an early childhood teacher and had to take an art elective and learnt about process art that I discovered - art isn't something you're good or bad at. Instead, it is a means of expressing yourself, exploring and testing out ideas, working through emotions and problem-solving. This new perspective of art changed how I viewed myself and my kids - capable and creative, although the inner conversations within myself took longer to change and it's still a work in progress.

And it led to me -

✅ Intentionally making time and space for art in our home

✅ Creating a designated art space for our children

✅ Giving them access to art materials

✅ Offering them opportunities to get creative by engaging with process art

So much so, our art space has become the favourite play space in our home. My children have gained so many invaluable and wonderful skills as a result of us making them and space for art in our home, top of which is the ability to play creatively and independently. And that's why I'm so passionate about process art and helping families especially kids enjoy creating art.

It's not about raising the next Picasso. But I believe that through engaging with art, children become creative thinkers. By intentionally making space both literally and metaphorically in our children's lives for more creativity, we are equipping them with lifelong skills and a creative confidence that will stay with them throughout their lives.

With that said, here are my top 5 reasons why process art deserves a spot in your home too:
1. Encourages creativity and individuality
Process art gives our children the freedom to experiment and explore without adhering to a specific template or example. Through process art, they can let their imagination run free, creating anything and everything that comes to mind. They can think outside the box, and share their unique thoughts and feelings! When they aren't confined by predetermined outcomes, they can discover their unique style and create artwork that truly reflects who they are.
2. Supports emotional development
Process art provides children with a safe space to express their feelings, thoughts and ideas, helping them to better understand, manage and regulate their emotions.
3. Enhances problem-solving skills
Process art encourages children to engage in trial and error, fostering critical thinking and problem-solving skills. As they experiment with various materials and techniques, they will encounter unexpected challenges that require them to adapt, make decisions, and innovate, all of which are critical life skills.
4. Builds confidence and resilience
By focusing on the process of creating rather than the end result, process art teaches children that the value lies in the act of creating. This will help them become more comfortable with taking risks and making mistakes and encourage them to keep experimenting and trying new things. They become more resilient, understanding that mistakes are part of learning and that improvement comes with practice. This mindset will help them in all aspects of life, fostering a love for learning and personal growth.
5. Developing cognitive skills
When children are engaged in process art, they develop an array of skills (often without us realizing it). For example during the scribbling stage, they are exploring creating lines, dots and various pre-writing shapes. They are also exploring how best to hold the crayons to give them the most grip and to make a stronger mark on the paper, a skill they will need for writing. For preschoolers, they might be learning about the science of colour mixing and creating their own unique colours from primary colours.

It's easy to dismiss the little things as "oh it's just scribbles", or "She's just playing". But play is a child's most important work and the way they learn and discover about their world and develop important life skills.

At the end of the day, a piece of paper with scribbles and lots of messy browns may or may not be trashed or recycled, and there might be nothing concrete to show for their days filled with play, but the skills and things she learns in the process belong to them forever.
Set up a home art space
The very first thing you need to do is to set up an art space. It doesn't have to be fancy, Pinterest-like, or huge. It just needs to be comfortable, conducive, and a place where messes are welcome. Because yes, the mess is normal 🙂
Check out my dedicated home art space here 🙂 Offer a variety of art materials
Next, offer a variety of art materials as this allows children to experiment and explore different textures, colors, and techniques, sparking their creativity and imagination. I've written this blog about 13 mess-free art supplies that you might find helpful.
Provide ample time and opportunities to create and explore
It's also important to provide children with ample time and opportunities to create and explore. The most aesthetic art space and quality art materials will do nothing if we don't give them the time and encouragement they need to engage in art. Our children need us to make space in their day for creativity, to cheer them on, and to show them that we value their creative process.

For some inspiration of simple art invitations you can offer, check out these invitations to create blog posts for ideas to get you started:
7 Creative Painting Invitations for Toddlers (with minimum set-up time) 5 Creative Ways to Reuse Toddlers with Process Art Engage in process art alongside your child
Whenever my kids are working on a piece of artwork, I love to sit beside them to engage in some creating of my own. Now, I am by no means an artist nor do I think I have artistic talent to boast of. But I want to make sure that my kids SEE me engaging in, valuing, and enjoying the creative activities myself.
1. What materials are best for process art with young children?
I personally go for safe, non-toxic, and easy-to-clean materials. Think watercolours, finger paints, and washable tempera paints for painting. Crayons, markers, and coloured pencils are great choices for drawing. Simple tools like paintbrushes, sponges, cotton swabs, playdough, clay, glue sticks, and natural items like leaves and twigs are perfect for little hands and offer endless possibilities for creativity! Looking for materials that would be suitable for toddlers? Here's my favourite 13 mess-free art supplies.
2. How can I get my child to stop wasting art materials?
I get where this is coming from friend as I feel the same about wastage. But I'm also an educator and can see all the value of our children "wasting" materials. My greatest tip is to limit the amount of materials and variety you offer. Less is more. You don't need an overflowing supply of art materials in order for your child to engage in process art.
3. What if my child loses interest quickly?
It can be frustrating, I know, but remember kids love exploring! Offering a variety of materials and rotating them to keep things fresh can help in keeping them interested. Start with short art sessions and gradually increase the time as their interest grows. The goal is to make it enjoyable and pressure-free 🙂
4. How can I introduce new art techniques or materials?
Introducing new art techniques or materials can be super exciting for kids! Start by showing them how to use the new materials or techniques. Keep it simple and fun, encouraging them to explore and experiment on their own. You can begin with a small, guided project to get them comfortable, then let them create freely.
5. How do I deal with the mess?
Let's be frank here- there will be a mess when it comes to toddlers engaging in process art. My tip is to reframe your mindset about the mess. Look beyond the mess, and see the learning and experiences your child gains when engaging in process art. One of my mantras is "Bless the mess!!" I shared my tips on managing mess during process art in this post.
A final note
Engaging in process art experiences at home is so much more than "just art". It's instilling in them a creative confidence that will stay with them for the rest of their lives 🙂 Just as Rome wasn't built in one day, children need to be given countless opportunities to learn how to use materials appropriately and independently and to nurture their creativity. If we don't give them the chance to freely explore and make messes, they won't have the opportunity to learn.

I hope you have been inspired to give process art a go. Can't wait to see what you'll create!

Ps. Excited to dive into process art and want some fun and engaging process art activities to try with your child? Check out Little Art Yurt Club here 🙂

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Why Process Art Matters: Encouraging Creativity in Kids - Stories of Play

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Discover the importance of process art in fostering creativity and self-expression in children. Learn how to create a supportive art environment at home, encouraging exploration and confidence through practical tips and insights.

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Loose Parts Provocations in Action: Ronnie's Preschool 

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Loose Parts Provocations in Action: Ronnie's Preschool 

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5 Simple Play Invitations with Loose Parts

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This guide is loaded with ideas, inventory lists, and resources to support you in conveying the learning that is happening while children play!

I only want creativity filling your inbox, so you'll see inspiration and support dropping in...but not too much!
We respect your privacy. Unsubscribe at any time.

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5 Simple Invitations To Play - cultivatingconfidence.ca

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Dive into these easy invitations to play using the same 10 loose parts. Discover engaging loose parts play ideas for toddlers & preschoolers.

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This guide is loaded with ideas, inventory lists, and resources to support you in conveying the learning that is happening while children play!

I only want creativity filling your inbox, so you'll see inspiration and support dropping in...but not too much!
We respect your privacy. Unsubscribe at any time.

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Loose Parts Storage Designed For Creativity - cultivatingconfidence.ca

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Find simple and affordable ways for loose parts storage ideas that will keep increase their open-endedness and creativity.

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If you are interested in loose parts play, you may well have wondered how to best support it outside.

How easily can it be achieved? What resources or skills do you need to get it going? What does loose parts play outside look like? What storage or budget may you need? Is it all worth it, and what benefits will it provide?

This full guide will answer all of these questions and more.

First, let me assure you that using loose parts play outside has numerous benefits. Some of the obvious ones include:

It is quite cheap to set up

It requires very little daily setting up

The same resources can be used multiple times in different ways without the children getting bored

It is an open-ended form of learning, and stimulates holistic development

Children can get fully involved and focussed

It can provide experiences across the curriculum

It is fantastic at developing independence, vocabulary, PSED, and many other skills

Providing a learning environment that will stimulate loose parts play outdoors is relatively simple.

Let's find out how to get started.

What Is Loose Parts Play?

First, let's just quickly describe what loose parts play is, just so you definitely know.

Loose parts play is playing with objects that have no fixed purpose. For example, is you are playing with a stick it could be a:

And many, many more things. Basically it is play with objects where the child gets to use them in no pre-defined way.

This type of play has multiple benefits for children. To give yourself a complete overview of the benefits of loose parts, as well as looking at what this looks like in reality, then why not check out my article - 14 Benefits of Loose Parts With Examples.

Why Outside?

The beauty of loose parts is that it works equally well either indoors or outside.

In fact I know many practitioners that use it much more outside. The reasons it works so well outside include:

Outdoor learning works well as more open-ended than indoor learning in many settings

Loose parts really support the natural outdoor instincts to build, climb and create

There is a sense of scale that provides real excitement to children, that it is hard to replicate indoors.

As children develop through school, the indoor learning environment will usually become more structured and focussed, with specific learning intentions. This is less often the case with outdoor learning. The open-endedness of loose parts play is perfect in exploring more free learning.

What Does Outdoor Loose Parts Involve?

In finding objects that will work well outdoors for loose parts, it is a good idea to think about the size. Simply put, outdoor play gives the opportunity to use things on a big scale.

You have more space to move and create large models.

There is the opportunity to build longer, wider and taller.

You can roll and manipulate objects over a wider area.

In short, outdoors = big!

A range of loose parts objects can be used in many different ways outside - for building, den-making, story creation, art, science, and many, many other ways as well.

What Resources Do You Need?

OK, let's get down to the nitty gritty.

A lot of the best resources for outdoor loose parts will require little or no money. It is more a case of time and a bit of imagination. If you want to have a look at the kinds of resources that are great for loose parts in general then I have written an article with at least 100 ideas for materials you could use for loose parts play which you can check out here.

It really is a case of getting out there and seeing what you can find.

Beg from shops, borrow from local businesses.

You might be able to approach local businesses with the story of your setting. Many businesses are keen to help local educators. If you can't find things, there is always the option of buying them.

Some excellent outdoor loose parts include some of the following:

Boxes - These may be wooden, cardboard or similar. Ideally wooden boxes should be strong enough to be stood on

Crates - These are a fantastic resource that will last a very long time. Beg or borrow from places like dairies, or from local shops. Or you can buy them from educational catalogues. They are excellent for building walkways, dens, and general construction

Tyres - Again these can be sourced very cheaply, if not for free. Garages or tyre companies are the place to ask for them. You can get tyres of different sizes, and its great if you can. A selection of car tyres, bicycle tyres, truck tyres, and even potentially bigger would be perfect. Tyres are great for building, rolling, vehicle role-play and many more things

Tubes - If you know a plumber then happy days! Scrapyards are another possibility for this kind of resource. Tubes are great for water play, and can also be used to roll things down. They can take on all sorts of roles in children's open-ended play

Wheels - This could be things like tricycle wheels, or wheels off old bikes. Parents may be happy to donate some things from this list, and these could definitely be one

Materials

Sheets - These can be used in all sorts of ways. Great for mark-making with loose parts (such as used different objects to paint with on the sheets). They are also excellent for building dens, and using them in construction

Tree logs - Great for climbing, building and using as pretend vehicles (to name just a few ways). They could be found in a forest.

Wooden blocks - Big wooden blocks provide all manner of open-ended learning experiences. Great for enhancing role-play and small world experiences, building, or simple representative play.

Planks - These are great for making all sorts of weird and wonderful walkways, towers and the like. They are great used in conjunction with crates, boxes, gutters and other things

Pipes - This is another one that could be sourced from scrap yards, builders yards, a local plumber, or any other range of sources.

Large sticks - A very simple resource, but one of the most popular amongst children, and something that can be used in a staggeringly large number of ways.

Gutters - These are fantastic for all sorts of open-ended STEM experiences. Roofing companies may be able to provide some, or keep some for you next time they remove some old ones from someone's house.

These items that I have listed are all open-ended.

They can all be used by children for constructing, designing, problem solving, experimenting and testing their ideas.

Where to source materials from is always a big challenge, especially if you are on a tight budget. If you are based in the UK, then I would really recommend that you check out our training course Outdoors on a Budget.

Top Tip - For any outdoor loose parts material, ask yourself will this stimulate children's own ideas and imagination, and can the objects be used in lots of different ways?

Storage

Space for storage is a big problem for lots of settings. However, there are many reasonably simple and economic solutions.

One good and cheap idea is using a probagator storage unit found in garden centres or DIY stores. These have shelving which is great for plant pots containing small loose parts. They also come with a cover so they can be left outside.

Try to find storage that is easy for children to access themselves (and also to enable them to tidy away themselves!).

Hunting around charity shops is a great way of finding some of the following which are excellent as storage solutions:

Wicker baskets

Crates

Old chests

Suitcases

Shelving units

Metal pots

Many schools and nurseries now used crates screwed to the wall as a simple, cheap and aesthetic storage providers.

Storying loose parts for babies is best done in wicker baskets (either indoors or outside). To find out more about treasure baskets, including what they are and how to use them, then check this out.

Top Tips For Storage

Store loose parts at the child's height
Ensure outdoor storage solutions are suitable for all conditions

Children will have access to some loose parts all the time, and others stored away

Start small in areas and expand the amount of loose parts over time

Use aesthetically pleasing units and storage solutions if possible

How To Get Started

Right, so you know what outdoors loose parts play is, and also you've got some equipment to start it. What do you now need to do to get started?

There are a few tips to follow when you start using loose parts in either the indoor or outside environment.

These include:

Start small. Don't overwhelm the children with lots of brand new resources all at once. Start with a small selection and get them used to them first.

Model some ways of using the equipment, and play alongside them. Although loose parts will hopefully be more child-led when the children get the idea, it can take some introducing to feed them with ideas and confidence to start with. This is particularly the case if children are not used to loose parts learning experiences.

Model safety. Monitor how they use things like sticks carefully, and praise sensible practice

Risk assess all objects that you bring into the setting

Slowly build up the bank of resources as they gain exposure and confidence.

Have big outdoor loose parts available to them all the time

Have some loose parts that might be more of a special treat, and not available continually

We devote a big section to outdoor loose parts play in our book 'Loose Parts Play - A Beginner's Guide'. This is the ultimate guide to getting started with loose parts play successfully, and is packed with over 100 inspirational ideas. You can check out the book on Amazon here.

What Does Outdoor Loose Parts Play Look Like?

Here are some examples of the kind of thing that you might want to model, or hope to observe in children...

Construction

Children can use a range of objects to build:

Dens

Walkways

Towers

Castles

Vehicles such as aeroplanes, trains or buses

Superhero bases

Outdoor Investigating

This could be:

Exploring floating and sinking with loose parts in a water tray

Exploring shadows with random objects

Exploring gravity by rolling objects down tubes, gutters or pipes

To find out a whole load more science loose parts play ideas then take a look at this article.

Outdoor Role-Play

Children can use the objects in all sorts of ways, for example:

In making homes for real or imaginary characters, e.g. the gingerbread man

Using props to support their play, e.g. sticks for skis

Creating vehicles to go on trips to faraway lands, or recreate trips they have really been on

To engage in the old classic - superhero play! They can create spiderman's webs, or the superhero base. I wrote a whole article about 12 outdoor superhero play activities that you can read here.

Art

They can use objects to create transient art, such as portraits on the floor

They can create models and other creations

Physical Development

Children will be developing a range of physical skills through outdoor loose parts play. Some things you might see include:

Making obstacle courses. They really enjoy making these. They build all sorts of walkways and obstacles and then you can have races with your friends. They sometimes like to add a narrative to the obstacle course, such as they are freeing someone from a baddy.

The build using big loose parts and then will try to climb up them, balance on the top, and walk along them

They build dens using all sorts of objects. Often they will run between dens, or go on missions where the den is the base to which they return.

They roll, lift, balance, stack, and engage in all sorts of physical skills in multi-purpose ways.

Maths

Loose parts are excellent for developing many maths skills including:

You get to understand the different weights and lengths of different objects

You find out which objects roll and which don't

You explore the architecture of shape in reality when you build

There are multiple opportunities for counting objects, and calculating - e.g. I need one more brick to finish the tower.

I have created a free ebook called '50 Outdoor Number Activities On A Budget.' This contains a whole host of outdoor math ideas in it, that you can download for free from here.

Outdoor maths is one of the most exciting ways to teach number skills, and you can find out 50 of the best outdoor maths activities here.

Outdoor Loose Parts Play At Different Ages

Outdoor loose parts play will look different depending on the age of the child. Here is a brief guide as to what it might look like:

Babies - Explore treasure baskets in an outdoor setting. To find out more about treasure basket play then check this out.

Children Aged 1-2 - Heuristic play using a range of everyday objects. Children can explore, investigate, and find out about the objects by moving them around in a given space.

Children Aged 2-5 - A range of more complex loose parts play experiences will be witnessed involving learning opportunities across the whole curriculum. There will be teamwork, and interacting with others (for the majority of children)

Children Aged 6+ - Children can still enjoy a range of big-scale adventurous loose parts experiences. These can be linked to opportunities to support other areas of the curriculum, such as literacy (though this is not essential)

Risk In Outdoor Play

Although loose parts play is not necessarily a very risky business, it is important to be aware of any risks that might happen when children engage in it outside.

Risky play is important for children. If you want to learn more about risky play activities for kids then some good articles to read are these:
-25 Examples Of Risky Play
-21 Benefits Of Risky Play

Some of these risksof outdoor loose parts include:

Building thing and falling off them

Towers and constructions collapsing on them

Getting stuck inside things

Being hit by objects (either accidentally or on purpose)

Be aware of any children that are prone to throwing things, and try to monitor them.

The other things can normally be managed by just being aware of the risks, and getting children to think about them if they might occur.

It is not really a case of stopping children doing things all the time. It is more a case of getting them to think about their safety and that of others, and how this can best promoted.

To understand more about how to manage risk in loose parts play, then I recommend that you read this.

Benefits Of Risk For Children

There are numerous benefits for children in experiencing risk in play. Some of these include:

Risky play is thrilling! It is exciting and can make children feel alive.

They develop a healthy attitude to risk. Risk is an essential part of life. Studies have suggested that if children do not experience enough risk in their early lives it can either lead them to becoming risk averse, or alternatively even a risk-junky in later life!

Risk can help children develop strong bonds with others. When several children take on a risky task together it strengthens the communication and the sense of teamwork between them

They get to develop their sense of power and independence. In risky play children start to understand that they are in control of their own lives and their own decisions.

Even though, as I say, risky play is not really too risky by any stretch of the imagination, it can contain just an element of risk, and that is definitely a positive thing.

The Next Level

If you are passionate about loose parts play, and want to get started with it as successfully as possible, then check out our online course 'Project Loose Parts'. This is a two-hour video course run by myself and Debby Stevens, demonstrating more than one-hundred practical provocations.

We also show you the step-by-step process to follow to successfully get set up with loose parts and avoid any of the many mishaps and pitfalls. You can find our 'Project Loose Parts' course page here.

Conclusion

Loose parts play lends itself brilliantly to outdoor learning. In the outdoors children have the space and freedom to really explore open-ended objects on a big scale, and let their imaginations really run wild.

They often get fully involved and engaged, and this develops skills across the whole curriculum and the whole child. Good luck with the outdoor loose parts!

Did You Know?

If you are reading this and live in the UK, you might want to check out our Loose Parts Play practical training course that we run at venues throughout England and Wales. This is open to both parents and educators. Here is a link to a description of that course.

This article is an expanded extracted from the book 'Loose Parts Play - A Beginner's Guide' written by myself and my colleague Debby Stevens. This book provides a full, yet simple guide to setting up an outstanding loose parts culture in your home or educational setting with children aged 0-5. To check out the book on Amazon, then follow this link

Martin Williams

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Loose Parts Play Outdoors - Resources, Ideas, Tips | Early Impact Learning

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If you are interested in loose parts play, you may well have wondered how to best support it outside. How easily can it be achieved? What resources or skills do you need to get it going? What does loose parts play outside look like? What storage or budget may you need?

