Let Kids Play.
Doctors should prescribe playtime for young children, the American Academy of Pediatrics says.
'The most famous painting of children at play is “Children’s Games,” the 1560 work by Pieter Bruegel the Elder of a town square in which children from toddlers to adolescents (scholars have counted 246) are playing a range of timeless games. There are dolls and marbles and tiddlywinks, ball games and climbing games and riding games (scholars have counted 90 or so). The children are the only ones in town, and their activities offer a kind of taxonomy of play.
But some worry that our current culture is less friendly to play, and that children may not be getting the chance to explore all its possibilities. To try to address that, the American Academy of Pediatrics released a policy statement on Monday titled “The Power of Play: A Pediatric Role in Enhancing Development in Young Children.”
The statement characterizes play as intrinsically motivated, involving active engagement and resulting in “joyful discovery.” It summarizes extensive developmental and neurological research on play, and tries to tease out some of the specific developmental discoveries in peek-a-boo (repetitive games provide “the joy of being able to predict what is going to happen”) and Simon Says (builds impulse control and executive function). It also says that doctors should encourage playful learning for parents and infants by writing a “prescription for play” at every well-child visit in the first two years of life.
It’s a values statement because many who study play feel that it is under siege, even as new research emphasizes its importance in children’s development.
“We’re in a climate where parents are feeling like they need to schedule every minute of structured time, and 30 percent of kindergartens offer no recess,” said Dr. Michael Yogman, chairman of the A.A.P. committee on psychosocial aspects of child family health and the lead author of the statement. To some, he said, “play is seen as irrelevant and old-fashioned.”
Dr. Benard Dreyer, the director of developmental and behavioral pediatrics at New York University School of Medicine and a past president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said, “The old saying is, play is the work of children. Play is the way they learn and the way they develop. It’s important to understand how all of us, and especially parents, can encourage play.”'>>>
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/20/well/family/let-kids-play.html?action=click&module=Discovery&pgtype=Homepage
= new reply since forum marked as read
That somebody, doctors, have to ADVISE parents that playing is good for children.
Freakin' insane!
It's like the debate of whether breast feeding is the 'normal' and healthy for babies.
I'm, in a way, glad I am 74. I was born at the right time..
My ex- has a 5 1/2 year old son. She is Chinese, brilliantly artistic, smart as a whip.. her husband is an aerospace engineer for Boeing. One of their smartest engineers..
Yilin, the son, has all the best 'being inheritances' of his parents-- brilliant, quick mind, good feeling development and very well physically coordinated (well that is his own, not his parents LOL).
His dad has way too much OCD, doesn't want him getting dirty, and all that you can imagine goes with that. Don;t do this, don;t do that...They live in downtown Huntsville, AL. So not much place to 'play. ASnd only contact with kids is at school and Tae Kwon Do, etc.
Last time I visited, Yu Yan, my ex-, Yilin and I went to a big state park up in the hills. I just let Yilin get as dirty as he wanted playing in the forest LOL!!!
And when Yu Yan and Yilin came to visit me a few weeks ago in upstate NY, he and I "played" baseball in the back yard. I didn;t have a bat SO we made one out of a tree limb from a fallen tree.
We went swimming in a lake and there were lots of kids. We were there for almost 4 hours LOL
I took him to a triple-A baseball game, his first and what happens?? he GETS a FOUL BALL !!! Jeeze, I didn;t get my first foul ball until I was like 65 ! 
Next day he kept saying, "I want to play base ball." OKAY! We went out, bought a bat and 2 gloves. And played all afternoon in the back yard.. And that evening, and the next day..
Even though he had seen only one game and had little idea what was going on---He made up bases, told me I must throw strikes so he could hit the ball.. Made an umpire's STRIKE motion when he missed... or I missed.
And that was just the 2 of us...
When I was a kid, we would play 'war', and 'cowboys and indians,' ( yeah.. what can I say.. I still have a pic of me at about 7-8 with 2 six guns) in the woods across the street.. no parents around.. in the summer, we just came home when it was time for dinner, then back out to play anything until dark-- cowboys, hide and seek, stick ball,
Little League baseball without the screaming parents... just .. baseball with good coaches, attitude...
Softball in the park league. Don't get dirty!! Are you kidding me??
Interesting times... soccer moms/dads/-
I thought I was the winner, actually.
