Now that we’ve explored how the body works, it’s time to begin answering all the questions posed in chapter one. My answer is quite rudimentary (but important nonetheless): allow your child to have several hours of active free play a day—preferably with other children.
You might be thinking, Well, my child gets playtime at school or My child is involved in sports year-round. Recess and sports can be great opportunities to get your child moving. However, it’s important to realize that children need to challenge their bodies in various ways several hours a day, and to do so with little adult direction. If your child is spending more hours per day in front of a television than outside playing with friends, it’s easy to recognize the missed opportunities for playtime: television equals entertained and sedentary children, whereas play equals engaged and moving children entertaining themselves. The math is pretty easy when it comes to screen time. To solve the problem, you might establish a new rule of television as a treat once or twice a week, and add in a compulsory two or more hours of active playtime every day to your child’s routine.
But it’s a lot harder to see missed opportunities in other aspects of your child’s life. Consider that long, uninterrupted hours in the classroom, at the kitchen table doing homework, and in a car seat on long commutes also steal quality playtime from children. Not only that, the physical restraints caused by sitting can be detrimental in many other ways—physically, mentally, and emotionally—as I’ve touched upon.
This chapter explores the serious effects of putting too many limits on movement. We’ll start by looking at the most common movement restrictions that kids face today. Then I’ll explain what “active free play” really means, what it entails, why it’s important, and how you can foster it.
As a parent of two young children, I can empathize with the parental fear that habitually gets in the way of childhood risk taking. Our instincts often take over, and we shout “Be careful!” or “Slow down!” as we watch a child climb on top of boulders or speed across uneven terrain. However, as a pediatric occupational therapist who spends countless hours observing children playing in a natural environment, I also know that restricting children’s movement and limiting their ability to play outdoors can cause more harm than good.
Children’s ability to move and play are being restricted more than ever before. At a young age, children are placed in baby devices that restrict natural movement and good posture, leading to altered walking patterns and unnecessary full-body weakness. Older kids are required to sit for hours on end during school. After school, they are overscheduled with organized sports, art classes, music lessons, and more. This leaves little time for children to be involved in active, spontaneous free play—the type of play that stimulates the senses and gets the heart pumping.
Let’s take a closer look at how each of these restrictions can impact our children.
Baby devices are hard to resist. They allow you to take a shower, clean the house, and finish the taxes—while keeping baby safe from injury. However, if babies spend too much time in these devices, they can actually cause physical complications and possibly developmental delays, such as being late to sit, crawl, walk, and so on (Crawford 2013).
The rise in baby-device usage is partly to blame on the “back to sleep” campaign issued by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development in 1994. This campaign was created in an effort to decrease the amount of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) cases. SIDS is the sudden death of an infant less than one year of age. Many experts felt that a possible cause of SIDS was putting infants on their stomach to sleep with soft materials, which could cause suffocation.
After this campaign began, there was a significant decrease in the number of children who died from SIDS. However, many doctors and developmental therapists (for example, occupational, physical, and speech therapists) feel that this campaign triggered an unintentional rise in the use of infant devices to contain children for most of their day. Doctors and therapists were seeing a simultaneous rise in children with flattened heads, developmental delays, coordination difficulties, muscle weakness and abnormalities, and altered walking and movement patterns. It got so bad that therapists coined the term “container baby syndrome” (CBS) to describe what they were seeing.
Researchers say the number of CBS diagnoses increased 600 percent between 1992 to 2008, culminating with one in seven children being diagnosed with CBS in 2008 (American Physical Therapy Association 2008). At Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, senior physical therapist Colleen Coulter-O’Berry says that a decade ago her clinic saw about fifty children annually who needed therapeutic helmets to correct head shape. Now the clinic sees about five hundred kids a year who need a helmet (Manier 2008). Evidence is starting to mount that infants who spend a lot of time on their backs are also more likely to have slight delays in motor skills. A 2006 Canadian study published in the Journal of Pediatrics found that 22 percent of babies who slept on their backs had some delays in motor skills such as sitting up, rolling over, and climbing stairs (Manier 2008).