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Providing open ended play materials allows children the opportunity to be curious, creative and direct their own play. There are no rules or expectations for how a play item must be used, no specific steps to follow, no right or wrong way, no ultimate goal to reach or achieve.

An environment filled with safe, yet challenging open ended materials that provide ongoing opportunities for open ended play in the early years is vitally important. It encourages dramatic play, language skills, role play, problem solving, teamwork, games, experimenting with cause and effect, trial and error and builds creative thinking. It is also a very budget friendly way for educators and parents to provide play resources as simple is best and you can use many recycled materials.

So what are these magical open ended play materials that can offer all of those wonderful learning outcomes? To put it very simply they are basically just materials you might introduce that have no specific set of directions to follow. There is no particular right or wrong way to use them and they can be used alone or combined with other materials.

Unlike the electronic toy or game that might do a couple of set things when you press the buttons or the train that only goes around the track in a circle a child can decide how they want to manipulate the open ended material and build upon their own play. They become the scientists, engineers, inventors, artists, explorers and clever investigators.

Children of all ages can move, carry, redesign, recreate and combine open ended materials in any way that they want. They might decide to work alone with the materials or in a group and essentially, children become active participants in their own learning. Offering access to these type of materials everyday also supports children's early years schemas - those patterns and repeated behaviours children display often as they learn through their play.

Open ended materials have always formed a core part of my planning and experiences offered to children - both indoors and out and I've included photos of just some of the favourites throughout this post to help you visualise the possibilities of including more of these types of materials into your program or with your own children.

Open ended materials are sometimes also called loose parts and can encompass a wide variety of resources. They don't have to just be of natural origin, they can also be manufactured. They can be large (but moveable) or small. See the list at the end of this post for some ideas to get you started with your own collection. They don't ever need to be expensive!

One of the wonderful things about using these materials for educators - especially those working in mixed age group environments is that they are suitable for all ages as children will manipulate and use them in different ways according to their own specific ages and stages of development - they can also use them in different ways day after day! Rather than the box of baby toys that usually becomes useless after a certain age, open ended materials continue to be flexible and offer increasing opportunities for creativity and open ended learning.

Why include them in the outdoor play environment?

Are open ended materials and loose parts only suitable for indoor classroom and play activities?Definitely not - they can play a huge role in outdoor early learning environments!

When we only provide an outdoor play area with fixed equipment we can inadvertently limit children's creativity, movements, urge to experiment and problem solve. I'm certainly not saying we shouldn't have fixed resources in our backyards and play areas as they play a role too but ideally there needs to be a balance of fixed and open ended movable materials. This doesn't need to be expensive as most open ended materials can be sourced for little or no cost so it becomes very cost effective for educators.

Educators have asked me how to add loose parts and open ended materials to their program planning so it doesn't look like their are 'doing nothing'. Just because an activity or play experience isn't planned out in advance does not mean it cannot be included in some way on your plan. You can easily incorporate open ended play and materials into your planning by simply listing some of the materials you have made available for the children to choose from that week then follow up with some brief reflections and observations about how the children used the materials and what learning you saw evolve through this play.

You might write this in a diary or even on the back of your program - keep it simple and to the point and make sure any observations (group or individual) that you record are meaningful and stand out to you for some reason.

I still like to have some intentional teaching experiences and craft activities planned on my program but open ended materials and play also forms an important part of my documentation and the plan evolves as the week proceeds.

When we include open ended materials or loose parts in the outdoor play environment it allows children to take a few risks, challenge themselves and feel as though they have some control of their environment. They can extend their own play, explore, carry, take materials apart and put them back together, rearrange to suit their needs, work out how to move heavy materials ...they decide on how the materials will be used.

It can be fascinating for adults to watch and provides numerous opportunities to observe and document the many learning outcomes that are being achieved.

Even with small spaces and little storage space you can find creative ways to introduce larger loose parts into the outdoor play environment. For more inspiration take a look at the children playing here on Stimulating Learning with Rachel. So much creativity, building and thinking happening with those fabulous loose parts!

How to get started using open ended play materials in the outdoor area.

Although the term 'loose parts' seems to be a bit of a catchphrase in early childhood at the moment it is not new and we were incorporating these open ended materials into play when I first began in childcare 30 years ago. So it's not something that should overwhelm you - introducing open ended materials into your early learning program will actually make your job easier, allow you to spend less on resources and equipment and provide moments for you to step back and observe rather than spending every minute planning and directing the play.

So how can you get started? My advice is to start small and just make a few changes at a time until you feel more confident in how to use and present access to the materials.

Aim to build a loose parts/materials resource shelf/tub over time

Begin writing a loose parts wishlist and think about ways you might be able to source those materials and involve families in your hunt too.

Build your collection from visits to parks, beaches, bushwalks, recycling centres, op shops, markets, garage sales, $2 shops, asking family and friends, treelopping and mulching services, local council, reusing packaging materials.

Keep in mind that offering open ended materials to your children might actually involve a little trial and error depending on the ages you have in care and the materials you have decided to use. Some things will work one day yet not the next - don't give up!

You can still use open ended materials to set up some basic invitations to play if you enjoy doing that - just don't direct the play if they decide to take it in another direction! Stand back and see what they decide to do with what you have set up. See your invitation as merely a launchpad.

Make sure you are available in the outdoor environment to provide support and help solve problems if the children need and request it. Encourage discussions - how else might they use the materials? What might they need to continue with their project?

Decide on a storage solution. I like to keep open ended materials for outside play stored in baskets in a small shed in the yard. I've also used baskets hanging on fences that stay out in the weather and small pots nailed to walls at the children's level and filled with loose parts that are always accessible. Use what you have available and try to keep organised so you know what you have available. Think about what you will have available this week and what you might need to change. Is there some fixed equipment you might be able to do away with to make more storage space instead?

Be aware at all times of safety precautions all educators should take in regard to using materials including possible allergies and choking hazards.

And finally (this is a hard one for many of us!) allow opportunities for the outdoor space to look 'messier' and less 'arranged' than you might be used to. I know this can be more difficult if you are a family day care educator using your family backyard but even if you can leave the materials for a day or two so the children can keep returning to their play and projects it will be valuable. Ask yourself if everything really needs to be packed away at the end of the day or are there some things that could be left out 'ready to play' tomorrow?

I hope you are feeling inspired to begin incorporating more open-ended materials into your outdoor environment to increase the opportunities for open-ended play, exploration and discovery.

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How to use open ended play materials & loose parts outdoors.

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Providing open ended play materials is cost effective & allows children the opportunity to direct their own play. Find out how to get started & what to use!

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The Willow School

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The Outdoor Classroom

Provocations & Beautiful Materials

Take a moment and picture this ...

Jake and Ian rush down the sidewalk racing yellow trucks. Elise relaxingly swings in the shady hammock. Emyrsen and Cassie talk beneath a tree, begin to laugh, and run off. Sloane uses all her might to roll a tire up the mulch hill. Children all around the playground engage in what we think of as traditional outdoor play. They run, jump, laugh, yell, dig, and pretend. They do exactly what joyful and energy filled children should; they play!

If our beautiful outdoor space, abounding with natural light and fresh air, is a great place for traditional "outdoor play", could we enhance and broaden the children's play by also offering the opportunity to engage in the play we might think of as "indoor play"?

The concept of an outdoor classroom stems from the idea that the outdoor environment can be utilized for all types of play and creation. Provocations are set up so the children are free to come and go as they please, to offer a broader array of ways to play. For many children, the expansive space and natural atmosphere of the outdoors can help them focus and deepen their play. A child who may struggle to focus and draw for few minutes may spend a hour hour creating a dozen works. A child who may get frustrated exploring loose part designs at a full table may feel a sense of personal space and calm that they crave.

This week, a variety of provocations were set up to offer the children deeply layered, meaningful, and intriguing experiences. Seeing that our outdoor space is a part of nature, it seemed fitting to base the provocations around natural materials, with a few beautifully intriguing materials sprinkled in.

A Table for Design

A provocation set on the table with bowls of natural materials meant to intrigue and provoke.
What designs will emerge from the variety of texture and color?
How many glass gems will fit?

The group shares materials, offering them with open hands.
"These are the cars and the middle is the center of planet car."
The following day, the provocation was revisited with twist.

A few materials taken away, a few new ones added.

Much of the same crew from the day before eagerly returns.
"Look! I did it!"
Provocation of water painting on wood and slate, with a splash of color gems. The water fades away over the moments, creating a constantly evolving picture.
Who needs paper, anyway?

Building Materials

Wood slices of all sizes are set out, along with wood planks and tires. The first children to interact with the provocation were "wood cutters" whose sole purpose was to demolish the structures, but we rolled with the idea and built new structures from the rubble.
"It's a door for the ants so the wolf can't get in." "These are the pirates and this is the ship." "Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you!" Sibling building is sibling bonding. "It's an evaporator! Don't get too close, it'll get you!" "It's a cake! Cookie cake!"
A ramp for rolling.

A different kind of ramp.

A tube within a tube.

Our playground is not just a playground ...

It is a garden.

It is a stage.

It is a building space.

It is a giant chalk easel.

It is a painting studio.

It is a design room.

It is fresh air and open space.

It is a classroom without roof.

It is anything we can imagine it to be and every intriguing material we fill it with.

Welcome to our outdoor classroom.

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Provocations on the Playground - The Willow School

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The Outdoor Classroom Provocations & Beautiful Materials Take a moment and picture this ... Jake and Ian rush down the sidewalk racing yellow trucks. Elise relaxingly swings in the shady [...]

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This guide is loaded with ideas, inventory lists, and resources to support you in conveying the learning that is happening while children play!

I only want creativity filling your inbox, so you'll see inspiration and support dropping in...but not too much!
We respect your privacy. Unsubscribe at any time.

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Loose Parts for Infants and Toddlers - cultivatingconfidence.ca

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YES, you can use loose parts with infants and toddlers in your early year setting. Read this blog to find lists & loads for inspiration.

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Screen Time Alternatives to Support Development in Kids 

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Screen Time Alternatives to Support Development in Kids 

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Screen Time Alternatives to Support Development in Kids - DEVELOP LEARN GROW

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Excessive screen use in kids is concerning; its negative effects are well publicized. Screen time alternatives are important!

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What Screen Time Does to Children's Brains and Sensory Processing Abilities

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What Screen Time Does to Children's Brains and Sensory Processing Abilities

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(April 2 - Correction: Information on the AAP policies below has been edited. Thanks to the readers - Diana and P - who caught the error!)
It's a scene we're sure you've witnessed again and again:

A family is sitting in a restaurant having dinner. The four year old is clearly fed up with sitting, and starts to complain, jump on her seat or run around. But a few moments later, she's quietly in her seat again, enabling her parents and older siblings to enjoy a peaceful meal and conversation for the next 30 minutes.

What happened?
Her father handed her his iPhone.
It's a scene we see repeated in doctors' waiting rooms, supermarkets, public transportation... and while we entirely understand it, it also saddens us.
So many caring, well-meaning parents are unaware of the developmental damage caused to their children by exposure to screen time and screen media.
***

Screens.

Televisions. Computer monitors. Tablets. Smartphones. Dumb phones. Children's toy computers. Kindles. The Apple watch.

If it gives off electromagnetic radiation in the visual spectrum, it's a screen.

In many ways screens have changed our lives for the better. In other ways, they've changed our lives and the lives of our children - and not necessarily for the better.

The original official policy of the American Academy of Pediatrics (made in 1999 and reaffirmed in 2011) states that "pediatricians should urge parents to avoid television [or other media] viewing for children under the age of two years." Children between 2 and 5 should be limited to "no more than 1 hour per day."

In 2016 they issued a policy adjustment stating that pediatricians should discourage any media use under the age of 18 months, except for video-chatting (as often happens with far-away relatives). Between 18 and 24 months, if a parent wants to introduce screen media, then they should choose high-quality apps and use it together with their toddlers. (Although the policy indicates that the educational benefits for children under the age of 24 months are low, and come mainly from parent interaction with the child, and not from the media itself.)

While the original policy of the AAP called for children older than 5 to be viewing no more than 2 hours of media daily, the updated 2016 recommendations explains that in today's world, when media is everywhere, a one-size-fits-all approach doesn't work. Families need to make themselves aware of the risks and benefits of media use, and create individualized plans for their children, including enough sleep and physical exercise.

Reasons given by the AAP - and other research studies - include associations with obesity, sleep issues, aggressive behaviors, less time spent in developmentally helpful interaction with parents and siblings, language delays and attention issues.

Reference is made to the potentially harmful effect of media exposure during the rapid brain development period of age 0-2, but most studies - and even the AAP policies - don't delve into the details of the impact on your child's brain.

We'd like to give you a peek behind the scenes, and show you what happens to the brain when it's in the process of viewing screen media.

Screens Give Your Body the Blues

We've all been fooled by the "what color is white light?" question. Answer: all of them! Natural daylight, provided by our sun, is made up of all the colors of the visual spectrum, although there does tend to be a little more blue light emitted than the other colors.

The blue light of natural sunlight does some great things for our body. It boosts attention, reaction times and mood, and it suppresses melatonin (the hormone that regulates your circadian rhythms and makes you sleepy when it increases) so you can be awake and alert during your active hours.

That's great for your body - in the daytime. When your body is supposed to be winding down for sleep, however, it's another story.

Most of today's devices are illuminated by LEDs, which have a much higher percentage of blue lightwaves than any other light source - natural or artificial. Here's what "white" light is really made of in the following artificial light sources:
(The above image comes from the Molecular Vision Journal. The markup is our own.)
White LEDs are almost entirely blue light, combined with a chemical compound to make it look white.
Night-time exposure to LED-illuminated devices (most of the screens out there today: computers, tablets, phones, flat screen TVs, e-readers, video games) suppresses melatonin and disrupts the natural sleep cycle.
This Scientific American article describes the following study where volunteers spent several evenings reading for a prolonged period of time before a 10PM imposed bedtime. Some used printed books and some used e-readers. Those who used e-readers took longer to fall asleep, had less REM sleep and felt sleepier and less alert for hours after they woke up in the morning - even if they had gotten the same amount of sleep.

We repeatedly see sleep cycle issues in the children who come to our clinic. When we probe, we almost inevitably hear that they're playing video games, using social media or watching TV for an extended period before they go to bed. Sleep cycle disruptions are a significant contributor to ADHD and other mood and behavioral issues.

One of the first things we work with these parents and children on is significantly reducing screen time before bed. Blue light - it's not for night!

Find out more about the other ways sleep issues can impact your child's behavior!

Fast Forward

Okay, fine, you might be saying. I'll curtail the screens at night, and let my children play their video games, use the computer and watch TV in the afternoon.

We wish it were that simple.

If your child's screen use is focused on reading chapter books off a Kindle or typing in a word processing program, no problem. (Again, as long as it's not at night when the blue wavelengths in the white LEDs will impact sleep patterns.)

But who among our kids spends his primary media time doing that? Our kids are playing fast-paced video games, watching cartoons and TV shows with plenty of action and jumping from photo to chat to status update on social media.

The rapid-fire changes that happen in most screen activities, from video games to recorded entertainment to social media updates, affect two parts of the brain:

the visual processing system

the vestibular system

The Eyes Have It

Let's discuss the visual processing system first.
The faster the changes in the sensory information you're taking in, the faster your brain needs to process it in order to keep up.
If the pace required is so fast it exceeds your brain's threshold, you may experience sensory overload. That's the "STOP! TOO MUCH! I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!" feeling - the one we sometimes get when we're trying to cook dinner AND our baby is screaming and smelling like a horrendously dirty diaper AND our 3 year old is yanking on our shirt hem and whining he's hungry AND our 6 year old is shoving a drawing in front of our eyes and yelling, "Look, Mom! Look at it!"

Too much to process. Shut down. Good night. (Well, we wish. We parents usually have to recover pretty fast in situations like that.)
The rapid-fire changes on typical screen entertainment are much faster than the typical visual changes of ordinary, unscreened life - the visual changes that our brain has been wired over the millennia to deal with.
Yet these rapid changes don't often cause perceptible visual sensory overload. They usually come in just under the threshold. The child can keep up with the processing, but their brain is working super-fast to do so.

Often parents of children with ADD/ADHD diagnoses will tell us, puzzled, "I don't understand. My child has trouble focusing on most things, but when it comes to TV or video games, I can't get him to stop. I can wave my hand in front of his face, touch him or say his name loudly and it's like I'm not there. He seems super-focused!"

And he is. Children (especially with ADHD) often get into a state of hyper-focus, because their brain is so super-busy processing all the fast-changing visual information.

This hyper-focus affects children more than adults (and in younger children more than older children) because the visual system itself is still developing, so the younger a child is, the more they have to focus in order to deal with all the information coming in.

Eventually you pull them away from the screen. And pandemonium breaks loose.

If they were super-focused before, they are now super-UNfocused. They're hyper. They're acting out. They're in an awful mood.

What HAPPENED?

Coming off the Visual Fast-Track

Your child's brain was in super-fast, super-busy mode, processing all that visual stimuli. Suddenly all that visual stimuli stops. There's nothing left to process.
But the brain is still in super-fast, "hyper" mode. Until it readjusts to real life and a normal pace (which takes time), your child will be bouncing off the walls in an unconscious attempt to find stimuli moving at the artificially fast pace of his brain.

That's not all.

The visual system is closely linked to the vestibular system - the sensory system that controls balance and your perception of where your body is in space. The vestibular system also has a significant impact on mood. The perception of linear acceleration is calming (as most of us have experienced when rocking, swinging, walking or driving a cranky baby to sleep) and the perceptional of rotational acceleration is arousing.

When your child's visual system was super-busy processing, it locked up the vestibular system, putting mood on an artificially even keel. Remember your child's lack of response when you waved your hand in front of his face? He wasn't in a bad mood; he wasn't in a good mood; he was in NO mood.

Now his vestibular system has been released from its freeze, and it's having just as hard a time readjusting. Mood swings, anyone?

Let's take a look at how to get your child from screen time back to real life without crashes and meltdowns.

Jump My Sillies Out

When you end your child's screen time, don't just let her chill out. Because she WON'T be chilling out. She'll be jumping out of her skin.

To reset the pace of her body and brain, jump her back INTO her skin. Use the vestibular system. Get your child moving. Jump, swing, run around. The linear acceleration will reset the vestibular system and calm the entire body.

This is even if your child has had "active" screen time, like working out with a Wii or playing Pokemon Go or some other augmented reality game. They may be getting exercise, but they're also overstimulating their visual processing system. The screen offsets the vestibular benefit of the movement, so you'll still need some "unplugged" movement in order to reset the vestibular system and get the body back on track.

Long-term Consequences

Using physical activity is a good short-term technique to reset the vestibular and visual system and get your child back into normally-paced life more smoothly.

As a long-term strategy, it leaves much to be desired.

As we mentioned above, a child's visual processing system is still significantly developing before the age of 2, and final development isn't reached until 8 or 9 years old. It's still unclear exactly what the effects of media exposure with its rapid-fire changes are for a developing system.

There is a concern, however, that repeated incidents of super-busy processing during stages of development could cause permanent changes in the processing pace that the brain seeks. Your two-year old could potentially grow up feeling "comfortable" in the super-fast pace of screen media stimulation and uncomfortable in the normal pace of everyday life.

Her performance might be high in gaming and internet information processing, but what about performance in low-tech activities such as building relationships? Parenting? Achieving greatness at anything, from sports to music to business?

These true, satisfying achievements happen only at the pace of the natural world, not at the artificially accelerated pace of the screened world. They require focus, dedication, persistence and patience - even when the going seems slow, frustrating and boring in the moment.

Set Your Child Up for Success

We appreciate how much parents want to give their child the tools and resources to achieve the most they can.

That's why it pains us. Because while the parent thinks they're doing something positive - or at least neutral - for their child by setting them in front of screen media, they're actually interfering with the child's natural, healthy development. The younger the child is, the greater the interference and future consequences.
Why set a child up for issues and limitations that may or may not be conquerable? Why put a child on track for difficulties in life from age 2?
We work all the time with children to enable them to overcome behavioral and emotional limitations caused by processing issues, so they can have a happy, functioning life full of achievement and satisfaction.

You, as a parent, have an even more powerful role to play. You can give your child the best shot at that life from the outset, and minimize the chances of needing external intervention.

As a caring, dedicated parent, we know you want it.
And you can do it. Even if you want to reduce screen time, the process can be a challenge, as children usually object and (depending on the effect the screen media has on that particular child) may act out. Here is Part 2 of this article: Why It's So Hard to Feel Like You're a Good Parent When It Comes to Screen Time... and What You Can Do About It dealing with practical and emotional strategies for managing and reducing screen time in a healthy way for your child - and you!

