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May 4, 2009
Dear Parents/Guardians,
This article provides some interesting tips on promoting “wellness and parenting
techniques.” Special thanks to our Fishkill Plains’ librarian, Karen Heron, for bringing it to
my attention!
Old-Fashioned Play Builds Serious Skills -by Alix Spiegel
Self-regulation is a critical skill for kids. Unfortunately, most kids today spend a lot of time
doing three things: watching television, playing video games and taking lessons. None of
these activities promote self-regulation. Researchers say imaginative play allows
children to make their own rules and practice self-control.
Suggestions for better ways to play:
Simon Says: Simon Says is a game that requires children to inhibit themselves.
You have to think and not do something, which helps to build self-regulation.
Complex Imaginative Play: This is play where your child plans scenarios and
enacts those scenarios for a fair amount of time, a half-hour at a minimum,
though longer is better. Sustained play that last for hours is best. Realistic props
are good for very young children, but otherwise encourage kids to use symbolic
props that they create and make through their imaginations. For example, a stick
becomes a sword.
Activities That Require Planning: Games with directions, patterns for
construction, recipes for cooking, for instance.
Joint Storybook Reading: Reading storybooks with preschoolers promotes
self-regulation as well as foster language development. Many children's stories
are filled with characters who model effective self-regulatory strategies.
In the book, The Little Engine That Could, by Watty Piper, a little blue
engine pulled a train of toys and food over a mountain. It breaks down and must
find a way to complete its journey. The engine chants, "I think I can. I think I can. I
think I can," and with persistence and effort, surmounts the challenge.
Encourage Children to Talk to Themselves: Like adults, children
spontaneously speak to themselves to guide and manage their own behavior.
Children often use self-guiding comments that they recently picked up from their
interactions with adults. This signal indicates that they are beginning to apply
those strategies to themselves.
Permitting and encouraging children to be verbally active — to speak to
themselves while engaged in challenging tasks — fosters concentration, effort,
problem-solving, and task success." — Alix Spiegel
Change in Play, Change in Kids- Clearly the way that children spend their
time has changed. A number of psychologists believe that these changes in what
children do have also changed kids' cognitive and emotional development.
It turns out that all that time spent playing make-believe actually helped children
develop a critical cognitive skill called executive function. Executive function has a
number of different elements, but a central one is the ability to self-regulate. Kids with
good self-regulation are able to control their emotions and behavior, resist impulses, and
exert self-control and discipline.
We observe that children's capacity for self-regulation has diminished. In a recent study
which replicated a study of self-regulation first done in the late 1940s, psychological
researchers asked kids ages 3, 5 and 7 to do a number of exercises. One of those
exercises included standing perfectly still without moving. The 3-year-olds couldn't stand
still at all, the 5-year-olds could do it for about three minutes, and the 7-year-olds could
stand pretty much as long as the researchers asked. In 2001, researchers repeated this
experiment.
Psychologist Elena Bodrova at the National Institute for Early Education Research says,
the results were very different. "Today's 5-year-olds were acting at the level of 3-year-
olds 60 years ago, and today's 7-year-olds were barely approaching the level of a 5-
year-old 60 years ago," Bodrova explains. "So the results were very sad."
This is sad because self-regulation is incredibly important. Poor executive function is
associated with high dropout rates, drug use and crime. In fact, good executive function
is a better predictor of success in school than a child's IQ. Children who are able to
manage their feelings and pay attention are better able to learn. As executive function
researcher Laura Berk explains, "Self-regulation predicts effective development in virtually
every domain."
The Importance of Self-Regulation- One reason that make-believe is such a
powerful tool for building self-discipline is because during make-believe, children engage
in what's called private speech. They talk to themselves about what they are going to
do and how they are going to do it.
If we compare preschoolers' activities and the amount of private speech that occurs
across them, we find that this self-regulating language is highest during make-believe
play. This type of self-regulating language… has been shown in many studies to be
predictive of executive functions.
Children who use private speech use it to control themselves. If we look at adult use of
private speech, we're often using it to surmount obstacles, to master cognitive and social
skills, and to manage our emotions.
Unfortunately, the more structured the play, the more children's private speech declines.
Essentially, because children's play is so focused on lessons and leagues, and because
kids' toys increasingly inhibit imaginative play, kids aren't getting a chance to practice
policing themselves. When they have that opportunity, the result is that their self-
regulation improves.
Researchers have assessed self-regulation abilities in children by observing the extent to
which a child, for example, cleans up independently after a free-choice period in
preschool. Children who are most effective at complex make-believe play take on that
responsibility with… greater willingness, and even will assist others in doing so without
teacher prompting.
Despite the evidence of the benefits of imaginative play, studies indicate that preschool
young children's play is in decline. As a result, we must be aware of the importance of
providing children with plenty of free play time. Considering that free play time has
been referred to as an “unnecessary waste of time," we wholeheartedly disagree.
It is our hope to give children every advantage that includes free play time! By doing so,
we plan to protect, stimulate them, and to enrich them!