Although baby equipment such as infant carriers, backpacks, and bouncy chairs can be helpful and convenient, using them to contain infants for most of the day immobilizes them and places continuous gravitational forces on certain parts of the body. Over time, this can alter walking and movement patterns.
Constantly being on the back also allows for little to no movement of the neck or spine. Babies need movement through the center of their body in order to start developing essential core and neck strength. A strong neck and core lay the foundation for many other developing skills, such as fine motor skills, visual skills, body awareness, coordination, and balance. Frequent time spent on the floor (both on the belly and back) allows babies to move their limbs freely, explore and touch their surrounding environment, and start to develop strong muscles and bones. Chapter eight dives deeper into this discussion of movement and tackles the sensory and motor benefits of getting little ones outdoors on a daily basis.
A local elementary-school teacher informed me that children are expected to sit for longer periods of time than in years past. Maybe you’ve noticed this trend with your own children and are surprised at how much time the school system expects them to sit. This increase is likely due to the expectations of teachers to fit in more and more curriculum at an earlier age. In fact, even kindergarteners are expected to sit for thirty minutes at a time at many schools.
One kindergarten teacher tells me that she feels like she is under constant pressure to produce “results” in her students. By the end of kindergarten, children are expected to read, write, add, and subtract; if they don’t learn these skills, the children have failed, along with the teacher. She went on to tell me that in the United States, many people are pushing for teachers’ pay to be affected by their students’ test scores, which is why many teachers are getting so serious with their push for more academics.
A preschool teacher tells me that even she feels compelled to push children at a young age. On top of that, teachers feel so much pressure to document and justify what they do and why they do it that the relaxed, playful environment is often compromised. As academic demands on children increase, many children are asked to take a seat. They aren’t sitting for just a brief period, followed by lots of rich opportunities to learn through hands-on experiences. On the contrary, the majority of children are expected to sit for hours every day. This lack of movement combined with an unrelenting sitting routine is wreaking havoc on children’s minds and bodies.
I recently found out about a local middle school that got rid of its recess in order to fit in more curriculum. Curious, I decided to experience their school environment firsthand. I sat in one of the classrooms as if I were a student myself. Except for the brief periods of getting up and switching classrooms, we sat for almost three hours straight. At one point, I looked down at my leg and noticed it was bouncing. I was starting to fidget. I looked around and noted that my fellow classmates weren’t much better off. Those who weren’t fidgeting were slumped over their desks or slouched way back in their chairs.
I started contorting my body into awkward positions to keep from daydreaming. It was useless; about forty-five minutes into the class nothing the teacher said was registering anymore. Children started raising their hands to go use the bathroom or to sharpen pencils, anything to get up and get moving. I was planning on staying the whole day. I just couldn’t do it. I decided to leave shortly after lunch. Sitting for the three-hour morning had completely exhausted my mental energy, and I craved an afternoon siesta.
How can we expect young children to sit for hours at a time when it’s hard to do so as an adult?
The bottom line is this: it is hard to pay attention when you are not allowed to move for extended periods of time. This is one reason why children fidget! In order to remain alert, children activate the vestibular system by moving back and forth in their chairs. This movement turns the brain on to pay attention. It’s not that these young students are trying to be disruptive or are not interested in learning—on the contrary. They are in fact straining all of their resources in order to listen and learn. The classic sign that kids are not getting enough movement throughout the day is when they start wiggling, rocking, and twisting their bodies about.
Not wanting the children to get hurt or to distract others, the teacher asks them to sit still and pay attention. This is a dilemma for the children. If they keep their body and head still, it reduces activation of the brain, making it harder to do what the teacher wants them to do—pay attention and learn. But in order for children to learn, they must be able to pay attention. And in order to pay attention, children need to move.