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What Screen Time Does to Babies' and Children's Brains and Sensory Processing Abilities

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(April 2 - Correction: Information on the AAP policies below has been edited. Thanks to the readers - Diana and P - who caught the error!) It's a scene we're sure you've witnessed again and again: A family is sitting in a restaurant having dinner.

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Parents Guide to Your 5-7 Year Old's Digital World 

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Parents Guide to Your 5-7 Year Old's Digital World 

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Parents’ Ultimate Guide to Your 5- to 7-Year-Old’s Digital World

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Parents’ Ultimate Guide to Your 5- to 7-Year-Old’s Digital World - Learn more and get Common Sense Media’s research-backed tips.

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Parents Guide to Your 2-4 Year Old's Digital World 

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Parents Guide to Your 2-4 Year Old's Digital World 

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Parents’ Ultimate Guide to Your 2- to 4-Year-Old’s Digital World

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Parents’ Ultimate Guide to Your 2- to 4-Year-Old’s Digital World - Learn more and get Common Sense Media’s research-backed tips.

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Common Sense Org: Media Use by Kids Zero to Eight 

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Common Sense Org: Media Use by Kids Zero to Eight 

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The fifth iteration of the Common Sense Census: Media Use by Kids Zero to Eight advances a long-running research series that examines trends in the media consumption of young children, providing insights into the role that technology plays from the crib to the classroom. The last 0 to 8 Census was conducted in early 2020, just before the COVID-19 pandemic, which means that this new report offers a unique post-pandemic examination of changes in children's media use and habits over this time period.

The key findings show that digital media habits for children age 8 and under are evolving. Forty percent of children have a tablet by age 2, and nearly 1 in 4 have a personal cellphone by age 8. While their screen time remains steady at about 2.5 hours per day, there has been a shift in how screen time is being used. Gaming time has surged 65% in four years, and traditional TV viewing has declined, while short-form video platforms like TikTok and YouTube Shorts are on the rise, underscoring the increasingly complex media environment that parents must navigate in their children's early years.

These trends underscore the urgent need for thoughtful guidance, policies, and tools to help families face the digital world. Parents and caregivers can find links to our in-depth resources below.

More resources:

Read the press release.

Explore our Parents' Ultimate Guides, here to help parents and caregivers make informed decisions that work for kids and families. These two guides are paired with the new research and help parents navigate their kid's digital world:

See the full research questionnaire.

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The 2025 Common Sense Census: Media Use by Kids Zero to Eight

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This year's report confirms that American kids are digital from day one, from the devices they navigate to the videos and games they consume.

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Jonathan Haidt: End the Phone-Based Childhood Now  

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Jonathan Haidt: End the Phone-Based Childhood Now  

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Also read his book "Anxious Generation" where he discusses the needed alternative- a free play childhood

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The environment in which kids grow up today is hostile to human development.

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Something went suddenly and horribly wrong for adolescents in the early 2010s. By now you've likely seen the statistics: Rates of depression and anxiety in the United States-fairly stable in the 2000s-rose by more than 50 percent in many studies from 2010 to 2019. The suicide rate rose 48 percent for adolescents ages 10 to 19. For girls ages 10 to 14, it rose 131 percent.
Read: It sure looks like phones are making students dumber
As the oldest members of Gen Z reach their late 20s, their troubles are carrying over into adulthood. Young adults are dating less, having less sex, and showing less interest in ever having children than prior generations. They are more likely to live with their parents. They were less likely to get jobs as teens, and managers say they are harder to work with. Many of these trends began with earlier generations, but most of them accelerated with Gen Z.

Surveys show that members of Gen Z are shyer and more risk averse than previous generations, too, and risk aversion may make them less ambitious. In an interview last May, OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman and Stripe co-founder Patrick Collison noted that, for the first time since the 1970s, none of Silicon Valley's preeminent entrepreneurs are under 30. "Something has really gone wrong," Altman said. In a famously young industry, he was baffled by the sudden absence of great founders in their 20s.

Generations are not monolithic, of course. Many young people are flourishing. Taken as a whole, however, Gen Z is in poor mental health and is lagging behind previous generations on many important metrics. And if a generation is doing poorly--if it is more anxious and depressed and is starting families, careers, and important companies at a substantially lower rate than previous generations--then the sociological and economic consequences will be profound for the entire society.

Number of emergency-department visits for nonfatal self-harm per 100,000 children (source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

What happened in the early 2010s that altered adolescent development and worsened mental health? Theories abound, but the fact that similar trends are found in many countries worldwide means that events and trends that are specific to the United States cannot be the main story.

I think the answer can be stated simply, although the underlying psychology is complex: Those were the years when adolescents in rich countries traded in their flip phones for smartphones and moved much more of their social lives online-particularly onto social-media platforms designed for virality and addiction. Once young people began carrying the entire internet in their pockets, available to them day and night, it altered their daily experiences and developmental pathways across the board. Friendship, dating, sexuality, exercise, sleep, academics, politics, family dynamics, identity-all were affected. Life changed rapidly for younger children, too, as they began to get access to their parents' smartphones and, later, got their own iPads, laptops, and even smartphones during elementary school.
Jonathan Haidt: Get phones out of schools now
Related Podcast

Listen to Hanna Rosin and Jonathan Haidt discuss this article on Radio Atlantic: Subscribe here: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Google Podcasts | Pocket Casts

But before we can evaluate the evidence on any one potential avenue of harm, we need to step back and ask a broader question: What is childhood--including adolescence--and how did it change when smartphones moved to the center of it? If we take a more holistic view of what childhood is and what young children, tweens, and teens need to do to mature into competent adults, the picture becomes much clearer. Smartphone-based life, it turns out, alters or interferes with a great number of developmental processes.

The intrusion of smartphones and social media are not the only changes that have deformed childhood. There's an important backstory, beginning as long ago as the 1980s, when we started systematically depriving children and adolescents of freedom, unsupervised play, responsibility, and opportunities for risk taking, all of which promote competence, maturity, and mental health. But the change in childhood accelerated in the early 2010s, when an already independence-deprived generation was lured into a new virtual universe that seemed safe to parents but in fact is more dangerous, in many respects, than the physical world.

My claim is that the new phone-based childhood that took shape roughly 12 years ago is making young people sick and blocking their progress to flourishing in adulthood. We need a dramatic cultural correction, and we need it now.

1. The Decline of Play and Independence

Human brains are extraordinarily large compared with those of other primates, and human childhoods are extraordinarily long, too, to give those large brains time to wire up within a particular culture. A child's brain is already 90 percent of its adult size by about age 6. The next 10 or 15 years are about learning norms and mastering skills-physical, analytical, creative, and social. As children and adolescents seek out experiences and practice a wide variety of behaviors, the synapses and neurons that are used frequently are retained while those that are used less often disappear. Neurons that fire together wire together, as brain researchers say.

Brain development is sometimes said to be "experience-expectant," because specific parts of the brain show increased plasticity during periods of life when an animal's brain can "expect" to have certain kinds of experiences. You can see this with baby geese, who will imprint on whatever mother-sized object moves in their vicinity just after they hatch. You can see it with human children, who are able to learn languages quickly and take on the local accent, but only through early puberty; after that, it's hard to learn a language and sound like a native speaker. There is also some evidence of a sensitive period for cultural learning more generally. Japanese children who spent a few years in California in the 1970s came to feel "American" in their identity and ways of interacting only if they attended American schools for a few years between ages 9 and 15. If they left before age 9, there was no lasting impact. If they didn't arrive until they were 15, it was too late; they didn't come to feel American.

Human childhood is an extended cultural apprenticeship with different tasks at different ages all the way through puberty. Once we see it this way, we can identify factors that promote or impede the right kinds of learning at each age. For children of all ages, one of the most powerful drivers of learning is the strong motivation to play. Play is the work of childhood, and all young mammals have the same job: to wire up their brains by playing vigorously and often, practicing the moves and skills they'll need as adults. Kittens will play-pounce on anything that looks like a mouse tail. Human children will play games such as tag and sharks and minnows, which let them practice both their predator skills and their escaping-from-predator skills. Adolescents will play sports with greater intensity, and will incorporate playfulness into their social interactions-flirting, teasing, and developing inside jokes that bond friends together. Hundreds of studies on young rats, monkeys, and humans show that young mammals want to play, need to play, and end up socially, cognitively, and emotionally impaired when they are deprived of play.

One crucial aspect of play is physical risk taking. Children and adolescents must take risks and fail-often-in environments in which failure is not very costly. This is how they extend their abilities, overcome their fears, learn to estimate risk, and learn to cooperate in order to take on larger challenges later. The ever-present possibility of getting hurt while running around, exploring, play-fighting, or getting into a real conflict with another group adds an element of thrill, and thrilling play appears to be the most effective kind for overcoming childhood anxieties and building social, emotional, and physical competence. The desire for risk and thrill increases in the teen years, when failure might carry more serious consequences. Children of all ages need to choose the risk they are ready for at a given moment. Young people who are deprived of opportunities for risk taking and independent exploration will, on average, develop into more anxious and risk-averse adults.
From the April 2014 issue: The overprotected kid
Human childhood and adolescence evolved outdoors, in a physical world full of dangers and opportunities. Its central activities--play, exploration, and intense socializing--were largely unsupervised by adults, allowing children to make their own choices, resolve their own conflicts, and take care of one another. Shared adventures and shared adversity bound young people together into strong friendship clusters within which they mastered the social dynamics of small groups, which prepared them to master bigger challenges and larger groups later on.

And then we changed childhood.

In recent decades, seeing unchaperoned children outdoors has become so novel that when one is spotted in the wild, some adults feel it is their duty to call the police. In 2015, the Pew Research Center found that parents, on average, believed that children should be at least 10 years old to play unsupervised in front of their house, and that kids should be 14 before being allowed to go unsupervised to a public park. Most of these same parents had enjoyed joyous and unsupervised outdoor play by the age of 7 or 8.

But overprotection is only part of the story. The transition away from a more independent childhood was facilitated by steady improvements in digital technology, which made it easier and more inviting for young people to spend a lot more time at home, indoors, and alone in their rooms. Eventually, tech companies got access to children 24/7. They developed exciting virtual activities, engineered for "engagement," that are nothing like the real-world experiences young brains evolved to expect.

2. The Virtual World Arrives in Two Waves

The internet, which now dominates the lives of young people, arrived in two waves of linked technologies. The first one did little harm to Millennials. The second one swallowed Gen Z whole.

The first wave came ashore in the 1990s with the arrival of dial-up internet access, which made personal computers good for something beyond word processing and basic games. By 2003, 55 percent of American households had a computer with (slow) internet access. Rates of adolescent depression, loneliness, and other measures of poor mental health did not rise in this first wave. If anything, they went down a bit. Millennial teens (born 1981 through 1995), who were the first to go through puberty with access to the internet, were psychologically healthier and happier, on average, than their older siblings or parents in Generation X (born 1965 through 1980).

The second wave began to rise in the 2000s, though its full force didn't hit until the early 2010s. It began rather innocently with the introduction of social-media platforms that helped people connect with their friends. Posting and sharing content became much easier with sites such as Friendster (launched in 2003), Myspace (2003), and Facebook (2004).

Teens embraced social media soon after it came out, but the time they could spend on these sites was limited in those early years because the sites could only be accessed from a computer, often the family computer in the living room. Young people couldn't access social media (and the rest of the internet) from the school bus, during class time, or while hanging out with friends outdoors. Many teens in the early-to-mid-2000s had cellphones, but these were basic phones (many of them flip phones) that had no internet access. Typing on them was difficult--they had only number keys. Basic phones were tools that helped Millennials meet up with one another in person or talk with each other one-on-one. I have seen no evidence to suggest that basic cellphones harmed the mental health of Millennials.

3. Techno-optimism and the Birth of the Phone-Based Childhood

The phone-based childhood created by that second wave-including not just smartphones themselves, but all manner of internet-connected devices, such as tablets, laptops, video-game consoles, and smartwatches-arrived near the end of a period of enormous optimism about digital technology. The internet came into our lives in the mid-1990s, soon after the fall of the Soviet Union. By the end of that decade, it was widely thought that the web would be an ally of democracy and a slayer of tyrants. When people are connected to each other, and to all the information in the world, how could any dictator keep them down?

In the 2000s, Silicon Valley and its world-changing inventions were a source of pride and excitement in America. Smart and ambitious young people around the world wanted to move to the West Coast to be part of the digital revolution. Tech-company founders such as Steve Jobs and Sergey Brin were lauded as gods, or at least as modern Prometheans, bringing humans godlike powers. The Arab Spring bloomed in 2011 with the help of decentralized social platforms, including Twitter and Facebook. When pundits and entrepreneurs talked about the power of social media to transform society, it didn't sound like a dark prophecy.

You have to put yourself back in this heady time to understand why adults acquiesced so readily to the rapid transformation of childhood. Many parents had concerns, even then, about what their children were doing online, especially because of the internet's ability to put children in contact with strangers. But there was also a lot of excitement about the upsides of this new digital world. If computers and the internet were the vanguards of progress, and if young people--widely referred to as "digital natives"--were going to live their lives entwined with these technologies, then why not give them a head start? I remember how exciting it was to see my 2-year-old son master the touch-and-swipe interface of my first iPhone in 2008. I thought I could see his neurons being woven together faster as a result of the stimulation it brought to his brain, compared to the passivity of watching television or the slowness of building a block tower. I thought I could see his future job prospects improving.

Touchscreen devices were also a godsend for harried parents. Many of us discovered that we could have peace at a restaurant, on a long car trip, or at home while making dinner or replying to emails if we just gave our children what they most wanted: our smartphones and tablets. We saw that everyone else was doing it and figured it must be okay.

It was the same for older children, desperate to join their friends on social-media platforms, where the minimum age to open an account was set by law to 13, even though no research had been done to establish the safety of these products for minors. Because the platforms did nothing (and still do nothing) to verify the stated age of new-account applicants, any 10-year-old could open multiple accounts without parental permission or knowledge, and many did. Facebook and later Instagram became places where many sixth and seventh graders were hanging out and socializing. If parents did find out about these accounts, it was too late. Nobody wanted their child to be isolated and alone, so parents rarely forced their children to shut down their accounts.

We had no idea what we were doing.

4. The High Cost of a Phone-Based Childhood

In Walden, his 1854 reflection on simple living, Henry David Thoreau wrote, "The cost of a thing is the amount of ... life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run." It's an elegant formulation of what economists would later call the opportunity cost of any choice-all of the things you can no longer do with your money and time once you've committed them to something else. So it's important that we grasp just how much of a young person's day is now taken up by their devices.

The numbers are hard to believe. The most recent Gallup data show that American teens spend about five hours a day just on social-media platforms (including watching videos on TikTok and YouTube). Add in all the other phone- and screen-based activities, and the number rises to somewhere between seven and nine hours a day, on average. The numbers are even higher in single-parent and low-income families, and among Black, Hispanic, and Native American families.

These very high numbers do not include time spent in front of screens for school or homework, nor do they include all the time adolescents spend paying only partial attention to events in the real world while thinking about what they're missing on social media or waiting for their phones to ping. Pew reports that in 2022, one-third of teens said they were on one of the major social-media sites "almost constantly," and nearly half said the same of the internet in general. For these heavy users, nearly every waking hour is an hour absorbed, in full or in part, by their devices.

In Thoreau's terms, how much of life is exchanged for all this screen time? Arguably, most of it. Everything else in an adolescent's day must get squeezed down or eliminated entirely to make room for the vast amount of content that is consumed, and for the hundreds of "friends," "followers," and other network connections that must be serviced with texts, posts, comments, likes, snaps, and direct messages. I recently surveyed my students at NYU, and most of them reported that the very first thing they do when they open their eyes in the morning is check their texts, direct messages, and social-media feeds. It's also the last thing they do before they close their eyes at night. And it's a lot of what they do in between.

The amount of time that adolescents spend sleeping declined in the early 2010s, and many studies tie sleep loss directly to the use of devices around bedtime, particularly when they're used to scroll through social media. Exercise declined, too, which is unfortunate because exercise, like sleep, improves both mental and physical health. Book reading has been declining for decades, pushed aside by digital alternatives, but the decline, like so much else, sped up in the early 2010 s. With passive entertainment always available, adolescent minds likely wander less than they used to; contemplation and imagination might be placed on the list of things winnowed down or crowded out.

But perhaps the most devastating cost of the new phone-based childhood was the collapse of time spent interacting with other people face-to-face. A study of how Americans spend their time found that, before 2010, young people (ages 15 to 24) reported spending far more time with their friends (about two hours a day, on average, not counting time together at school) than did older people (who spent just 30 to 60 minutes with friends). Time with friends began decreasing for young people in the 2000s, but the drop accelerated in the 2010s, while it barely changed for older people. By 2019, young people's time with friends had dropped to just 67 minutes a day. It turns out that Gen Z had been socially distancing for many years and had mostly completed the project by the time COVID-19 struck.
Read: What happens when kids don't see their peers for months
You might question the importance of this decline. After all, isn't much of this online time spent interacting with friends through texting, social media, and multiplayer video games? Isn't that just as good?

Some of it surely is, and virtual interactions offer unique benefits too, especially for young people who are geographically or socially isolated. But in general, the virtual world lacks many of the features that make human interactions in the real world nutritious, as we might say, for physical, social, and emotional development. In particular, real-world relationships and social interactions are characterized by four features-typical for hundreds of thousands of years-that online interactions either distort or erase.

First, real-world interactions are embodied, meaning that we use our hands and facial expressions to communicate, and we learn to respond to the body language of others. Virtual interactions, in contrast, mostly rely on language alone. No matter how many emojis are offered as compensation, the elimination of communication channels for which we have eons of evolutionary programming is likely to produce adults who are less comfortable and less skilled at interacting in person.

Second, real-world interactions are synchronous; they happen at the same time. As a result, we learn subtle cues about timing and conversational turn taking. Synchronous interactions make us feel closer to the other person because that's what getting "in sync" does. Texts, posts, and many other virtual interactions lack synchrony. There is less real laughter, more room for misinterpretation, and more stress after a comment that gets no immediate response.

Third, real-world interactions primarily involve one‐to‐one communication, or sometimes one-to-several. But many virtual communications are broadcast to a potentially huge audience. Online, each person can engage in dozens of asynchronous interactions in parallel, which interferes with the depth achieved in all of them. The sender's motivations are different, too: With a large audience, one's reputation is always on the line; an error or poor performance can damage social standing with large numbers of peers. These communications thus tend to be more performative and anxiety-inducing than one-to-one conversations.

Finally, real-world interactions usually take place within communities that have a high bar for entry and exit, so people are strongly motivated to invest in relationships and repair rifts when they happen. But in many virtual networks, people can easily block others or quit when they are displeased. Relationships within such networks are usually more disposable.
From the September 2015 issue: The coddling of the American mind
These unsatisfying and anxiety-producing features of life online should be recognizable to most adults. Online interactions can bring out antisocial behavior that people would never display in their offline communities. But if life online takes a toll on adults, just imagine what it does to adolescents in the early years of puberty, when their "experience expectant" brains are rewiring based on feedback from their social interactions.

Kids going through puberty online are likely to experience far more social comparison, self-consciousness, public shaming, and chronic anxiety than adolescents in previous generations, which could potentially set developing brains into a habitual state of defensiveness. The brain contains systems that are specialized for approach (when opportunities beckon) and withdrawal (when threats appear or seem likely). People can be in what we might call "discover mode" or "defend mode" at any moment, but generally not both. The two systems together form a mechanism for quickly adapting to changing conditions, like a thermostat that can activate either a heating system or a cooling system as the temperature fluctuates. Some people's internal thermostats are generally set to discover mode, and they flip into defend mode only when clear threats arise. These people tend to see the world as full of opportunities. They are happier and less anxious. Other people's internal thermostats are generally set to defend mode, and they flip into discover mode only when they feel unusually safe. They tend to see the world as full of threats and are more prone to anxiety and depressive disorders.

Percentage of U.S. college freshmen reporting various kinds of disabilities and disorders (source: Higher Education Research Institute)

A simple way to understand the differences between Gen Z and previous generations is that people born in and after 1996 have internal thermostats that were shifted toward defend mode. This is why life on college campuses changed so suddenly when Gen Z arrived, beginning around 2014. Students began requesting "safe spaces" and trigger warnings. They were highly sensitive to "microaggressions" and sometimes claimed that words were "violence." These trends mystified those of us in older generations at the time, but in hindsight, it all makes sense. Gen Z students found words, ideas, and ambiguous social encounters more threatening than had previous generations of students because we had fundamentally altered their psychological development.

