A Call to Play!!

Over the past week or so I've been listening to a seminar in the car (one of the beauties of home health...time to think between therapy appointments) called "The Power of Play" by Cari Ebert, M.S., CCC-SLP (visit her website here: Learning Through Play). If you ever have a chance to hear her speak, I would encourage you to do so! Let's just say her seminar changed my life, changed the way I think about therapy, changed how I think about goals for my little ones, and changed my thinking about how I would raise my own children if I ever have them. Play is a powerful thing! I don't think I realized just how powerful until listening to the research presented in this seminar. So I decided to do something a little different for "Research Tuesday". The article I read isn't specifically "speech" related. However, I feel the information I'm going to share with you is completely relevant to our field. Some of us work in schools. Some of us work in home health with the birth-3 population. Either way, as SLP's we have the ability to empower parents, educators and policy makers to improve the future of education and the social, emotional and physical development of both typical kids and kids with special needs.

The information I'm sharing was taken from an article entitled "Crisis in the Kindergarten: Why Children Need to Play in School". You can read it here.

Think back to kindergarten...what was it like? For me kindergarten was half a day. My teacher's name was Mrs. Mick and she was AWESOME! I remember participating in free play at the "kitchen" station, making arts and crafts, coloring, playing with play dough, blocks, and a variety of toys. Somewhere in there I'm sure I learned my colors, letters, numbers, though I don't specifically remember. I went to kindergarten in 1985. Kindergarten rocked! I loved learning! Today, most children go to pre-school and kindergarten all day. In many schools and districts, curriculum is focused on teaching to the test, and has increased in academic focus as the years have progressed. In addition there is an increase in didactic, adult directed instruction in many early childhood classrooms across the country. When you combine that with the hyper-busy lifestyles of many American families, there is little time left for child-directed play and exploration of the world through free play.

Here are a few quotes from Crisis in the Kindergarten demonstrating how early childhood curriculum has shifted in recent years. Information provided here was gathered from nine research studies, which surveyed kindergartens in the country in order to: 1) collect the thoughts of educators, 2) find out what methods are being used currently in kindergartens today, and 3) find out what kind of time is allowed in kindergartens for child-directed, open ended play.

1) "New York and L.A. teachers consistently reported major differences between their views of the importance of dramatic play, block play, and sand and water play and their perception of the views of school administrators. A large majority of teachers indicated that such play is important, while roughly half of the teachers perceived administrators as not valuing it."

2) "Scripted teaching and other highly didactic types of curricula are widely used in kindergartens despite a lack of scientific evidence that they yield long-term gains."

3) "A separate evaluation commissioned by the Institute of Education Sciences found that the federal government’s Reading First program had significantly increased (by about 20%)  the amount of class time spent on didactic, phonics-heavy reading instruction; nevertheless, the program “did not have statistically significant impacts on student reading comprehension test scores in grades 1–3.” The evaluation also found that the program actually reduced second-grade students’ engagement in reading and writing."

4) "Play in all its forms, but especially open-ended child-initiated play, is now a minor activity, if not completely eliminated, in the kindergartens assessed. Teacher-directed activities, especially instruction in literacy and math, are taking up the lion’s share of classroom time. Standardized testing and preparation for tests are now a daily activity in most of these kindergartens."

So is there evidence to support child-directed, adult guided free play to facilitate learning in the kindergarten and beyond?

First of all, how do the authors of this article define play?
 The authors define play in this way: "we use the word “play” to describe activities that are freely chosen and directed by children and arise from intrinsic motivation. Within this definition are many different kinds of play, including dramatic and make-believe play, block play, sand and water play, art activities, play with open- ended objects, spontaneous physical play, exploring the outdoors, and so on."
Unfortunately, in the U.S., the development of "educational toys" and the promotion of "educational videos and products", by manufacturers who know nothing about child development have conditioned many parents to believe that pushing hard core literacy, math and academics on children earlier, leads to smarter more academically successful adults.
But just look at these statistics and quotes from Crisis in the Kindergarten....

1) "Long-term research casts doubt on the assumption that starting earlier on the teaching of phonics and other discrete skills leads to better results. For example, most of the play-based kindergartens in Germany were changed into centers for cognitive achievement during a wave of educational “reform” in the 1970s. But research comparing 50 play-based classes with 50 early-learning centers found that by age ten the children who had played excelled over the others in a host of ways. They were more advanced in reading and mathematics and they were better adjusted socially and emotionally in school. They excelled in creativity and intelligence, oral expression, and “industry.”* As a result of this study German kindergartens returned to being play-based again."

2) "China and Japan are envied in the U.S. for their success in teaching science, math, and technology. But one rarely hears about their approach to schooling before second grade, which is playful and experiential rather than didactic. Finland’s children, too, go to playful kindergartens, and they enter first grade at age seven rather than six. They enjoy a lengthy, playful early childhood. Yet Finland consistently gets the highest scores on the respected international PISA exam for 15-year-olds."