Sitting for practically the whole day is also unnatural and can be harmful to our bodies. We were made to move, not to remain sedentary. When we sit for long periods of time, day after day, our bodies start to succumb to these unnatural positions and a sedentary lifestyle. This can cause atrophy of the muscles, tight ligaments (where there shouldn’t be tightness), and underdeveloped senses—setting children up for weak bodies, poor posture, and inefficient sensory processing of the world around them.
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (2013), a recent study states that the average child spends eight hours a day in front of screens (television, video games, computers, smartphones, and so on). Older children and adolescents are spending an average of eleven hours a day in front of screens. And 75 percent of twelve-to-seventeen-year-olds have their own cell phones. Nearly all teens participate in text messaging.
Once at a TimberNook camp, I witnessed a young child go up to a tree and ask where the buttons were. I’ve seen other children try to swipe a toy to get it to engage and entertain them. Lots of video games and television shows are designed specifically for entertainment purposes. Many parents feel like they need to constantly entertain their children every minute of every day. When they need to do chores or take a shower, they use the television or video games as a babysitter. At a really young age, children become accustomed to this mode of being. The effects? Children become unable to think for themselves and lose the ability to imagine, and their essential play skills are hindered.
One eight-year-old girl who came to camp a few summers ago had the hardest time during free play. She would come up to the staff members and ask, “What’s next on the schedule?” “It’s time to play now,” we would respond. She would then find a seat on a stump. Incredulous of this notion of free play, she refused to leave the stump unless she needed to go to the bathroom or it was time for a more structured activity. No matter how many times children invited her into their play, she refused to move.
A few college professors state that this lack of independence and creativity is even appearing at the college level. They are starting to see more students who have trouble with simple problem solving, creative thinking, and even answering essay questions. One professor told me that we need more game designers, not more game players.
Most importantly, video games and watching television are addicting and take precious time away from play—especially play outdoors. Instead of being fully immersed in a game of baseball out in the field with friends, where children practice negotiating the rules, running the bases, and stimulating the senses in a healthy way, children are indoors and sitting—again. Sometimes parents put children in front of the television with the hope that it will help their children relax or calm down; however, usually the reverse is true.
Bright colors flash before them, stimulating the fight-or-flight response in the brain—but with no release. This lack of release is why, when you turn the television or video games off, children are often angry. Their brains were stimulated without the chance to move and react. There is nothing wrong with an occasional video-game match or movie. However, such screen time really should be considered an occasional treat, something that doesn’t become habit or that children feel entitled to have every day. Their time is so precious already. Instead, consider giving them real, authentic play experiences. Try saving the screen time for a rainy day or special occasion.
You probably have a good handle on what you can fit into a typical day and week. As a busy parent, you’ve likely got work, errands, household management, and child-rearing pretty well scheduled so as not to get too stressed out. Sure, some days are crazier than others, but you are probably skilled at knowing your limits, when to say no, how to prioritize, and how to wind down. But have you ever stopped to think about what your day is like for your child, whose part of the brain responsible for higher-level reasoning (for example, the ability to make decisions, understand consequences, or prioritize) hasn’t fully developed? Let’s look at the day of a typical modern kid.
Sarah, a sweet nine-year-old, gets up and dresses quickly in the morning, keeping in mind that if she eats fast enough her mother will let her watch cartoons before leaving for school. As soon as she finishes her last bite, she watches reruns of “Looney Tunes.” Twenty minutes go by in a flash.
Sarah lives in the country, so it takes about twenty-five minutes to drive to school. Her mom feels guilty about the long drive, so she lets Sarah play on the iPad until they arrive. “Everyone, please take your seats!” the teacher shouts as Sarah approaches her desk, where she sits most of the day, except for a brief snack, quick lunch, and a twenty-minute recess. Then it is time to go home.
After another twenty-five-minute commute home, Sarah is feeling energetic after a long day of sitting. She instantly heads toward the swing set in the backyard. “Not yet,” Mom catches her. “Homework first.” Sarah groans, shuffles to the dining-room table, and pulls out her assignment.