The debate around adolescents' use of smartphones and social media typically revolves around mental health, and understandably so. But the harms that have resulted from transforming childhood so suddenly and heedlessly go far beyond mental health. I've touched on some of them-social awkwardness, reduced self-confidence, and a more sedentary childhood. Here are three additional harms.

Fragmented Attention, Disrupted Learning

Staying on task while sitting at a computer is hard enough for an adult with a fully developed prefrontal cortex. It is far more difficult for adolescents in front of their laptop trying to do homework. They are probably less intrinsically motivated to stay on task. They're certainly less able, given their undeveloped prefrontal cortex, and hence it's easy for any company with an app to lure them away with an offer of social validation or entertainment. Their phones are pinging constantly- one study found that the typical adolescent now gets 237 notifications a day, roughly 15 every waking hour. Sustained attention is essential for doing almost anything big, creative, or valuable, yet young people find their attention chopped up into little bits by notifications offering the possibility of high-pleasure, low-effort digital experiences.

Addiction and Social Withdrawal

The neural basis of behavioral addiction to social media or video games is not exactly the same as chemical addiction to cocaine or opioids. Nonetheless, they all involve abnormally heavy and sustained activation of dopamine neurons and reward pathways. Over time, the brain adapts to these high levels of dopamine; when the child is not engaged in digital activity, their brain doesn't have enough dopamine, and the child experiences withdrawal symptoms. These generally include anxiety, insomnia, and intense irritability. Kids with these kinds of behavioral addictions often become surly and aggressive, and withdraw from their families into their bedrooms and devices.

Social-media and gaming platforms were designed to hook users. How successful are they? How many kids suffer from digital addictions?

The main addiction risks for boys seem to be video games and porn. " Internet gaming disorder," which was added to the main diagnosis manual of psychiatry in 2013 as a condition for further study, describes "significant impairment or distress" in several aspects of life, along with many hallmarks of addiction, including an inability to reduce usage despite attempts to do so. Estimates for the prevalence of IGD range from 7 to 15 percent among adolescent boys and young men. As for porn, a nationally representative survey of American adults published in 2019 found that 7 percent of American men agreed or strongly agreed with the statement "I am addicted to pornography"-and the rates were higher for the youngest men.

Girls have much lower rates of addiction to video games and porn, but they use social media more intensely than boys do. A study of teens in 29 nations found that between 5 and 15 percent of adolescents engage in what is called "problematic social media use," which includes symptoms such as preoccupation, withdrawal symptoms, neglect of other areas of life, and lying to parents and friends about time spent on social media. That study did not break down results by gender, but many others have found that rates of "problematic use" are higher for girls.
Jonathan Haidt: The dangerous experiment on teen girls
I don't want to overstate the risks: Most teens do not become addicted to their phones and video games. But across multiple studies and across genders, rates of problematic use come out in the ballpark of 5 to 15 percent. Is there any other consumer product that parents would let their children use relatively freely if they knew that something like one in 10 kids would end up with a pattern of habitual and compulsive use that disrupted various domains of life and looked a lot like an addiction?

The Decay of Wisdom and the Loss of Meaning

During that crucial sensitive period for cultural learning, from roughly ages 9 through 15, we should be especially thoughtful about who is socializing our children for adulthood. Instead, that's when most kids get their first smartphone and sign themselves up (with or without parental permission) to consume rivers of content from random strangers. Much of that content is produced by other adolescents, in blocks of a few minutes or a few seconds.

This rerouting of enculturating content has created a generation that is largely cut off from older generations and, to some extent, from the accumulated wisdom of humankind, including knowledge about how to live a flourishing life. Adolescents spend less time steeped in their local or national culture. They are coming of age in a confusing, placeless, ahistorical maelstrom of 30-second stories curated by algorithms designed to mesmerize them. Without solid knowledge of the past and the filtering of good ideas from bad--a process that plays out over many generations--young people will be more prone to believe whatever terrible ideas become popular around them, which might explain why v ideos showing young people reacting positively to Osama bin Laden's thoughts about America were trending on TikTok last fall.

All this is made worse by the fact that so much of digital public life is an unending supply of micro dramas about somebody somewhere in our country of 340 million people who did something that can fuel an outrage cycle, only to be pushed aside by the next. It doesn't add up to anything and leaves behind only a distorted sense of human nature and affairs.

When our public life becomes fragmented, ephemeral, and incomprehensible, it is a recipe for anomie, or normlessness. The great French sociologist Émile Durkheim showed long ago that a society that fails to bind its people together with some shared sense of sacredness and common respect for rules and norms is not a society of great individual freedom; it is, rather, a place where disoriented individuals have difficulty setting goals and exerting themselves to achieve them. Durkheim argued that anomie was a major driver of suicide rates in European countries. Modern scholars continue to draw on his work to understand suicide rates today.

Percentage of U.S. high-school seniors who agreed with the statement "Life often seems meaningless." (Source: Monitoring the Future)

Durkheim's observations are crucial for understanding what happened in the early 2010s. A long-running survey of American teens found that, from 1990 to 2010, high-school seniors became slightly less likely to agree with statements such as "Life often feels meaningless." But as soon as they adopted a phone-based life and many began to live in the whirlpool of social media, where no stability can be found, every measure of despair increased. From 2010 to 2019, the number who agreed that their lives felt "meaningless" increased by about 70 percent, to more than one in five.

6. Young People Don't Like Their Phone-Based Lives

How can I be confident that the epidemic of adolescent mental illness was kicked off by the arrival of the phone-based childhood? Skeptics point to other events as possible culprits, including the 2008 global financial crisis, global warming, the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting and the subsequent active-shooter drills, rising academic pressures, and the opioid epidemic. But while these events might have been contributing factors in some countries, none can explain both the timing and international scope of the disaster.

An additional source of evidence comes from Gen Z itself. With all the talk of regulating social media, raising age limits, and getting phones out of schools, you might expect to find many members of Gen Z writing and speaking out in opposition. I've looked for such arguments and found hardly any. In contrast, many young adults tell stories of devastation.

Freya India, a 24-year-old British essayist who writes about girls, explains how social-media sites carry girls off to unhealthy places: "It seems like your child is simply watching some makeup tutorials, following some mental health influencers, or experimenting with their identity. But let me tell you: they are on a conveyor belt to someplace bad. Whatever insecurity or vulnerability they are struggling with, they will be pushed further and further into it." She continues:

Gen Z were the guinea pigs in this uncontrolled global social experiment. We were the first to have our vulnerabilities and insecurities fed into a machine that magnified and refracted them back at us, all the time, before we had any sense of who we were. We didn't just grow up with algorithms. They raised us. They rearranged our faces. Shaped our identities. Convinced us we were sick.

Rikki Schlott, a 23-year-old American journalist and co-author of The Canceling of the American Mind, writes,

The day-to-day life of a typical teen or tween today would be unrecognizable to someone who came of age before the smartphone arrived. Zoomers are spending an average of 9 hours daily in this screen-time doom loop-desperate to forget the gaping holes they're bleeding out of, even if just for ... 9 hours a day. Uncomfortable silence could be time to ponder why they're so miserable in the first place. Drowning it out with algorithmic white noise is far easier.

A 27-year-old man who spent his adolescent years addicted (his word) to video games and pornography sent me this reflection on what that did to him:

I missed out on a lot of stuff in life-a lot of socialization. I feel the effects now: meeting new people, talking to people. I feel that my interactions are not as smooth and fluid as I want. My knowledge of the world (geography, politics, etc.) is lacking. I didn't spend time having conversations or learning about sports. I often feel like a hollow operating system.

Or consider what Facebook found in a research project involving focus groups of young people, revealed in 2021 by the whistleblower Frances Haugen: "Teens blame Instagram for increases in the rates of anxiety and depression among teens," an internal document said. "This reaction was unprompted and consistent across all groups."

How can it be that an entire generation is hooked on consumer products that so few praise and so many ultimately regret using? Because smartphones and especially social media have put members of Gen Z and their parents into a series of collective-action traps. Once you understand the dynamics of these traps, the escape routes become clear.

7. Collective-Action Problems

Social-media companies such as Meta, TikTok, and Snap are often compared to tobacco companies, but that's not really fair to the tobacco industry. It's true that companies in both industries marketed harmful products to children and tweaked their products for maximum customer retention (that is, addiction), but there's a big difference: Teens could and did choose, in large numbers, not to smoke. Even at the peak of teen cigarette use, in 1997, nearly two-thirds of high-school students did not smoke.

Social media, in contrast, applies a lot more pressure on nonusers, at a much younger age and in a more insidious way. Once a few students in any middle school lie about their age and open accounts at age 11 or 12, they start posting photos and comments about themselves and other students. Drama ensues. The pressure on everyone else to join becomes intense. Even a girl who knows, consciously, that Instagram can foster beauty obsession, anxiety, and eating disorders might sooner take those risks than accept the seeming certainty of being out of the loop, clueless, and excluded. And indeed, if she resists while most of her classmates do not, she might, in fact, be marginalized, which puts her at risk for anxiety and depression, though via a different pathway than the one taken by those who use social media heavily. In this way, social media accomplishes a remarkable feat: It even harms adolescents who do not use it.
From the May 2022 issue: Jonathan Haidt on why the past 10 years of American life have been uniquely stupid
A recent study led by the University of Chicago economist Leonardo Bursztyn captured the dynamics of the social-media trap precisely. The researchers recruited more than 1,000 college students and asked them how much they'd need to be paid to deactivate their accounts on either Instagram or TikTok for four weeks. That's a standard economist's question to try to compute the net value of a product to society. On average, students said they'd need to be paid roughly $50 ($59 for TikTok, $47 for Instagram) to deactivate whichever platform they were asked about. Then the experimenters told the students that they were going to try to get most of the others in their school to deactivate that same platform, offering to pay them to do so as well, and asked, Now how much would you have to be paid to deactivate, if most others did so? The answer, on average, was less than zero. In each case, most students were willing to pay to have that happen.

Social media is all about network effects. Most students are only on it because everyone else is too. Most of them would prefer that nobody be on these platforms. Later in the study, students were asked directly, "Would you prefer to live in a world without Instagram [or TikTok]?" A majority of students said yes--58 percent for each app.

This is the textbook definition of what social scientists call a collective-action problem. It's what happens when a group would be better off if everyone in the group took a particular action, but each actor is deterred from acting, because unless the others do the same, the personal cost outweighs the benefit. Fishermen considering limiting their catch to avoid wiping out the local fish population are caught in this same kind of trap. If no one else does it too, they just lose profit.

Cigarettes trapped individual smokers with a biological addiction. Social media has trapped an entire generation in a collective-action problem. Early app developers deliberately and knowingly exploited the psychological weaknesses and insecurities of young people to pressure them to consume a product that, upon reflection, many wish they could use less, or not at all.

8. Four Norms to Break Four Traps

Young people and their parents are stuck in at least four collective-action traps. Each is hard to escape for an individual family, but escape becomes much easier if families, schools, and communities coordinate and act together. Here are four norms that would roll back the phone-based childhood. I believe that any community that adopts all four will see substantial improvements in youth mental health within two years.

No smartphones before high school

The trap here is that each child thinks they need a smartphone because "everyone else" has one, and many parents give in because they don't want their child to feel excluded. But if no one else had a smartphone-or even if, say, only half of the child's sixth-grade class had one-parents would feel more comfortable providing a basic flip phone (or no phone at all). Delaying round-the-clock internet access until ninth grade (around age 14) as a national or community norm would help to protect adolescents during the very vulnerable first few years of puberty. According to a 2022 British study, these are the years when social-media use is most correlated with poor mental health. Family policies about tablets, laptops, and video-game consoles should be aligned with smartphone restrictions to prevent overuse of other screen activities.

No social media before 16

The trap here, as with smartphones, is that each adolescent feels a strong need to open accounts on TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, and other platforms primarily because that's where most of their peers are posting and gossiping. But if the majority of adolescents were not on these accounts until they were 16, families and adolescents could more easily resist the pressure to sign up. The delay would not mean that kids younger than 16 could never watch videos on TikTok or YouTube-only that they could not open accounts, give away their data, post their own content, and let algorithms get to know them and their preferences.

Most schools claim that they ban phones, but this usually just means that students aren't supposed to take their phone out of their pocket during class. Research shows that most students do use their phones during class time. They also use them during lunchtime, free periods, and breaks between classes--times when students could and should be interacting with their classmates face-to-face. The only way to get students' minds off their phones during the school day is to require all students to put their phones (and other devices that can send or receive texts) into a phone locker or locked pouch at the start of the day. Schools that have gone phone-free always seem to report that it has improved the culture, making students more attentive in class and more interactive with one another. Published studies back them up.

More independence, free play, and responsibility in the real world

Many parents are afraid to give their children the level of independence and responsibility they themselves enjoyed when they were young, even though rates of homicide, drunk driving, and other physical threats to children are way down in recent decades. Part of the fear comes from the fact that parents look at each other to determine what is normal and therefore safe, and they see few examples of families acting as if a 9-year-old can be trusted to walk to a store without a chaperone. But if many parents started sending their children out to play or run errands, then the norms of what is safe and accepted would change quickly. So would ideas about what constitutes "good parenting." And if more parents trusted their children with more responsibility--for example, by asking their kids to do more to help out, or to care for others--then the pervasive sense of uselessness now found in surveys of high-school students might begin to dissipate.

It would be a mistake to overlook this fourth norm. If parents don't replace screen time with real-world experiences involving friends and independent activity, then banning devices will feel like deprivation, not the opening up of a world of opportunities.

The main reason why the phone-based childhood is so harmful is because it pushes aside everything else. Smartphones are experience blockers. Our ultimate goal should not be to remove screens entirely, nor should it be to return childhood to exactly the way it was in 1960. Rather, it should be to create a version of childhood and adolescence that keeps young people anchored in the real world while flourishing in the digital age.

9. What Are We Waiting For?

An essential function of government is to solve collective-action problems. Congress could solve or help solve the ones I've highlighted-for instance, by raising the age of "internet adulthood" to 16 and requiring tech companies to keep underage children off their sites.

In recent decades, however, Congress has not been good at addressing public concerns when the solutions would displease a powerful and deep-pocketed industry. Governors and state legislators have been much more effective, and their successes might let us evaluate how well various reforms work. But the bottom line is that to change norms, we're going to need to do most of the work ourselves, in neighborhood groups, schools, and other communities.
Read: Why Congress keeps failing to protect kids online
There are now hundreds of organizations--most of them started by mothers who saw what smartphones had done to their children--that are working to roll back the phone-based childhood or promote a more independent, real-world childhood. (I have assembled a list of many of them.) One that I co-founded, at LetGrow.org, suggests a variety of simple programs for parents or schools, such as play club (schools keep the playground open at least one day a week before or after school, and kids sign up for phone-free, mixed-age, unstructured play as a regular weekly activity) and the Let Grow Experience (a series of homework assignments in which students--with their parents' consent--choose something to do on their own that they've never done before, such as walk the dog, climb a tree, walk to a store, or cook dinner).

Even without the help of organizations, parents could break their families out of collective-action traps if they coordinated with the parents of their children's friends. Together they could create common smartphone rules and organize unsupervised play sessions or encourage hangouts at a home, park, or shopping mall.

Parents are fed up with what childhood has become. Many are tired of having daily arguments about technologies that were designed to grab hold of their children's attention and not let go. But the phone-based childhood is not inevitable.

The four norms I have proposed cost almost nothing to implement, they cause no clear harm to anyone, and while they could be supported by new legislation, they can be instilled even without it. We can begin implementing all of them right away, this year, especially in communities with good cooperation between schools and parents. A single memo from a principal asking parents to delay smartphones and social media, in support of the school's effort to improve mental health by going phone free, would catalyze collective action and reset the community's norms.

We didn't know what we were doing in the early 2010s. Now we do. It's time to end the phone-based childhood.
This article is adapted from Jonathan Haidt's forthcoming book, The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness.

​When you buy a book using a link on this page, we receive a commission. Thank you for supporting The Atlantic.

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The environment in which kids grow up today is hostile to human development.

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Did you know that the negative effects of too much screen time for babies and toddlers range from shorter attention span to lower empathy?

Carlota Nelson, director of the documentary Brain Matters, explores why too much screen time can harm babies and the importance of ensuring children enjoy off-screen experiences.

Babies, toddlers and screen time

In today's tech and media-driven world, many parents use screens to keep young children entertained or distracted while they juggle other needs. It works. Screens captivate children's attention in a way almost nothing else does, allowing parents a bit of a breather. But what is the impact of screens on young brains and how much screen time should they be exposed to?

Brain scientists who study the impact of screens on baby brains don't have all the answers yet, but what they do know will help parents understand how critical it is to provide off-screen experiences. Only then will children learn, improve their social and cognitive skills and be healthier and happier in the future.

Babies learn the most from human interaction

Patricia Kuhl is one of the world's leading brain scientists and runs experiments with more than 4,000 babies each year. "What we've discovered is that little babies, under a year old, do not learn from a machine," she says, pointing to several brain scans on a computer. "Even if you show them captivating videos, the difference in learning is extraordinary. You get genius learning from a live human being, and you get zero learning from a machine."

Perhaps that is why the World Health Organization recommends no screen time for babies under 2 and no more than one hour of screen time a day for those aged 2 to 4.

Screens hijack attention spans

For children to be successful, they need to learn how to concentrate and focus. That ability starts to develop during their earliest years when their brains are more sensitive to the environments around them. For a brain to develop and grow, it needs essential stimuli from the outside world. More importantly, they need time to process those stimuli. While reading storybooks out loud gives children time to process words, images and voices, the constant absorption of on-screen images and messages affects their attention span and focus.

Screens curtail ability to control impulses

Young children need their dose of boredom. It teaches them how to cope with frustration and control their impulses. If young children are constantly being stimulated by screens, they forget how to rely on themselves or others for entertainment. This leads to frustration and hinders imagination and motivation.

Screens reduce empathy

Research has shown that screen time inhibits young children's ability to read faces and learn social skills, two key factors needed to develop empathy. Face-to-face interactions are the only way young children learn to understand non-verbal cues and interpret them.

"Until babies develop language," says Charles Nelson, a Harvard neuroscientist who studies the impact of neglect on children's brains, "all communication is non-verbal, so they depend heavily on looking at a face and deriving meaning from that face. Is this person happy with me, or are they upset at me?" That two-way interaction between children and adult caregivers is critically important for brain development.

Exposure to screens reduces babies' ability to read human emotion and control their frustration. It also detracts from activities that help boost their brain power, like play and interacting with other children. But if you have to rely on screens at certain moments, just make sure to control the quality of what they see and engage with them while they're watching. The benefits of limiting and even eliminating screen time in these early moments will last a lifetime.

Carlota Nelson is the writer and director of Brain Matters, a groundbreaking feature documentary about early brain development in children. Before filming began, Carlota spent eight months researching early childhood development with the world's leading neuroscientists and members of the early childhood development community.

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Find out why, and how, too much screen time can harm your child

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What Does Too Much Screen Time do to Kids Brains? 

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What Does Too Much Screen Time do to Kids Brains? 

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Child behavioral expert Dr. Jennifer Cross explains why screen time should be limited for kids and why some screens are better than others.

Consider this: Nearly half of all children 8 and under have their own tablet device and spend an average of about 2.25 hours a day on digital screens, according to Common Sense Media.

What is all this screen time doing to kids' brains?

This week, a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Pediatrics found that screen time may be associated with delayed development in young children. The findings were based on parent reports of screen time use at 1 year and developmental skills at ages 2 and 4 years from a group of nearly 8,000 young children. According to data, using a validated screening tool, 1-year-olds who were exposed to more than four hours of screen time per day showed delays in communication and problem solving at ages 2 and 4. Also, more screen time for 1-year-olds was associated with developmental delays in fine motor and personal and social skills at age 2.

This research supports several previous studies that have shown a correlation between the amount of screen time among young children and the presence of developmental delays particularly in communication and problem-solving skills. A landmark National Institutes of Health (NIH) study that began in 2018, for example, found that children who spent more than two hours a day on screen-time activities scored lower on language and thinking tests, and some children with more than seven hours a day of screen time experienced thinning of the brain's cortex, the area of the brain related to critical thinking and reasoning.