3) "The American Academy of Pediatrics, in its clinical report on the importance of play, found that “despite the benefits derived from play for both children and parents, time for free play has been markedly reduced for some children” and addressed “a variety of factors that have reduced play, including a hurried lifestyle, changes in family structure, and increased attention to academics and enrichment activities at the expense of recess or free child-centered play.”

So what are we doing? Why aren't  policy makers listening? And why aren't parents, teachers, educators, and therapists educating and advocating for our children? After reading this and listening to Cari's presentation I feel strongly that we are doing a disservice to our children when we ask them to develop skills at an age when their brains are not ready to learn them. We don't expect an apple tree to produce apples until it has first developed blossoms. In the same way, a child's brain develops sequentially, and purposefully, by design. Think about the progression of play as a child develops. First they explore their world by reaching for objects and placing them in their mouth. Next, they learn that doing things with certain objects (like dropping a cup on the tile floor) creates a certain effect. Next, they learn that the cup is for drinking, and will even put water in a toy cup and sip from it themselves. Finally, they learn to apply that knowledge to the world around them through pretend play. They take the cup and give the baby doll a drink. Even more compelling evidence of the importance of free play is found in the list of skills children develop through play. Take this quote, for example, "Young children work hard at play. They invent scenes and stories, solve problems, and negotiate their way through social roadblocks. They know what they want to do and work diligently to do it. Because their motivation comes from within, they learn the powerful lesson of pursuing their own ideas to a successful conclusion." WOW!

Cari points out in her seminar that play provides rich sensory experiences that help to develop life long connections in the brain. It is well proven fact that if you want the brain to learn something, provide information through multiple modalities. Think about studying for an exam. Most of us are not blessed to be able to recall information heard once in a lecture. Most of us had to also read the information, write the information, or speak the information out loud to truly recall it. And TRUE learning happens when we are able to apply that information to the world around us, to think critically about it and use it in a way that is meaningful. Compare learning colors by matching colored squares on an Ipad screen to learning colors by sorting through a laundry basket or walking through a field of muli-colored flowers! Free play allows creativity to blossom. Media and pre-programmed battery operated toys (i.e. Buzz Light Year toy) limit creativity and imagination. Imagine the possibilities in a generic astronaut toy compared to a battery operated Buzz that can only say "To infinity and beyond!"

So, what does this mean for therapists, teachers and parents? I join Cari in saying this...allow children to experience their world through play! Play with them and let them take the lead. Remove obstacles in your life that take away time for your child to truly engage in sensory rich, child-directed play. Step away from media sources of entertainment and limit your child's screen time. "The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) discourages TV and other media use by children younger than 2 years and encourages interactive play." Children learn through play, so encourage it as much as possible!!

As a home health therapist:
1) Limit use of the bag of toys. Going through a bag of "pre-planned" activities is adult directed and more didactic in nature. Go into the child's home and let them choose a toy. Or, let the child choose from your bag and build your therapy from there. A good therapist can create language opportunities from anything. This will increase the chances of generalization of skills and increase the child's willingness to participate in activities.

2) Step away from the Ipad. Build sensory rich opportunities for language learning. Relying on the Ipad inhibits a child's development.

3) Play with a purpose. Model appropriate play with toys in the same way that you model language. Think about where the child is developmentally and model one step up. For example, if the child is exploring their environment through exploratory play, demonstrate cause/effect.

3) Educate parents on different types of play: exploratory, cause/effect, functional and pretend play, parallel and cooperative play. Educate parents on ways they can create language rich opportunities in the home. Teach parents how to play with a purpose. Encourage them to step away from their phones and be involved with their child.

As parents of young children (under the age of 7):
1) Increase your child's opportunities for free play by limiting your child's screen time, and adult directed, didactic instruction at an early age. Guide your children and provide structure, while allowing them to experience their world through play. For example, let them explore letters/numbers on a magnet board in their room. Model language that builds understanding when the child shows interest, but move away from drilling them. Read books that model sounds, but let the child choose the book. Use their natural curiosity to guide your interactions with them.

2) Increase opportunities for free play by de-cluttering your schedule. Kids don't need to be on a "social schedule" with a list of "adult driven" activities to complete every day. Free play should happen every day, not just in play groups once a week.

3) Learn how to guide your child in free play by seeking help from professionals who know about child development

4) Advocate for child-directed, adult guided, play based kindergartens

Just think of the opportunities for learning in the world around us. We live in a vivid and colorful world! As adults, we have the opportunity to bring to life a 3 dimensional world for our children who unfortunately spend much of their time in a 2 dimensional screen. I'm calling all parents, teachers and therapist to bring free play back! Let children be children and watch learning and discovery happen!