"There is emerging evidence that there may be some structural brain changes associated with greater exposure to screen time as a young child," says Dr. Jennifer F. Cross, attending pediatrician and a developmental and behavioral pediatrics expert at NewYork-Presbyterian Komansky Children's Hospital. "If young children spend most of their time engaging with an iPad, smartphone, or the television, all of which are highly entertaining, it can be hard to get them engaged in non-electronic activities, such as playing with toys to foster imagination and creativity, exploring outdoors, and playing with other children to develop appropriate social skills."

Health Matters spoke with Dr. Cross, also an assistant professor of clinical pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medicine, about the impact of screen time on kids' developing brains and what parents and caregivers can do.

We know that kids have easy access to screens, now more than ever. But how do screens affect early childhood development?
For young children, especially those under the age of 3, development is happening rapidly. Young children learn by exploring their environment and watching the adults in their lives and then imitating them. Excessive screen time may inhibit a child's ability to observe and experience the typical everyday activities they need to engage with in order to learn about the world, leading to a kind of "tunnel vision," which can be detrimental to overall development.

When I see children walking with a parent or being pushed in a stroller, they are often playing on a smartphone or a tablet and not paying attention to anything else around them. They will not learn about the world around them if all they're doing is looking at a smartphone. This will not just affect their ability to learn new things, but also how they interact with others and how language develops.

How does screen time impact a child's ability to learn?
To a young child everything is new. Children need to explore their environment using all their senses to learn about the world, so it is very important that they can interact with three-dimensional spaces and activities. This provides so much more information than watching a two-dimensional picture on a screen.

Studies have shown that children under 2 learn less from a video than when learning from another person, and it appears that although children will watch the TV screen by 6 months, understanding the content does not generally occur until after age 2. It's not that they won't be captivated by what's on the screen, but they're not learning from it.

A child will not learn to stack blocks by watching it on a screen. They will learn by touching the blocks, feeling the texture and weight of different materials, and using trial and error to get one to balance on another. This is early problem solving. So, in addition to limiting screen time, it is important to encourage a child to get involved in experiential learning through play with toys because that fosters early problem solving and creativity.

Language development expands rapidly between 1½ to 3 years of age, and studies have shown that children learn language best when engaging and interacting with adults who are talking and playing with them. There is also some evidence that children who watch a lot of television during the early elementary school years perform less well on reading tests and may show deficits in attention.

"There is also some evidence that children who watch a lot of television during the early elementary school years perform less well on reading tests and may show deficits in attention."
- Dr. Jennifer Cross

Tell us more about how screen time affects language and communication.
Research shows that talking with children in a reciprocal dialogue is extremely important for language development and social interaction. It's that back-and-forth "conversation," sharing facial expressions and reacting to the other person - in real life, rather than "passive" listening or one-way interaction with a screen - that improves language and communication skills in young children.

What age is appropriate to introduce screens?
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends avoiding screens for children younger than 18 to 24 months, except when video chatting with family. The AAP also recommends limiting screen use for preschool children, ages 2 to 5, to just one hour a day of high-quality programming (think Sesame Street or PBS).

When something needs to get done around the house, it can be helpful to have a young child otherwise engaged and entertained. My advice then to parents is to turn on a short TV show like Sesame Street or Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood - something educational and fun that shows characters interacting and playing cooperatively to model good social skills - rather than giving their child a tablet or a phone. And, if possible, it's best to watch the educational programming with the child so you can actively engage with them about what they're watching and learning.

Suggested Screen Time Use By Age

18 Months and Younger
Avoid use of screen media other than video-chatting.

18 - 24 Months
Parents of children 18 to 24 months of age who want to introduce digital media should choose high-quality programming, and watch it with their children to help them understand what they're seeing.

2 - 5 Years
Limit screen use to 1 hour per day of high-quality programs. Parents should co-view media with children to help them understand what they are seeing and apply it to the world around them.

6 - 12 Years
Place consistent limits on the time spent using media and the types of media, and make sure media does not take the place of adequate sleep, physical activity, and other behaviors essential to health.

12 Years and Older
Designate media-free times together, such as dinner or driving, as well as media-free locations at home, such as bedrooms.

How might screens impact a child's sleep?
As humans, our circadian rhythms and our production of melatonin - the sleep hormone - kicks in when the sun sets. But the blue light from screens inhibits melatonin, which can delay sleep. And watching TV or playing games also keeps our brains and bodies more alert and activated and less ready for sleep. (Tablets and smartphones will suppress the melatonin more than TVs because the screen, and that blue light, is closer to the face.)

According to one study, infants 6 to 12 months old who were exposed to screens in the evening showed significantly shorter nighttime sleep than those who had no evening screen exposure.

For preteens and teenagers, excessive use of screens late at night will affect their sleep, and keeping screens out of the bedroom is advised. Too much time spent on social media as well as lack of sleep can affect behavior and cognitive performance in school and interfere with learning. It has also been shown that excessive screen time and sleep deprivation are linked to obesity, which in turn can affect self-esteem and lead to social isolation and more screen time.

How addictive can digital screens be for young kids?
The problem with mobile devices is that they draw you in, and as we all know it's easy to waste time surfing the internet. They are also so portable and ubiquitous that we cannot manage without them. As adults, we understand some of the drawbacks and make a conscious decision to put the phone down, but for 2- or 3-year-olds, who don't have any understanding of these concerns, if they have been exposed to the phone/tablet since infancy, it becomes their norm and they want to do more of it.

We should also be careful of relying on using screens to distract a child from a problem rather than having them figure it out and learn to resolve it themselves. Using a favorite song to distract a young child who has just fallen and scraped their knee might be OK, but having the parent comfort and cuddle with the child and talk to them is better. Using screen time to distract young children who are having trouble sharing a toy will not help them learn how to share and take turns in the future, although it may be a quick fix in the short term.

Are some screens worse than others?
Television isn't as bad as it was once perceived to be as it can be controlled more easily and stays in one place. Tablets and smartphones are much more accessible because they're portable. You can take them anywhere and use them at any time.

I believe YouTube is generally bad for young children. If left to their own devices, children are often better than their parents at finding their favorite videos that link to other videos and can lead to hours of watching endless clips. The largely unregulated nature of the site allows children to watch almost anything; at best there is little educational value, and at worst it can be violent or inappropriate content. Again, the best course of action is to watch with the child so the parent is engaged in finding content that is appropriate and educational.

What tips do you have for parents to limit screen time for kids?
1. Co-watch whenever possible. If children are going to have screen time, the best thing you can do is to watch the show or game with them to help them understand what they're seeing. Comment on things you notice, ask questions about what is happening, if someone on a show is singing a song, sing along with your child. Engage with them and repeat concepts after the show is over so they're more likely to retain that information.

2. Choose media wisely. Look to organizations like Common Sense Media for reviews about age-appropriate apps, games, and programs to guide you in making the best choices for your children.

3. Keep bedtime, mealtime, and family time screen-free. Don't use screens in the car except for long trips, and consider setting a curfew or an agreed-upon time when your family shuts off all screens. Balancing online and offline time is extremely important.

4. Limit your own phone use. Kids will do what they see their parents doing. At a young age, their parent(s) is the most important person in their life, so they will model whatever behavior they are seeing. If they see that you're behind a screen all day every day, then they'll see that it's acceptable and will want to do the same.

5. Emphasize the big three: sleep, healthy nutrition, and exercise. All three are essential to optimal brain growth and development and health and wellness for children and adults alike. And excessive screen time can impact all three. Children who spend more time in front of screens have been shown to eat more fast food and less fruits and vegetables and get less sleep and exercise. Therefore, it is very important to incorporate healthy lifestyle choices as part of the daily routine, as well as limiting screen time.
Read more on children's health. See tips on how to develop a Family Media Use Plan.

Jennifer F. Cross, M.D., is an attending pediatrician at NewYork-Presbyterian Komansky Children's Hospital and an assistant professor of clinical pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medicine. An expert in the diagnosis and management of children with developmental disabilities, Dr. Cross is board-certified in developmental and behavioral pediatrics.

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What Does Too Much Screen Time Do to Kids' Brains?

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Dr. Jennifer Cross, developmental and behavioral pediatrics expert, explains the harmful effects of too much screen time on early childhood development.

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Mayo Clinic: Why Reducing Screen Time Matters

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Mayo Clinic: Why Reducing Screen Time Matters

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Screened devices are common, but there are health benefits to reducing screen time. Get six tips to help your family trim screen time.

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Experts recommend limiting children's screen time. Consider the effects of too much, and discover how to reduce it using these steps.

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National Institute of Health: Effects of Excessive Screen Time  

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National Institute of Health: Effects of Excessive Screen Time  

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✉
Sudheer Kumar Muppalla msudheer.drgmail.com ✉Corresponding author.

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Effects of Excessive Screen Time on Child Development: An Updated Review and Strategies for Management

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Children’s heavy reliance on screen media has raised serious public health issues since it might harm their cognitive, linguistic, and social-emotional growth. This study examines the effects of screen time on many developmental domains and covers…

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"Heavy Work" Ideas to Develop the Proprioceptive System  

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"Heavy Work" Ideas to Develop the Proprioceptive System  

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Heavy work activities (i.e., proprioceptive input) are used for children with sensory processing difficulties to help increase attention, decrease defensiveness, and modulate arousal.

Proprioceptive input is the performance of tasks that involves heavy resistance and input to the muscles and joints, and is essential in helping our bodies assimilate and process both movement (vestibular) and touch (tactile) information.

Heavy work activities include:

Whole body actions involving pushing, pulling, lifting, playing, and moving

Oral actions such as chewing, sucking, and blowing

Use of hands for squeezing, pinching, or "fidgeting"
This resistive input obtained through heavy work activities is generally organizing and can improve attention, arousal level, body awareness and muscle tone, as well as decreasing defensiveness.
Proprioception is a form of sensory input to the muscles and joints which makes us aware of our "position in space" (i.e., where we are in relation to other objects or people). Children who have difficulty interpreting proprioceptive input have trouble grading and planning their movements and regulating their level of arousal.

You may see a child who accidentally breaks things often, appears clumsy and uncoordinated and may have an excessive need to crash and bump into objects, walls and people.

If they are seeking out excessive proprioceptive input, they are looking for a way to calm and organize their nervous system. They may seem disruptive, full of excessive energy, or even unsafe. These are the crashers, jumpers, movers, and shakers! These are the children we ABSOLUTELY want to target with heavy work activities. It WILL make a difference in them!

The following is an extensive list of heavy work activities and proprioceptive activities that may help regulate a child's arousal level, concentration, ability to fall asleep or sit still and attend to a task.

Keep in mind, the type of heavy work activities, timing and duration is most effective when directed by a professional (such as an Occupational Therapist) knowledgeable about this type of proprioceptive input.

It is also important to note which activities calm your child, arouse them, or over arouse them. This is very unique to each individual and must be observed and treated as such!

You want to choose activities THEY are interested in and that IMPROVE their state of arousal to its most functional point.

Gross Motor Activities
Carrying objects, such as...
Wearing a weighted vest , weighted hat, or weighted shorts.

Wearing wrist or ankle weights

Using a weighted lap pad or weighted blanket

Swimming with or without swim weights
Pushing or pulling objects and activities, such as...
Jumping and bouncing on/with items, such as...

Wheelbarrow walk relays

Potato sac/ jumping bag races

Lizard crawl (belly on floor, push self with elbows)

Climbing/hanging on things, such as...

Body Sox (TM) or a Super Shape Changer

Walking/running/playing in the sand

"Sandwich"/ Squishing activities...

Crabwalk (hands and feet on floor, belly up) games, such as...

Fine Motor/Upper Extremity Activities
Resistive tools or toys, such as...

Working at vertical surfaces (at/above eye level), such as...

Fidget or play with stretchy/squishy items, such as...Resistive surfaces, such as...

(Click Here For Tons Of Fine Motor Skills Activity Ideas And Products!)
Cooking activities, such as...

sidewalk chalk on driveway/sidewalk/playground

color pictures taped over sandpaper

use sanding block to sand wood project

brush the family dog

Use weighted pens, pencils or utensils

Multi-person parachute games and activities
Resistive sucking using items such as...
Etch-a-Sketch with resistive knobs (shaking with both arms to clear screen)
Blowing activities, such as...
Dig and play in the sand toy backhoe , or with some cool beach and sandbox toys using sand and water tables or, wooden covered sandboxes

Oral Motor Activities:

through thin curly straws krazy straws

sports bottle with long straw

lollipops

popsicles

drink milkshake with a straw

hard candies

peanut butter

Related Resources

Sensory Diet Behavior and Body Awareness Flash Card Deck - Super Duper Educational Learning Toy for Kids

Sensory Processing Disorder Checklist - comprehensive SPD Checklist; signs and symptoms of tactile, auditory, olfactory and oral defensiveness, as well as proprioceptive and vestibular dysfunction.

The Out-of-Sync Child Has Fun, Revised Edition: Activities for Kids with Sensory Processing Disorder (The Out-of-Sync Child Series)

Everyday Games for Sensory Processing Disorder: 100 Playful Activities to Empower Children with Sensory Differences

Check out more great products, heavy work activities, and ideas within these two articles... Sensory Integration Activities and Sensory Integration Products

Childrens Playground Equipment - A comprehensive article on the benefits, and a great selection of, children's playground equipment. This includes; outdoor, indoor, wooden or plastic playground equipment, AND climbers or swing sets.

Oral Sensitivities - A great resource for the signs of oral sensitivities (hypersensitive or hyposensitive) as it relates to Sensory Processing Disorders, as well as great treatment ideas!

Proprioception And Proprioceptive Dysfunction - An in-depth article defining proprioceptive dysfunction; signs and symptoms to help you understand the REAL reason your child may not be able to learn new motor tasks or has a high energy level.

Sensory Room - extremely therapeutic for both children and adults with, or without, sensory processing/sensory integration disorders.

Leave Heavy Work Activities And Return To The Sensory Processing Disorder
Home Page

Copyright © www.sensory-processing-disorder.com

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Heavy work activities (i.e., proprioceptive input) are used for children with sensory processing difficulties to help increase attention, decrease defensiveness, and modulate arousal. Proprioceptive input is the performance of tasks that involves heavy resistance and input to the muscles and joints, and is essential in helping our bodies assimilate and process both movement (vestibular) and touch (tactile) information.

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Seven? Yes, seven.

Beyond the five senses we learn about in school (sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch) there are actually two more: the vestibular system (sense of balance) and proprioception (our intuitive sense of space and position).

Now, I realize these may not be words you're familiar. So you might be surprised to hear that the vestibular system and the proprioceptive sense make possible just about everything we do (even sleeping). And they do so without our notice. That's because, as adults, we've had years of experience with these senses so they are automatic to us.

But they are NOT automatic to kids. Like the other five senses, kids need to learn what these senses are trying to tell them through the trial-and-error process of everyday living, playing, and moving. And because they guide and govern how we use our bodies, the vestibular and proprioceptive senses contribute to every major milestone and are often behind those fall-down-and-go-boom moments.

So, let's take a quick tour these two not-so-well-known senses...

SENSE #6 - THE VESTIBULAR SYSTEM (BALANCE)

The vestibular system is the scientific term for our sense of balance, responsible for keeping us upright and in balance. And if you think about it, without balance, we pretty much couldn't do anything. For instance, if you're reading this sitting down, your vestibular system is keeping you upright and in the chair. Now, you might be thinking the chair is keeping you upright, but in fact, if your brain didn't understand which way was up, you'd tip right over. And notice how you don't have to THINK about staying upright. Your vestibular system is doing it for you automatically, every day, 24 hours a day.

Conversely, kids are focused on their balance a lot. Have you ever noticed when a child sits in a chair he fidgets around? Yes, sometimes he has to go to the bathroom, but quite often, what you're seeing is his vestibular system at work with his body, helping him adjust himself to feel in balance. In fact, whenever a child moves (on or off the chair, indoors or out, fast or slow, right-side up or upside down, etc., etc.), his inner ear reacts to and records those movements, giving his brain important information about the body's orientation at any given moment. Over time and with lots of different kinds of movement, his brain will begin to determine what is and isn't "in balance" for him.

SENSE #7 - PROPRIOCEPTION (SPACE & POSITION)

Proprioception, or what I call Intuition, is our body and brain working together to understand and navigate space and objects. Again, for adults this is automatic and intuitive. Without thinking about it, you know if your body will fit through a passageway. You climb stairs without looking at them. You have a sense of how much strength you need to push open a door. And you don't fall out of bed at night. Your proprioceptive sensors (residing in your muscles, tendons, and ligaments) have helped you develop these navigation skills over many years of practical, everyday movements and experiences with space and objects.

A child, of course, is less experienced so so it's not automatic yet. We can guide him, but only to a point. That's because the only way for a child to truly know his own body is to use it. And yes, that includes bumping into furniture, tripping over his own feet, pushing too hard, and all those other things we think of as kid-clumsy. It's just his body and brain working together to learn about his environment using his proprioceptive senses to pave the way.

WHY IS HE STILL CLUMSY?

Parents often ask me when kids will stop being so clumsy. Surely, if they can walk, run, and jump, they must have mastered these senses by now?

Well, of course, those physical capabilities are signs of his maturing vestibular and proprioceptive senses. But he's not done yet for one simple reason... he's growing. As the body changes, the brain needs to readjust its understanding of balance, orientation, and of course, space. And that will take all of his growing years. For instance, the play tunnel he could walk through last year, he has to duck down to get through this year. Next year, he'll probably have to get on all-fours and crawl through it.

The thing to look out for isn't when he bumps into things, but when he begins navigating things on his own. That's when all his senses, his life experience (memory), and emerging problem solving skills are combining to give him an automatic sense of himself... without the fall-down-and-go-boom part.

You can find more information on the Vestibular and Proprioceptive senses in our book A Moving Child Is a Learning Child by Free Spirit Publishing.

Like the other senses, developing the vestibular and proprioceptive senses actually begins before birth and continues all throughout the early years of life. Simple, everyday, playful activities help teach the brain what balance, space, and position feel like

FOR YOUNG BABIES (PRE-WALKING)

Sit in a chair so you're very steady, and hold baby upright close to your chest so he feels your sense of touch all around his body. Supporting baby's neck and back (see photographs), very slowly lean baby back and rest him horizontally on your lap. Hold for a few moments, then continuing to support his neck and back, tip baby back so that his feel are slightly above his head in an upside down position. Hold again for a few moments, then slowly bring baby back to your lap, then back up to your chest.

PLEASE NOTE: As with any activity with young children, go slow and be very gentle with your movements. If at any time you feel baby is not enjoying the activity, stop immediately. You can always try it another time.

WHAT'S HAPPENING HERE? First, by holding him close so he feels your touch 360 degrees around his body, you are giving his proprioceptive senses an all-over feel for his own body. Then, by slowly and gently changing his orientation (starting with his head up, then horizontal, then slightly upside down his vestibular system recognizes and records these changes in position, giving his brain important clues to all the possible ways the body can move.

LET'S GO FOR A SPIN!

FOR TODDLERS ABLE TO SIT UP ON THEIR OWN WITHOUT SUPPORT

Find a cardboard box big enough for the child to sit in and hold onto the sides. Sit the child in the box, then slowly spin the box around. As the child gets accustomed to the sensations give him a gentle ride around the room in different directions, spinning, zig-zagging, etc.

WHAT'S HAPPENING HERE? Sitting the child in the box gives him a sense of himself fitting into space (proprioception). When you spin him or give him a ride, his brain is using the vestibular system to keep his orientation upright and in balance.

FOR PRESCHOOLERS ABLE TO CRAWL, WALK, AND RUN

Lay out a plank several inches off the ground, threading one or more hoops through the plank. (See photograph). Encourage the child to crawl across the plank. Each time he reaches the hoop, encourage him to crawl through the hoop while maintain his balance on the plank. As the child gains confidence, suggest trying to walk across the plank, crawling through the hoops as he goes.

PLEASE NOTE: Stand by for support as the child needs it.

WHAT'S HAPPENING HERE? Of course, the plank is a great test of the child's ability to control his balance on a narrow surface. By adding the hoops, you are challenging his coordination and proprioceptive senses to navigate a completely different shape of space.

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Seven? Yes, seven. Beyond the five senses we learn about in school (sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch) there are actually two more: the vestibular system (sense of balance) and proprioception (our intuitive sense of space and position). Now, I realize these may not be words you're familiar.

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Crossing the Midline is Crucial to Physical & Emotional Development 

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Crossing the Midline is Crucial to Physical & Emotional Development 

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Why Crossing the Midline is Key to Your Child's Physical and Emotional Development

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To learn why crossing the midline is key for everything from emotional regulation, fine and gross motor skills, reading and writing, and better behavior, click through to read this post now or pin for later! #brainintegration #crossingthemidline #braingym #emotionalregulation #childdevelopment#learntoread

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Why Movement is Essential in Early Childhood - The Atlantic

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Why Movement is Essential in Early Childhood - The Atlantic

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Children acquire knowledge by acting and then reflecting on their experiences, but such opportunities are increasingly rare in school.

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The Importance of Movement, Nature & Play 

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The Importance of Movement, Nature & Play 

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Angela Hanscom

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Why Criss-Cross Applesauce isn't Appropriate 

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Why Criss-Cross Applesauce isn't Appropriate 

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Behavior

How long could you sit crisscross-applesauce before you need to move? For me, the answer is: about 20 seconds max! Unless I'm deeply, deeply engaged in something, I will change positions multiple times or start to fidget. Even while watching something absolutely fascinating on TV, I may start by sitting with my legs folded underneath me, but before long my legs are stretched out on the coffee table. Then I'm lying on my right side and, finally, my left side. And that's all during an hour-long program.

In other words, I find it very difficult to stay completely still, even in a comfortable position. And I'm a long way from being a preschooler and among the most active segment of our population.

I've written before about the folly of requiring children to sit still in order to learn. But requiring them to sit crisscross-applesauce - cross-legged, with the back straight and hands in the lap - as is so often done during circle or story time, brings the issue to a whole new level.

I have no inkling when sitting like this became a "thing." The idea, of course, is that the children will pay greater attention to the task at hand. That they'll be more capable of listening. But wiggling and moving don't necessarily mean they're not listening. In fact, being required to sit like this may mean they pay even less attention, because crisscross-applesauce is a particularly challenging position. And that means it can require the majority of a child's concentration.

When sitting crisscross-applesauce became one of the major dictates of the early childhood setting, it gave the child who's incapable of complying one more chance to be seen as misbehaving. To break the rules. But I propose that we examine why such rules exist in the first place-rules that run contrary to what we know about children and, now, about fidgeting. If we understand that children are much more likely to be engaged when they're comfortable, why insist that they assume a position that perhaps isn't comfortable at all, often for long minutes at a time? Tradition is simply not a good enough reason.

So, what are the alternatives? Well, as pediatric occupational therapist Christy Isbell once said, in an interview for BAM Radio Network: "Who's to say we have to sit down to learn? Why can't we stand to learn? Why can't we lay on the floor on our tummies to learn? Why can't we sit in the rocking chair to learn? There are lots of other simple movement strategies. Just changing the position can make a big difference."

So, why not offer children options? One major benefit is that they can choose the one that best meets their needs. And because they're given that responsibility and choice, they will take the decision seriously, and there will be fewer actual behavioral issues. This is how self-regulation is acquired - not by being ordered to sit still.

Often, early childhood teachers argue that they must get children used to sitting because the children are going to have to sit in kindergarten and beyond. Unfortunately, it's true that until policymakers begin paying attention to the research and opt for an education system that aligns with how kids learn, children will have to become accustomed to sitting in school. But it's also true that most kids will eventually have to learn how to drive. That doesn't mean we should stick them behind the wheel while they're still preschoolers.

Learning to sit is a process that nature put in place. And that process involves movement, which allows children to develop their proprioceptive and vestibular systems, which allow children to be able to sit. Surely, we can't imagine that we can do better than what nature intended.

Here are some recommendations, in addition to offering children choice:

For circle time you might simply allow children to stand or walk as needed. When I'm doing a telephone interview or am on a business call, I walk from room to room because I think better when on my feet than on my seat.

You might allow children to engage in a quiet activity, like coloring, as you read a story. A teacher once approached me following a keynote to show me what she had drawn while listening to me speak. Despite having created a lovely drawing, it was evident she had indeed been listening to me.

For each of the above suggestions, you can and should designate a specified area within which the children are allowed to stand or color; and that area should be within the circle. If you're going to allow children to walk, designate a larger circle that will help prevent the other children from being distracted.

If a child is unable to sit still while you're reading a story or otherwise attempting to engage him, remember not to take it personally. Once you get to know each child as an individual, you'll be able to determine who might need a stress ball, for example, or to sit on a balance ball.

If you find yourself distracted by the children's movement, it's important to remember that, as adults, we should be better able to make adjustments to our thinking than young children are to behaviors that are beyond their control.

As far as crisscross-applesauce is concerned, the time has come to do away with this tradition. Honestly, there was never a time for it in the first place.
Movement is not misbehavior! For more ideas & activities that will prevent challenging behavior before it happens, check out Rae's latest book! Click here to learn more or to buy!

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Crisscross-Applesauce: It's Time to Move on From This Tradition - Rae Pica

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Behavior How long could you sit crisscross-applesauce before you need to move? For me, the answer is: about 20 seconds max! Unless I'm deeply, deeply engaged in something, I will change positions multiple times or start to fidget.

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Movement is Crucial to Brain Development 

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Movement is Crucial to Brain Development 

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Making a Mess of Human Development: The Terrible Impact of Our Choices for Children - Rae Pica

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Child Development The other day I read an article that literally made me cry. I thought I'd heard it all when it came to the lack of movement in children's lives, but this piece alerted me to something I hadn't come across before: children are falling out of their chairs because they're not moving enough.

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A child's hand is a powerful tool for learning. With his hands he can control the world around him, build and create all that he can imagine, and express himself, first in gestures, then with scribbles, and eventually with the written word.
Parents know the importance of fine motor control -- especially when it comes to handwriting -- which is probably why I'm frequently asked for advice on this subject. Here's what I say...
Put your pencils down and go play on the monkeybars.

NATURAL ORDER OF THINGS

So you see, on the developmental totem pole, the Children's muscle control and coordination is developed in a natural, orderly way -- from the top down and from the inside out -- starting at the head and working towards the toes while building out from the torso to the limbs. This order of priority, established by the brain, insures that the large muscles necessary for coordination and locomotion (getting from here to there) are well organized and in control, before taking on the complex mastery of the more than 60 combined muscles in the hands (let alone the dozens of bones, hundreds of ligaments and tendons, etc., etc.)
hands come last.
WHAT IS FINE MOTOR DEVELOPMENT?
Now, that doesn't mean that your child's hands aren't active as he's growing. Young hands begin with simple, reflexive, whole-hand grasping. Over time, early reflexes integrate and the pincer grip kicks in, allowing him to use his forefinger and thumb together in unison. Each day, you'll see more and more deliberate hand and finger movements. But that's not fine motor skill -- not yet.

Fine Motor Skills are the highly precise motor control necessary to bring all five fingers together to do detailed work requiring minute, almost imperceptible movements , such as using a pencil to write your name.
But writing your name isn't all in the wrist, so to speak. In fact, it involves much of whole body.
IN ORDER TO WRITE MY NAME

If any of those muscles in that chain of events don't do their job, writing his name will be a very hard thing to do.

Which brings us full circle back to the monkeybars...

Climbing, hanging, swinging, and any other high-energy activities that build strength in his upper body and core muscles are vital precursors to fine motor skills.

Twisting, turning, dangling, and swinging helps develop the flexibility and agility necessary for rotating the shoulders, elbows, wrists, and fingers.

Pushing, pulling, tugging, and lifting himself up builds strength while developing an intuitive understanding of simple physics such as weight, pressure, and resistance.

And when he comes off the monkeybars, messy play is ideal for building up strength and dexterity in the hand muscles. Play-Doh, sand and water play, mud (yes, mud!), and any other tactile play is great sensory experience for the brain and hands which one day may mean neater handwriting!

So remember. When it comes to getting ready for writing, "M" is for Monkeybars!

Sometimes, it's just not possible to make it over to the playground for a turn on the monkeybars, so here are a couple of my favorites you can do at home to build upper body and core strength while the hands "wait their turn" in the developmental chain of events.

WHEELBARROWING

Wheelbarrowing around the playroom or out in the backyard is great for building up arm strength (in between the giggling, of course.) Importantly, I recommend holding your child at the hips rather than by the feet. This prevents an unnatural bow in the back, while lightening the load on those little arms.

Kids love this and you'll be amazed how far they can go with a little practice. Sit on the floor and raise up your seat using your hands and feet. Then crab - crab - crab along as far as you can go. Have kids go forwards and backwards too!

CATERPILLAR WALKING
See how slow you can go, inching along like a caterpillar! Walk your hands out in front of you, then walk your feet up to your hands.

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"M" IS FOR MONKEYBARS: Getting Ready for Writing

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A child's hand is a powerful tool for learning. With his hands he can control the world around him, build and create all that he can imagine, and express himself, first in gestures, then with scribbles, and eventually with the written word.

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Robbi Giuliano teaches fifth-graders as they sit on yoga balls at Westtown-Thornbury Elementary School Monday on Feb. 4, 2013, in West Chester, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

A post I published in July titled " Why so many kids can't sit still in school today" seems to have struck a nerve with readers, who continue to read it in big numbers. The piece was by Angela Hanscom, a pediatric occupational therapist, who said that kids are being forced to sit for too long while they are in school and are being deprived of enough time for real physical activity. This, she said, is affecting their ability to learn and in some cases leading to improper ADHD diagnoses.

Here is a follow-up post by Hanscom in which she talks about how to get kids moving in class and some of the mistakes teachers are making. Some of her suggestions may be controversial. For example, she takes issue with a method that some teachers say they are using with success - having students sit on bouncy balls. Hanscom is the founder of TimberNook, a nature-based development program designed to foster creativity and independent play outdoors in New England.

By Angela Hanscom

My last post, " Why so many kids can't sit still in school today," has and continues to generate tremendous feedback from around the world. Many people wrote that the connection between moving and learning that I wrote about just makes sense. However, with this new enlightenment on why movement and play outdoors is critical to learning and attention in the classroom, came the million-dollar question: "Now what?"

My virtual mailbox instantly got bombarded with email requests-demanding ideas on how to get kids moving both in and outside the classroom. I also noticed people were getting creative. Ideas were being tossed around. Some people suggested, "How about sitting on bouncy balls?" Others asked, "What if children stand to learn?" or "What if we put bike pedals on the classroom seats, so they can exercise while learning?" And finally, "What about taking short movement breaks?"

My initial reaction to these brainstorming sessions was, Finally! People are inspired and are starting to think outside the box. However, as I recalled why I wrote the article in the first place, I realized these strategies were still partly missing the point. They may be creative and thoughtful, but they won't fix the underlying problem.

In order to create actual changes to the sensory system that results in improved attention over time, children NEED to experience what we call "rapid vestibular (balance) input" on a daily basis. In other words, they need to go upside down, spin in circles, and roll down hills. They need authentic play experiences that get them moving in all different directions in order to stimulate the little hair cells found in the vestibular complex (located in the inner ear). If children do this on a regular basis and for a significant amount of time, then (and only then) will they experience the necessary changes needed to effectively develop the balance system-leading to better attention and learning in the classroom.

In other words, adjusting children's seating and taking quick one-minute movement breaks will offer some support - but we will continue to see significant sensory and behavioral problems, as well as a decline in children's overall health (i.e., rise in obesity, decrease strength, and poor body awareness) if we don't start allowing for adequate time in which children can get up and out of their seats to move.

Recently, I was invited to an educational meeting regarding a first-grade boy whom I see as a private occupational therapy client. The principal, parents, his former kindergarten teacher, new first grade teacher, school psychologist, and private therapist were all there. This little boy struggles with attention in the classroom and making social connections with peers.

This same boy attended one of our TimberNook camps (developmental nature programming) this past summer. He was totally immersed into nature for a week with peers-playing in the woods, the river, and in giant mud puddles. He had plenty of practice to move his body in all different directions and to explore nature unhindered by adult fears. In the beginning of the week, he consistently pursued total control over his play experiences with peers. He was also very anxious about trying new things, had trouble playing independently, and had multiple sensory issues.

Amazingly, by the end of the week, he started to let go of this need to control all social situations. He also started tolerating and asking to go barefoot, made new friends, and became less anxious with new experiences. The changes were really quite remarkable. All he needed was time and practice to play with peers in the woods - in order to foster his emotional, physical, and social development.

When it came time for me to make suggestions to the school about how they could best meet this little boy's needs, my answer was simple: "He needs more time to play and move his body. Fifteen minutes of recess is not enough. I recommend an hour-long recess session everyday."

Most of these teachers had already read my article about why kids fidget and agree with this philosophy. It didn't matter. When they heard my response, they started laughing - all of them. I think my face went bright red. "That is never going to happen," said one of the teachers. "Yes," agreed another teacher. "Unfortunately, our hands are tied." The principal just sat there and said nothing at all. That's it? I thought to myself. They know that children NEED this, but they aren't going to do anything about it?

After the meeting, the teachers came up to me and apologized for laughing. They said: "We agree with you. We would love to allow for longer recess sessions, but there is nothing we can do. We simply don't have the time."

I started talking to other teachers about this same issue. Most teachers are just as frustrated, if not more than the parents. Secondary to testing requirements, teachers are feeling the pressure to have to fit in loads of curriculum everyday. They have little time to do project-based learning, let alone providing adequate time for children to move. Unfortunately, many teachers have to settle for fitting in a few minutes of movement here and there.

However, when do we draw the line? When do we say, "Enough is enough?" Shortened recess times, cutting gym classes, and other specials (i.e., music and art) means we are no longer respecting the needs of the whole child. Our system of testing is failing our children. It fails to test their social skills, their ability to think for themselves, and their physical skills (i.e., strength, endurance, coordination). Aren't these just as important as their ability to read, write, and do arithmetic? We need to be careful not to put total emphasis on just a few subjects, while neglecting children's other needs.

Lindsey Lieneck, MS, OTR, RYT, founder of Yogapeutics, a fellow pediatric occupational therapist and advocate for movement, recently commented, "Come on people! We are a brilliant society! We can create technology that is out of this world. Yet, we can't figure out how to provide enough time for children to move?"

I agree with Lindsey. We CAN create more time for children to move during the school day. Saying, "our hands are tied" is just about as bad as a child saying, "I can't." Let's not give up the fight before we even start. We had ample time to move and play during the school day when I was a child in the early 1980s, and we can figure out how to do it again.

What are YOU going to do about it?

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The right - and surprisingly wrong - ways to get kids to sit still in class

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A post I published in July titled " Why so many kids can't sit still in school today" seems to have struck a nerve with readers, who continue to read it in big numbers.

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When my writing partner, Cheryl McCarthy and I sat down to talk about writing my second book, her first question to me was "why do you want to write this book?"

I explained that I believe movement is the under-appreciated piece of the early childhood puzzle, and that I wanted parents and teachers to understand the vital role movement plays in helping little ones reach their fullest potential.

I sat back, fully satisfied with my answer and thought, job done. Writing this book is going to be a snap.

Cheryl paused, leaned forward and rephrased the question. "No. I meant, why do you WANT to write this book? What's in it for YOU?"

I was stumped. My mind raced. Tears welled. I leaned forward for the words and managed a whisper. "I wish I knew then what I know now."

There it was. My 30 year quest to uncover what makes kids tick was actually a personal journey to understand myself through the lens of the two most important roles of my life -- parent and teacher.

Knowing what I know now, I really was ready to write this book. And I was (and still am) humbled by the thought.

With gratitude to our families and friends for all of their support over the past three years, and the amazing team at Free Spirit Publishing for their guidance and partnership, Cheryl and I are so pleased to share with you the first excerpt from A Moving Child Is a Learning Child.

And so it begins...

A Moving Child Is a Learning Child

All learning begins with the body. It has to. It ʼ s our point of reference-our own personal, portable True North, so to speak. And for children, it ʼ s even more because s first teacher. the body is the brain

And the lesson plan is movement.

From grasping your finger to grasping her rattle to grasping the mechanics of crawling, standing, walking, jumping, and those hurtling-headlong-hugs, every move a young child makes-intentional or accidental-leads to learning. Movement develops her physical capabilities, of course. But at the same time, it is building sensory perceptions and critical pathways in the brain necessary to reach her full potential.

It's been well reported that within the first years of childhood, approximately 90 percent of the neural pathways in the brain will be set for life. Those pathways determine how a child thinks and learns, but more, they will shape who she becomes . . . her passions and pursuits, triumphs and challenges, inner reflections, outer reactions, and outlook on life . . . all flowing through the neural network built by her earliest physical and sensory experiences.

As such, the more a child moves, the more she stimulates her brain. The more the brain is stimulated, the more movement is required to go get more stimulation. In this way, With breathtaking simplicity, nature has created this move-to-learn process to be both dynamic and self-perpetuating, building the body and brain simultaneously nature gently coaxes the child to explore beyond her current boundaries towards her own curiosity to acquire new capabilities. And that, of course, is what we call learning.

Adapted from A Moving Child Is a Learning Child: How the Body Teaches the Brain to Think by Gill Connell and Cheryl McCarthy, copyright © 2013. Used with permission of Free Spirit Publishing Inc., Minneapolis, MN; 800-735-7323; www.freespirit.com. All rights reserved.

Thank you to all our readers for your continued support for our work, and your love, care, and advocacy for children everywhere.

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When my writing partner, Cheryl McCarthy and I sat down to talk about writing my second book, her first question to me was "why do you want to write this book?" I explained that I believe movement is the under-appreciated piece of the early childhood puzzle, and that I wanted parents and teachers to understand the vital role movement plays in helping little ones reach their fullest potential.

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Of course using the items lying around our house rather than heading off to the shops to regularly buy new toys is not a new concept.

"The theory first came forward in the 1970s. It was realised that having an environment with a variety of flexible materials offered loads of potential for creativity," Nicole says.

As any generation that didn't have access to the disposable income or manufacturing we do today will know, in those environments you have to be more creative. My own parents said they had about three toys each," Nicole says.

"As today's parents we [usually] go for toys or specific items for children, but we find they go a lot better with items that can be used for anything," she says.

Household items like fabric, buckets, crates, boxes, flowerpots, ice cube trays and kitchen items and utensils are all good fodder for loose parts play. But so are objects we'd usually throw away.

"Before we put old bottle lids or containers into the recycling bin they can actually have a whole new life as children's play objects. We may not think of them as such, but they are simple, cheap, everyday materials that in a child's eyes offer limitless potential to make it into whatever is in their head," Nicole says.

Loose parts play is intriguing for most children right through primary school. (Let's face it, even some creative adults still find it enjoyable.)

Over the last few years, schools are catching on - motivated partly by money and partly by an attempt to engage children beyond screens - they are adding loose parts "pods" in their playgrounds.

"Primary schools are finding these pods get children to be more creative and active, as they can manipulate their environment," Nicole says.

How loose parts play helps our children

The benefits of loose parts go well beyond budgets and reduced screen time.

Experts believe there are both social and educational advantages inherent to the concept.

"At school, children who aren't athletic won't engage with a game involving balls. But with loose parts play, because it mixes in creativity, children who are more creatively developed are on an even playing field with children who may be more physically developed," Nicole says.

There are also important cognitive skills involved.

"Part of it is about design, and part of it is problem-solving. A child might have material that doesn't quite work the way they wanted to so they need to figure out how to change it. They might use tools like scissors, tape or cardboard saws to manipulate those materials, so there is physical development involved as well," Nicole says.

University of Canberra's Dr Cathy Hope is the Coordinator of the Play, Creativity and Wellbeing Project.

The Project explores play as a mode of engagement, as a driver of creativity and innovation, and as a facilitator of individual and community wellbeing.

She agrees there's been a recent return to all kinds of unstructured play in educational settings.

"Teachers and child care providers are becoming more aware of the benefits of this type of play. As one example, there's a wonderful after school service in my neighbourhood that is dedicated to loose parts play," Dr Hope says.

"Every time I visit there, the children are inventing all manner of fantastical things. I have never in my life seen such happy, active, engaged and enlivened kids after a long school day!"

Dr Hope says there are now multiple studies emerging about the negative impact of risk aversion and too much structured play on children and this impact has also become apparent in classrooms.

"This kind of open-ended and unstructured play has certainly been eclipsed in the last few decades by a complex set of cultural factors including the rise of risk aversion and (largely unwarranted) concerns about children's safety in public spaces, as well as the commoditisation and privatisation of play and the growth of the manufactured toy industry," she says.

How to start with loose parts

To get started parents can begin by diverting everything destined for the recycling bin.

"Wash it, keep it for a bit and see what your kids do with it," Nicole says.

Although the move to introducing more loose parts play at home is mostly positive (particularly in that it cuts down the need to continually head to the shops and buy the latest, greatest toy your child "needs"), Nicole admits there is one downside.

"Be prepared for mess. You don't have to give them free range to mess up the whole house, but allow them the creativity and start seeing all that mess is fantastic play. They get so much out of it. And it won't last forever!"

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Boost imagination with 'loose parts' play

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It's easy to define toys as objects with a distinct form: a car, a doll or a toy train. However, if we broaden our definition of playthings to include everyday

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We have often marveled at the long hours children can spend playing with simple materials like boxes, rocks, shells, sand, or water. Our observations have led us to question the conventional wisdom of providing children with sophisticated toys. As you've probably noted yourself, children are often more interested in the packaging than in the toys themselves.

Children usually prefer play that stimulates their curiosity and gives free reign to their imaginations and creativity. We believe that one of the best ways to enhance their natural curiosity is to introduce a wide variety of the materials we call "loose parts" into their play settings.

What Are Loose Parts?

In early childhood education settings, loose parts mean alluring, beautiful, found objects and materials that children can move, manipulate, control, and change while they play. Children can carry, combine, redesign, line up, take apart, and put loose parts back together in almost endless ways. The materials come with no specific set of directions, and they can be used alone or combined with other materials. Children can turn them into whatever they desire: a stone can become a character in a story; an acorn can become an ingredient in an imaginary soup. These objects invite conversations and interactions, and they encourage collaboration and cooperation. Put another way, loose parts promote social competence because they support creativity and innovation. All of these are highly valued skills in adult life today.

Loose parts possess infinite play possibilities. They offer multiple rather than single outcomes: no specific set of directions accompanies them; no single result is inevitable. Unlike a jigsaw puzzle, whose pieces are meant to be fitted together in a specific way to make a single picture, loose parts can be joined in many ways. A scarf, for example, can become a blanket to swaddle a baby, a platform for a picnic, a fishing pond, a cover for a fort, or a veil covering the face of a bride.

Origin of Loose Parts

Children for generations have used found materials in their play from rocks and sticks to tin cans and wire. In his article "How NOT to Cheat Children: the Theory of Loose Parts," the British architect Simon Nicholson coined the term "loose parts" to describe open-ended materials that can be used and manipulated in many ways (1971). Nicholson saw people of every age as potentially creative. Environments, he believed, offer many ways for children to interact with variables such as gravity, sounds, chemical reactions, concepts, words, and people. For Nicholson, the richness of an environment depended on the opportunities it provided for making connections. "In any environment," he writes, "both the degree of inventiveness and creativity, and the possibility of discovery, are directly proportional to the number and kind of variables in it" (30). Take, for example, a beach: it is filled with loose parts-rocks, shells, beach glass, plants, feathers. When children play in such a setting, they can move around, making use of any or all of the found objects, devising spaces and structures that can entertain them for hours. This isn't only fun but it also helps them develop higher levels of critical thinking and creativity.

When an environment is rich in loose parts, children are likely to discover multiple ways to manipulate them and new ways of thinking or processing the knowledge learned by playing with the materials.Children can use flat tree cookies to serve as a sturdy base for a tall tower, stepping stones to lead them safely across an imaginary river filled with hungry alligators, a steering wheel for their race car, or a lily pad to shelter frogs. They become more creative and flexible in their thinking while satisfying their ever-growing curiosity and love for learning.

The Value of Loose Parts

Children prefer loose parts. Anyone who has watched children play with toys or playground equipment knows that they quickly tire of things with a sole purpose. Once they've mastered the key function of an object-pushing the button to make a figure pop up or climbing a ladder, for example-they are ready to move on. The intrigue and the challenge are gone. In other words, children make their play choices based on how much variability those materials offer. A stick is a richer choice than a slide because it can become a fishing pole, a spoon for stirring a concoction, a magic wand, or a balance beam for snails. Loose parts offer almost numberless variables, prompting children to create their own stories.

With so many materials available for ECE classrooms, you need to make choices that maximize children's development and make sense financially. Today, teachers are often expected to provide classroom materials out of their own pockets. Happily, loose parts can often be had for free, and they offer a bonus: they encourage you, and the children's parents, to reuse, renew, and recycle. Write a note to the children's families asking them to collect potentially rich materials around their homes to add to the classroom. Provide a list of suggested items (small boxes, jar lids, buttons, fabric). Also, post your list in the classroom or distribute it at school events.

Loose Parts Support the Curriculum

Loose parts offer many possibilities for open-ended learning. Especially in ECE programs where standards and ditto sheets are threatening to take over, advocate for loose parts as they support the acquisition of skills that children are required to demonstrate when they enter kindergarten.
Math
Children acquire their first math skills and numerical concepts when they manipulate small loose parts, like blocks and bottle caps, by sorting and classifying, and combining and separating them. They learn one-to-one correspondence when they make connections among loose parts. Once they begin integrating loose parts into their games, you commonly hear them start to count and see them arranging the parts in specific sequences, patterns, and categories by color, type, number, and class. Loose parts lend themselves to classification. The concept of measurement becomes clear when children play with tools like cups, sticks, funnels, and sifters. Measurement, equivalency, balance, spatial awareness, conservation, and logical classification are precursors to higher mathematical skills that loose parts readily support.
Physical Science
Loose parts help children investigate and actively construct ideas and explanations about physical properties of the nonliving world. Children gain deeper knowledge of how things work when they can experiment with stacking boxes, tubes, and bottles. They can also test multiple hypotheses involving gravity, force, weight, distance, and height with these materials. Children learn that things move in many various ways (motion) through playing with loose parts that can be pulled and pushed to start, stop, or change their movement. Wooden boards, gutters, and balls help them investigate inclines and gravity. Prisms and open-ended materials that are transparent, translucent, or opaque on a light table or overhead projector help children experiment with color, shadows, and reflected or refracted light.
Language and Literacy
Loose parts promote language development when children use them as props to engage in rich conversations and storytelling with peers and adults. Describing the items they manipulate, children can test new, complex words and engage in productive arguments that increase their critical-thinking skills. They make connections between loose parts, the books they have read, and the stories they have heard. They use loose parts to plan and draw their ideas and interactions. Ample, continuous use of loose parts helps children improve their memories, vocabularies, and literacy.
Art
Children often express their ideas and feelings through art. An open art studio offers them tools and materials for telling their stories. Adding loose parts to the art area can enhance their creativity and help them extend their ideas and questions. When loose parts are added to your art center, they offer children invitations to draw, sculpt, collage, explore, and extend their ideas. Such opportunities shouldn't be confined to the art area though. Fill your indoor and outdoor settings with open-ended resources to encourage creative expression everywhere. Children's sense of beauty can be as easily seen in their arrangements of sticks lined up side by side, wooden planks propped symmetrically against a lodge, rock mosaics laid in sand, and pinecones arranged in spirals.
Movement and Music
Music and movement captures children's attention and hearts. Movement for children mostly takes place through self-directed, self-initiated play as they freely move their bodies. Movement possibilities with loose parts such as scarves, hoops, and ribbons are endless, and provide opportunity for children to improvise. Musical play often means hitting items as hard as possible to see how they sound, and loose parts offer almost limitless opportunities to explore sounds that can be exuberant, random, noisy, and chaotic or quiet, gentle, and focused. Almost all children will naturally have the ability to interact with music.

We hope that you are inspired by this book to add more loose parts to children's play. When you provide loose parts and have an open mind about how they may be used, the children will surprise and delight you with what they create and learn.

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Loose Parts: Inspiring Play in Young Children

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We have often marveled at the long hours children can spend playing with simple materials like boxes, rocks, shells, sand, or water. Our observations have led us to question the conventional wisdom of providing children with sophisticated toys. As you've probably noted yourself, children are often more interested in the packaging than in the toys themselves.

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Seven? Yes, seven.

Beyond the five senses we learn about in school (sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch) there are actually two more: the vestibular system (sense of balance) and proprioception (our intuitive sense of space and position).

Now, I realize these may not be words you're familiar. So you might be surprised to hear that the vestibular system and the proprioceptive sense make possible just about everything we do (even sleeping). And they do so without our notice. That's because, as adults, we've had years of experience with these senses so they are automatic to us.

But they are NOT automatic to kids. Like the other five senses, kids need to learn what these senses are trying to tell them through the trial-and-error process of everyday living, playing, and moving. And because they guide and govern how we use our bodies, the vestibular and proprioceptive senses contribute to every major milestone and are often behind those fall-down-and-go-boom moments.

So, let's take a quick tour these two not-so-well-known senses...

SENSE #6 - THE VESTIBULAR SYSTEM (BALANCE)

The vestibular system is the scientific term for our sense of balance, responsible for keeping us upright and in balance. And if you think about it, without balance, we pretty much couldn't do anything. For instance, if you're reading this sitting down, your vestibular system is keeping you upright and in the chair. Now, you might be thinking the chair is keeping you upright, but in fact, if your brain didn't understand which way was up, you'd tip right over. And notice how you don't have to THINK about staying upright. Your vestibular system is doing it for you automatically, every day, 24 hours a day.

Conversely, kids are focused on their balance a lot. Have you ever noticed when a child sits in a chair he fidgets around? Yes, sometimes he has to go to the bathroom, but quite often, what you're seeing is his vestibular system at work with his body, helping him adjust himself to feel in balance. In fact, whenever a child moves (on or off the chair, indoors or out, fast or slow, right-side up or upside down, etc., etc.), his inner ear reacts to and records those movements, giving his brain important information about the body's orientation at any given moment. Over time and with lots of different kinds of movement, his brain will begin to determine what is and isn't "in balance" for him.

SENSE #7 - PROPRIOCEPTION (SPACE & POSITION)

Proprioception, or what I call Intuition, is our body and brain working together to understand and navigate space and objects. Again, for adults this is automatic and intuitive. Without thinking about it, you know if your body will fit through a passageway. You climb stairs without looking at them. You have a sense of how much strength you need to push open a door. And you don't fall out of bed at night. Your proprioceptive sensors (residing in your muscles, tendons, and ligaments) have helped you develop these navigation skills over many years of practical, everyday movements and experiences with space and objects.

A child, of course, is less experienced so so it's not automatic yet. We can guide him, but only to a point. That's because the only way for a child to truly know his own body is to use it. And yes, that includes bumping into furniture, tripping over his own feet, pushing too hard, and all those other things we think of as kid-clumsy. It's just his body and brain working together to learn about his environment using his proprioceptive senses to pave the way.

WHY IS HE STILL CLUMSY?

Parents often ask me when kids will stop being so clumsy. Surely, if they can walk, run, and jump, they must have mastered these senses by now?

Well, of course, those physical capabilities are signs of his maturing vestibular and proprioceptive senses. But he's not done yet for one simple reason... he's growing. As the body changes, the brain needs to readjust its understanding of balance, orientation, and of course, space. And that will take all of his growing years. For instance, the play tunnel he could walk through last year, he has to duck down to get through this year. Next year, he'll probably have to get on all-fours and crawl through it.

The thing to look out for isn't when he bumps into things, but when he begins navigating things on his own. That's when all his senses, his life experience (memory), and emerging problem solving skills are combining to give him an automatic sense of himself... without the fall-down-and-go-boom part.

You can find more information on the Vestibular and Proprioceptive senses in our book A Moving Child Is a Learning Child by Free Spirit Publishing.

Like the other senses, developing the vestibular and proprioceptive senses actually begins before birth and continues all throughout the early years of life. Simple, everyday, playful activities help teach the brain what balance, space, and position feel like

FOR YOUNG BABIES (PRE-WALKING)

Sit in a chair so you're very steady, and hold baby upright close to your chest so he feels your sense of touch all around his body. Supporting baby's neck and back (see photographs), very slowly lean baby back and rest him horizontally on your lap. Hold for a few moments, then continuing to support his neck and back, tip baby back so that his feel are slightly above his head in an upside down position. Hold again for a few moments, then slowly bring baby back to your lap, then back up to your chest.

PLEASE NOTE: As with any activity with young children, go slow and be very gentle with your movements. If at any time you feel baby is not enjoying the activity, stop immediately. You can always try it another time.

WHAT'S HAPPENING HERE? First, by holding him close so he feels your touch 360 degrees around his body, you are giving his proprioceptive senses an all-over feel for his own body. Then, by slowly and gently changing his orientation (starting with his head up, then horizontal, then slightly upside down his vestibular system recognizes and records these changes in position, giving his brain important clues to all the possible ways the body can move.

LET'S GO FOR A SPIN!

FOR TODDLERS ABLE TO SIT UP ON THEIR OWN WITHOUT SUPPORT

Find a cardboard box big enough for the child to sit in and hold onto the sides. Sit the child in the box, then slowly spin the box around. As the child gets accustomed to the sensations give him a gentle ride around the room in different directions, spinning, zig-zagging, etc.

WHAT'S HAPPENING HERE? Sitting the child in the box gives him a sense of himself fitting into space (proprioception). When you spin him or give him a ride, his brain is using the vestibular system to keep his orientation upright and in balance.

FOR PRESCHOOLERS ABLE TO CRAWL, WALK, AND RUN

Lay out a plank several inches off the ground, threading one or more hoops through the plank. (See photograph). Encourage the child to crawl across the plank. Each time he reaches the hoop, encourage him to crawl through the hoop while maintain his balance on the plank. As the child gains confidence, suggest trying to walk across the plank, crawling through the hoops as he goes.

PLEASE NOTE: Stand by for support as the child needs it.

WHAT'S HAPPENING HERE? Of course, the plank is a great test of the child's ability to control his balance on a narrow surface. By adding the hoops, you are challenging his coordination and proprioceptive senses to navigate a completely different shape of space.

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Seven? Yes, seven. Beyond the five senses we learn about in school (sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch) there are actually two more: the vestibular system (sense of balance) and proprioception (our intuitive sense of space and position). Now, I realize these may not be words you're familiar.

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Movement is Crucial to Brain Development 

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Movement is Crucial to Brain Development 

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Making a Mess of Human Development: The Terrible Impact of Our Choices for Children - Rae Pica

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Child Development The other day I read an article that literally made me cry. I thought I'd heard it all when it came to the lack of movement in children's lives, but this piece alerted me to something I hadn't come across before: children are falling out of their chairs because they're not moving enough.

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"Leave them. They'll have some there. Let's travel light," said my husband, referring to our son's set of buckets and spades.

Thirty-six hours, two plane trips, a ferry ride, two shuttles, and a taxi later, jet-lagged but beyond excited, we arrived at our island in the middle of the South Pacific.

I'd been dreaming of returning since my husband proposed here a decade ago; visualizing the joy of sharing this happy place with my then three-year-old son.

We wasted no time; dropping our bags in our room and heading straight to the beach for a dip in the ocean before heading to the dive shop to collect some snorkel gear.

They'll have a set of buckets and spades, I thought. Nope.

So, we headed to the gift store. Nope.

The next day, we went to the local market. Buckets and spades? Nope.

Shoot. We messed up.

How was my son going to play all week? How were we going to entertain him? What kind of parents don't bring toys to the beach?

I felt like a failure...only my son wasn't bothered.

Without skipping a beat he started playing in the sand with shells. He used his snorkel to dig holes and build caves and castles and tunnels. He found sticks and drew dinosaurs. He gathered empty coconuts, filling them with sand and water to make mud. He played with hermit crabs, floated leaves in the waves and spotted fish from the shore.

A few days later, we found a set of buckets and spades. We decided not to buy it.

Our son was having too much fun, his imagination running wild. We felt as though we were witnessing his creativity expanding with each passing day.

They say that the fewer toys kids have, the more they play. It seems that they were right. So, let's dig a little deeper to understand why that is.

Remove the toys and kids play more

Two decades ago, a German project called, "Der Spielzeugfreie Kindergarten" (the nursery without toys) wanted to see what would happen if they took toys away from kindergartens. All toys from participating classrooms were removed for three months.

One of the teachers, Gisela Marti, said: "In these three months we offer the children space and time to get to know themselves and because they are not being directed by teachers or toys, the children have to find new ways to master their day in their own individual way."

The aim was to nourish self-confidence, imagination, creativity, problem-solving abilities and socialization.

Their days were deliberately unstructured to avoid children being rushed from one activity to the next. Instead, they were free to do what they wanted and how they wanted to do it.

A video of the children was taken each day. On the first day, the children appeared confused and bored as they peered apprehensively around their big empty classroom.

But, by the second day, the kids were playing with chairs and blankets, making dens by draping blankets over tables and weighing them down with shoes.

Soon they started running around the room, chatting and laughing excitedly. By the end of the third month, they were engaged in wildly imaginative play, able to concentrate better and communicate more effectively.

Stages of toy discovery: exploration versus play

Kathy Sylva, Professor of Educational Psychology at Oxford University, concluded after studying over 3000 children aged three to five that "when children have a large number of toys there seems to be a distraction element, and when children are distracted they do not learn or play well." Her research shows that children with fewer toys whose parents spend more time reading, singing or playing with them surpass those from even more affluent backgrounds.

Dr John Richer, Pediatric Psychologist at John Radcliffe hospital in Oxford explains that when children receive a new toy they go through two stages: exploration followed by play.

During exploration mode, a child asks: "What does this toy do?"

And in play mode, a child asks: "What can I do with this toy?".

It is during play mode that creativity, imagination, initiative, and adaptability thrive. When children are confronted by too many toys, they spend more time exploring and less time playing.

Ironically, it seems that by providing fewer toys, we provide more time for play.

The potential impact of too many toys

Claire Lerner, Psychotherapist and Director of Parenting Resources at Zero to Three specialize in early childhood development. Claire conducted a government-funded study into the potential impacts of excessive toys, reporting that children, "get overwhelmed and over-stimulated and cannot concentrate on any one thing long enough to learn from it so they just shut down. Too many toys mean they are not learning to play imaginatively either."

Christopher Willard, Clinical Psychologist and Author of Child's Mind, reminds us that repetition has a purpose; reading the same books, singing the same song, playing the same games. Repetition serves to cement learning while enhancing cognitive development. After all, play is the work of childhood.

"Play is the highest form of research." Albert Einstein

On the flip side, fewer toys help children use and develop their imagination, lengthen attention span, promotes taking care of and valuing the toys they do have more while creating greater opportunities to explore nature. As a benefit to parents, fewer toys results in less clutter in our homes, helping us to feel more grounded, have more time to play with our kids and more patience to extend to our kids.

What type of toys invite more play?

If our kids have fewer toys we want to make sure that the toys they do have provide the greatest play value. I'll dive into this topic in more detail in an upcoming post, but in short, when assessing a toy, always be mindful that the play is in the child, not in the toy. If a toy lights up or makes noises, and all the child needs to do is press a button, that toy holds very little play value. These types of toys provide an immediate dopamine rush, make the child and the giver excited, but they are short-lived. On the flip side, toys like wooden blocks or magnatiles or silk scarves don't dictate the play to the child - they hold greater play value as the child is free to use their imagination for endless play possibilities.

"As you decrease the quantity of your child's toys and clutter, you increase their attention and their capacity for deep play." Kim John Payne

Another way to choose toys is to determine if they are OPEN or CLOSED toys. Closed toys are generally defined as those that serve one purpose, once they're completed, they're done. Whereas, open-ended toys can be used for many different purposes. For example, coloured blocks can be used to build a castle, a bridge or for counting, sorting or balancing. Open toys ignite a child's imagination. Having said that, some closed toys can also be wonderful - like puzzles and shape sorters. We aim for a ratio of 75% open toys and 25% closed toys.

Let's simplify our kids' toys together

The great irony is that, as a modern parent, it feels as though it is more difficult to have fewer toys in our homes than more. Having fewer toys, just as reducing our kid's schedules, screen time or simplifying their lives, takes an intentional approach in our "more must be better" society. It's hard to swim against the tide of the mainstream, but the juice sure is worth the squeeze.

In our own home, our family is very much still on this journey. As our son grows older new challenges present themselves and I find myself constantly evolving and explaining why he can't have everything he sees. But the more we reinforce our family values, the easier it seems to become.

"Minimalism is the intentional promotion of the things we most value and the removal of everything that distracts us from it. It is a life that forces intentionality." Joshua Becker

When we say no to more toys, we say yes to more important life lessons. We give our children the opportunity to be able to learn to truly value what they have. And we communicate that they don't need to look to external sources of materialism to bring them temporary happiness or reassurance.

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The Fewer Toys Children Have, The More They Play - Raised Good

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"Leave them. They'll have some there. Let's travel light," said my husband, referring to our son's set of buckets and spades. Thirty-six hours, two plane trips, a ferry ride, two shuttles, and a taxi later, jet-lagged but beyond excited, we arrived at our island in the middle of the South Pacific.

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Toys seem like an inevitable by-product of parenting. If your home teems with too many must-have fad items, toys, or gizmos that ever caught your child's fancy, you're not alone.

Now there is good news for parents who fear their children's play areas resemble a toy store: A study from the University of Toledo in Ohio suggests "an abundance of toys present reduced quality of toddlers' play." Having fewer toys can lead a young child to focus and engage in more creative, imaginative play, according to the study, "The influence of the number of toys in the environment on toddlers' play" published in the journal Infant Behavior and Development. Fewer toys, it turns out, result in healthier play, and, ultimately, deeper cognitive development.

Researchers observed 36 toddler subjects between the ages of 18 and 30 months in free-play sessions. The toddlers were given either four toys or 16. "There was a significant difference in the quality of toddlers' play between the two toy conditions," the study reports. "As measured by sustained play and variety of manners of play, toddlers had a greater quality of play in the Four Toy condition compared to the Sixteen Toy condition." Essentially, when given a few toys, the toddlers played with them in more varied ways and for longer periods of time.

The study echoes several experts who in recent years have advocated for streamlined, or even toy-free, play areas for young children. In his book Clutterfree with Kid s, Joshua Becker describes too many toys as a distraction from development. "Imagine the impact that hundreds of toys in our homes may be having on our kids," he wrote in response to the new findings.

Alexia Metz, one of the researchers in the Toledo study, notes that all the participants played under both conditions - four and 16 toys - on different days and in random order, so that the difference reflected the change in the environment and controlled to some extent for variability among children. When the children were given 16 toys, Metz and her colleagues were able to confirm the distraction and disadvantage: "The results of the present study suggest that an abundance of toys may create such a distraction. With fewer toys present [referring to the four toy group], participants engaged in longer epochs of play."

The children with four toys exhibited one-and-a-half times more interactions with the toys, indicating that young children "are more likely to play in more sophisticated, advanced ways with fewer toys present," according to the study. This increased involvement with a toy has positive implications for many facets of development, including imaginative and pretend play, self-expression, physical skills such as fine motor coordination, and problem-solving.

This isn't to say that parents should toss their children's toys or discourage play time. If you are, however, bending over backward or spending more than you would like on gifts for children, particularly very young ones, it may be worth pausing to ask: Does this child really need this item? Will it enrich her playtime - or simply be used for a week or two and then ignored?

No doubt you've heard a parent say, "My kids have so many toys, and they don't play with them." You have probably said it yourself.
Memories are more precious than presents.
When it comes to making your children happy, consider creating bonding rituals and traditions for children to look back on and cherish instead of automatically heading to the store to buy another toy or gadget. Have a monthly or weekly movie date or game night, a cookie bake-in, or make a ritual of preparing a weekend meal together.

Research backs up the notion that parents should invest in activities over material goods. Cornell University psychologist Thomas Gilovich found that people look back on experiences with more satisfaction than they do on their material purchases. He "discovered that people thinking about impending experiential purchases, such as ski passes or concert tickets, have higher levels of happiness than those who anticipate spending money on things."

Elect to spend money on events or embark on free activities, such as walking around a park, heading to your local community center, taking a bike ride or doing a craft at home.

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Study Underscores Why Fewer Toys Is the Better Option

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Toys seem like an inevitable by-product of parenting. If your home teems with too many must-have fad items, toys, or gizmos that ever caught your child's fancy, you're not alone. Now there is good news for parents who fear their children's play areas resemble a toy store: A study from the University of Toledo in Ohio suggests "an abundance of toys present reduced quality of toddlers' play."

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Exceptional 38 page Resource Book from Early Years Expert Rae Pica "Why Your Child Needs to Play" 

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Exceptional 38 page Resource Book from Early Years Expert Rae Pica "Why Your Child Needs to Play" 

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Why Your Children Need to Play

Young children are joyful creatures who were born to play. Indeed, play is a biological drive for the young of almost all animals, human animals included!

Sadly, rather than being joyful and playful, these days young children are too often anxious, depressed, and frustrated. Dr. Peter Gray contends this is the result of the decline in play they're experiencing.

And why are children no longer playing the way nature intended? Because there are so many myths circulating throughout society these days - many of them related to what it takes to raise "successful" children.

In this 38-page e-book, I debunk the myths that "earlier is better" and that play is "unproductive," as we explore the role of play in building the adult personality, in learning, and in social/emotional and physical development.

Download your copy of "Why Your Child Needs to Play".

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Why Your Children Need to Play Young children are joyful creatures who were born to play. Indeed, play is a biological drive for the young of almost all animals, human animals included! Sadly, rather than being joyful and playful, these days young children are too often anxious, depressed, and frustrated.

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Learning Through Play by Community Playthings

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Learning Through Play by Community Playthings

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In our hurried and hurrying society, we have come to think of play as a luxury at best and a waste of precious time at worst. From our adult perspective, we often associate play with fun and relaxation in contrast to the attention and effort required of us by work. All too often, however, we mistakenly project our grown-up conception of play onto the play of children. Yet for children in general, and for young children in particular, self-initiated play is a basic mode of learning. Through such play, children create new learning experiences that they might not otherwise encounter. A few examples may help to illustrate this mode of learning.

Perhaps the clearest evidence for the role of play in the learning of young children comes from their babbling. No one teaches an infant to babble and all infants all over the world babble. In the course of babbling, children create all of the language sounds they need to speak any of the thousands of extant languages. As infants mature, they progressively select, from the sounds they themselves have created, those that best map onto the sounds of the language of their caregivers. If they never babbled, infants would never learn to speak.

A few other examples may help to give a broader picture of this kind of learning. An infant who drops a rattle over the side of his or her crib discovers gravity. Likewise, an infant who puts everything he or she can grasp, into the mouth discovers that some things are hard, some soft, and some taste just awful. Once children are sitting up in a highchair, they make everything they grasp into an object to be banged. In so doing they discover that wooden spoons make one kind of sound, metal spoons another, and plastic spoons still another. In all of these examples it is the infant's own self-initiated activities that create new learning experiences.

We see the same type of self-created learning at older age levels as well. Two and three-year-olds may often repeat the same activity over and over again. It may be pouring water over a water wheel to watch it turn, or building a tower with blocks, knocking it over and rebuilding it. This repetition is boring for us adults, as is reading children the same story over and over again. But for the young child, who is less world-savvy, or less world-weary, than we are, each repetition produces something new that the child did not see as a result of the previous action. We adults may not be able to figure out what the child is discovering through repetition, but the child knows very well what he or she has learned.

Four and five year old children who initiate their own dramatic play are also creating new learning experiences. In playing doctor, or teacher, or fireman, etc., the child is really not preparing to engage in these occupations as an adult. Rather, in taking on these roles, the child creates the feeling of omnipotence and power that he or she attributes to adults. Children are little people who are at the mercy of huge grown-ups. By creating the experience of being big like us, of having adult-like powers, children deal with the feeling of powerlessness at being at the mercy of us giants. As this illustration makes clear, play can also be a means of stress reduction for children.

School-age children learn through self-created learning experiences as well. When children make and break their own rules when playing a game like hide and seek they learn mutual respect. That is, they learn to obey the rules that other children make, and expect other children to follow the rules that they have set down. In addition, while playing a board game such as checkers, or Monopoly, children not only learn strategies, but also how to read the body language of the other players. That is to say, each time one player makes a move this brings a reaction (a new learning experience) from the other players in the game.

Accordingly, we have to rethink our ideas of play and learning. Psychologists define learning as "the modification of behavior as the result of experience." But play can be defined as "the modification of experience as the result of behavior." Put differently, experience is not always independent of our behavior, but rather can be created by it. As illustrated above, children learn from their self-created experiences as well as those that are independent of their activity.

For parents, this means we have to rethink our attitudes towards self-initiated play. All too many of us believe even young children should be working, learning to read, and doing arithmetic, and perhaps a few beginning computer skills. While it is important for children to learn these tool skills, it is equally important that they learn all of the things they can only learn from their self-created experiences. In many cases such learning provides the foundation for academic learning. A child building with blocks, for example, is learning both classifying (all blocks are made of wood) and seriating (blocks can be ordered by size). This play prepares children for learning cardinal (one, two, three) and ordinal (1st, 2nd, 3rd) numbers.

The importance of self-initiated play, particularly for young children means that we need to give them the time and the open ended toys, like blocks, clay, and form boards that will give children the opportunity to create their own learning experiences. We can encourage this kind of play even when children have play dates. For such interactions we need to provide children with a number of play options, but let them decide which play, and for how long they will engage in it.

There are also ways we parents can initiate activities that encourage our children to "think outside the box." These are word games we can play in the course of our everyday activities that are not only fun for us and our children, but also encourage curiosity, creativity, and imagination:

Ask a child to think of as many things as he or she can think of that you can do with a paper clip, pencil, or napkin.

When riding in the car, play games like finding how many houses have For Sale signs, front porches, or identify particular car models that you see passing by.

After watching a TV program together, talk about the story and characters, what did you like and not like about them.

Watch some ads on TV and criticize them.

Make up new endings to stories you have just read.

Self-created play for children is neither a luxury nor a waste of time, it is a basic mode of learning, and children have a need to play. Accordingly, we cannot really prevent children from engaging in such play. But we can limit the time and opportunities available for such activity. As I have argued here, that would be a mistake particularly for young children. Although it is counterintuitive, the more children learn from their own play when they are young, the better prepared they are to learn from academic instruction when they are older.

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In our hurried and hurrying society, we have come to think of play as a luxury at best and a waste of precious time at worst. From our adult perspective, we often associate play with fun and relaxation in contrast to the attention and effort required of us by work.

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"We have lost our minds in the United States when it comes to early childhood education," said William Doyle during a panel discussion hosted by Defending the Early Years during their summer institute. Doyle has served as a Fulbright Scholar in Finland, where he also served as an advisor to the Ministry of Education and Culture of Finland. He appeared on the panel with DEY co-founder Nancy Carlsson-Paige and Pasi Sahlberg, noted Finnish educator and author.

Doyle and Sahlberg were on the panel to talk about the value of play.

"I mean that we have forgotten," Doyle continued, "to be mindful and one aspect of being mindful in this arena, I would say, is to listen to children, to pay close attention to what they are biologically programmed to do and what they enjoy doing the most and to examine the evidence and all of that will lead you to the opposite path [of what] we're now doing about crushing them with academics much too early, of removing play from every classroom."

Sahlberg speaks out against the notion of using school to "add value" to students and argues that the freedom to play is a matter of a human right. Finland does not begin academics for children until age 7, allowing them to be children until that time. "In Finland," he says, "school readiness means that the school has to be ready for different types of children." Not that the child must be prepared to be ready for the school.

Doyle points out that the children who suffer most from the US focus on academics are the students who already face challenges, and moderator Denisha Jones offers a specific anecdote about a district where leaders believe that students who face challenges need less play and more intense academics. They say "poor Black and Latino children don't need play, they need academics. And that's the mantra." And yet everything we know says that's incorrect.

Doyle and Sahlberg point out that even if one feels the need to focus on data and numbers and value, the science is there to show that play brings measurable, quantifiable benefits for children.

All of this is worth remembering as schools approach the fall. Expect schools that are worried about "learning loss" and students "falling behind" during the pandemic to advocate for doubling down on academics and cutting back on "frills" like playtime. Everything we know says that would be a mistake.

Doyle and Sahlberg are co-authors of the book Let The Children Play: How More Play Will Save Our Schools and Help Children Thrive, which explores all these issues in great and well-researched detail. The full video of the panel discussion is included below.

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Experts: For Early Childhood, Play Is Best.

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"We have lost our minds in the United States when it comes to early childhood education," said William Doyle during a panel discussion hosted by Defending the Early Years during their summer institute. Doyle has served as a Fulbright Scholar in Finland, where he also served as an advisor to the Ministry of Education and Culture of Finland.

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Of course using the items lying around our house rather than heading off to the shops to regularly buy new toys is not a new concept.

"The theory first came forward in the 1970s. It was realised that having an environment with a variety of flexible materials offered loads of potential for creativity," Nicole says.

As any generation that didn't have access to the disposable income or manufacturing we do today will know, in those environments you have to be more creative. My own parents said they had about three toys each," Nicole says.

"As today's parents we [usually] go for toys or specific items for children, but we find they go a lot better with items that can be used for anything," she says.

Household items like fabric, buckets, crates, boxes, flowerpots, ice cube trays and kitchen items and utensils are all good fodder for loose parts play. But so are objects we'd usually throw away.

"Before we put old bottle lids or containers into the recycling bin they can actually have a whole new life as children's play objects. We may not think of them as such, but they are simple, cheap, everyday materials that in a child's eyes offer limitless potential to make it into whatever is in their head," Nicole says.

Loose parts play is intriguing for most children right through primary school. (Let's face it, even some creative adults still find it enjoyable.)

Over the last few years, schools are catching on - motivated partly by money and partly by an attempt to engage children beyond screens - they are adding loose parts "pods" in their playgrounds.

"Primary schools are finding these pods get children to be more creative and active, as they can manipulate their environment," Nicole says.

How loose parts play helps our children

The benefits of loose parts go well beyond budgets and reduced screen time.

Experts believe there are both social and educational advantages inherent to the concept.

"At school, children who aren't athletic won't engage with a game involving balls. But with loose parts play, because it mixes in creativity, children who are more creatively developed are on an even playing field with children who may be more physically developed," Nicole says.

There are also important cognitive skills involved.

"Part of it is about design, and part of it is problem-solving. A child might have material that doesn't quite work the way they wanted to so they need to figure out how to change it. They might use tools like scissors, tape or cardboard saws to manipulate those materials, so there is physical development involved as well," Nicole says.

University of Canberra's Dr Cathy Hope is the Coordinator of the Play, Creativity and Wellbeing Project.

The Project explores play as a mode of engagement, as a driver of creativity and innovation, and as a facilitator of individual and community wellbeing.

She agrees there's been a recent return to all kinds of unstructured play in educational settings.

"Teachers and child care providers are becoming more aware of the benefits of this type of play. As one example, there's a wonderful after school service in my neighbourhood that is dedicated to loose parts play," Dr Hope says.

"Every time I visit there, the children are inventing all manner of fantastical things. I have never in my life seen such happy, active, engaged and enlivened kids after a long school day!"

Dr Hope says there are now multiple studies emerging about the negative impact of risk aversion and too much structured play on children and this impact has also become apparent in classrooms.

"This kind of open-ended and unstructured play has certainly been eclipsed in the last few decades by a complex set of cultural factors including the rise of risk aversion and (largely unwarranted) concerns about children's safety in public spaces, as well as the commoditisation and privatisation of play and the growth of the manufactured toy industry," she says.

How to start with loose parts

To get started parents can begin by diverting everything destined for the recycling bin.

"Wash it, keep it for a bit and see what your kids do with it," Nicole says.

Although the move to introducing more loose parts play at home is mostly positive (particularly in that it cuts down the need to continually head to the shops and buy the latest, greatest toy your child "needs"), Nicole admits there is one downside.

"Be prepared for mess. You don't have to give them free range to mess up the whole house, but allow them the creativity and start seeing all that mess is fantastic play. They get so much out of it. And it won't last forever!"

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Boost imagination with 'loose parts' play

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It's easy to define toys as objects with a distinct form: a car, a doll or a toy train. However, if we broaden our definition of playthings to include everyday

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With people in the US practicing social distancing and most schools nationwide closing or already closed, many families are trying alternative methods for educating and encouraging play within the walls of the home. This is the perfect opportunity to try loose parts play. This movement embraces unstructured play and promotes abstract thinking and problem solving , much to the delight of parents. Plus it's not going to break the bank, since you can likely use what you have at home already.

What are loose parts, and how can adults facilitate loose parts play?

Peter Gray is a psychologist, cofounder of Let Grow, and author of In Free to Learn . He writes about the value of play regularly and how important free play is for kids. this Psychology Today article, he writes that play "is a means by which children develop their physical, intellectual, emotional, social, and moral capacities. It is a means of creating and preserving friendships. It also provides a state of mind that, in adults as well as children, is uniquely suited for high-level reasoning, insightful problem solving, and all sorts of creative endeavors."

Play is . And one great way to facilitate unstructured or free play is through loose parts. But what are loose parts? Loose parts describe anything (natural or synthetic) that a child can incorporate into their play in a way that they choose. This vital to the health and development of children article from Penn State Extension gives a good overview. Loose parts can be moved, carried, combined, redesigned, lined up, and taken apart or put back together in multiple ways.

Some examples of loose parts include cardboard and tape, recyclables, lids, rocks, rope, wood, fabric, ramps, kitchen items, and art supplies. The possibilities are endless and abundant, leaving lots of room for kids to use their imagination!

" Loose parts don't always have to be 'stuff,'" says Carla Gull, educator and host of the podcast Loose Parts Nature Play. She has been a leader in the loose parts play movement for years , and she says this type of play might also involve kids experimenting with light, shadows, wind, electricity, words, and so much more.

Loose parts play should be fun, creative, and child led.

Loose parts are not items you need to pick up at the store . Most people find that you can use what you already have available-check out this article from great reason to go explore nature. In fact, one of the easiest Fairy Dust Teaching, which features great examples. Use this as an excuse to send kids rummaging around in the basement and junk drawers. Encourage them to see what they can find to make and create. It's also a ways to get started is to get kids outside, take a nature walk, and collect natural materials to incorporate into play. Kids can combine these materials with recyclables and other items found around the home or elsewhere.

I've seen this work with my own kids. We have a large bin full of random LEGOs at our home. My kids love LEGO sets and build them independently. When they are finished, the sets inevitably break at some point. Then they eventually end up in this bin, where they become items for creative play. I am endlessly amazed at what my sons create with these random LEGO pieces. Sometimes, they even combine them with other materials and use them in ways that I never would have considered. These LEGO pieces are absolutely loose parts. When my kids play with them in these creative ways, it's a form of loose parts play.

I love seeing this. This method of play is just that-play. It does not require a series of steps to reach an ultimate goal. There is no right or wrong way to play with loose parts.

So, how can you motivate kids to use loose parts and unleash their creativity?

Adults might need to take a step back.

Loose parts play comes naturally to many children. However some may be reluctant and look to adults to show them how to play or experiment the "right" way.

" I find that many children have been told no for a long time and have many restrictions around their play," says Gull, who adds that the "experimentation aspect of loose parts potentially diminishes over time as a result." Giving kids permission to play and use materials in any way that they choose provides them freedom and unleashes their confidence.

For kids who are still reluctant, give them a prompt. For instance, my sons are really into challenging each other. So as the parent, I like to challenge them instead. I might suggest they figure out a way to make a bridge out of items they find around the house, which would incorporate STEAM and encourage their creativity at the same time. This doesn't mean I would give them directions as to how to make a bridge.

With loose parts play, it's up to kids to choose what materials to use and how to use them. Adults can encourage experimentation and acknowledge the efforts being made, but they shouldn't do it for them. If you're looking for other ideas or like-minded adults, join the Loose Parts Play group on Facebook. The members are really inspiring.

In a world that seems to be preoccupied with the latest and greatest, loose parts play helps us remember that kids don't need fancy, complicated toys for entertainment. Their natural curiosity and experimentation require only loose parts-and for adults to take a step back and encourage creativity.
Thanks to Donna at Dee Dee in Wonderland and Kirsty of My Lovely Twins and Me for the photos for our main image. See more of their great ideas on Instagram.

About Katy Anderson

Katy Anderson is a freelance writer who lives with her husband, three sons, a jovial Golden Retriever, and one very patient cat. She has written extensively on parenting, health, and relationships for publications such as Huffpost, ABC News, Popsugar, SingleCare, SheKnows, Mom.com, Mommy Nearest, and others.

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Loose Parts Play Will Change How Your Kids Spend Their Free Time

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With people in the US practicing social distancing and most schools nationwide closing or already closed, many families are trying alternative methods for educating and encouraging play within the walls of the home. This is the perfect opportunity to try loose parts play.