“Argh…” Sarah is literally trying to pull her hair out. “I hate this! I can’t do this!” It takes her about ninety minutes to complete the homework on a good day. By the end, she is exhausted. After two bouts of crying, she feels angry and spent. “Can I play on the iPad for a little bit?” She asks her mother. Her mother, thinking Sarah has definitely earned it this time, says, “Sure. But remember, we need to leave for Girl Scouts in thirty minutes.”
After Girl Scouts, Sarah and her family use the drive-through on their way home since it is already a late night. When they get home, Sarah grabs her Harry Potter book and reads for thirty minutes before it is time for lights out. Tomorrow, she’ll do this routine all over again. Only instead of Girl Scouts, she has basketball practice.
Does this routine sound familiar? Maybe there are a few variations in your family. Maybe you cook dinner in a Crock-Pot so it’s ready to eat when you get home. Maybe you have more than one child, and this scenario seems like nothing compared to your schedule. Regardless, many of our schedules have become busy—very busy. This leaves children little time for free play outdoors—the type of play that rebalances them and gives them respite away from an unnecessarily demanding world.
Parents today presume that playing a team sport is superior to playing freely at the park. Don’t get me wrong, I believe sports can offer great value: they teach children responsibility, team ethics, perseverance, patience, stamina, endurance, and the challenge of competition. Problems arise when this belief causes parents to replace active free play with sports, leaving no time for children to engage in imaginative, child-driven, and sensory-balanced play.
Keep in mind that organized sports have changed in the last thirty years. In the early 1980s, I remember playing softball and soccer. Back then, we practiced about once a week and had the occasional game on a Saturday. Most of my weekends and weekdays were still filled with hours of outdoor play with my friend Jessica, biking around town, going to garage sales to buy items for picnics in the park, and trying to earn cash by washing our neighbors’ cars.
Now it appears that organized sports have all but taken over the extracurricular lives of children. Studies show that 60 percent of boys and 47 percent of girls in the United States are on a sports team by the age of six (Kelley and Carchia 2013). Even children as young as three and four are suiting up and getting out there to practice for a team. Equipment is being altered, helmets fitted, expensive uniforms purchased, and private lessons bought to give young children an “edge.” Practices and games are no longer just once-a-week fun and laid-back sessions. They can number up to three or four a week for elementary-aged children—an intensity that was once saved for middle-school children who are mentally and physically better equipped for this kind of demanding schedule.
Not only are organized sports becoming more of a commitment, but children are often playing more than one sport at a time, being driven to sibling’s activities and games, taking lessons, and joining clubs. Why have sports become so intense? Is this an attempt to keep kids busy? What about letting kids entertain themselves? What about teaching children about balance in life? With organized sports becoming a given, rather than an option, in the lives of our children, we’ve lost sight of an important principle that is crucial to healthy development: organized sports can be an okay way for kids to get exercise, but they should be a supplement to active free play. Sports should be the icing on the cake, not the cake, when it comes to providing an environment for kids to thrive developmentally.
When children develop and organize their own athletic games outdoors and without adult interference, their experience of playing sports is enriched on many different levels:
I once treated a child who was very anxious. When I asked his parents what his day looked like, they told me he had one or two extracurricular activities every day of the week, including the weekend. They barely had time for their occupational therapy sessions—never mind finding time for him to simply play.
With long hours of sitting in school followed by inappropriate amounts of homework and being rushed to after-school activities, it is no wonder our children are having increased anxiety, difficulty playing independently and creatively, and trouble developing sensory skills.
Through child-initiated play, children naturally develop strong muscles and sensory systems, learn creativity, and develop healthy social and emotional skills. However, we need to allow them time to do this. When their schedule is booked full with structured activities, there is little time for active free play outdoors—the type of play that gets children thinking, moving, and creating, using both their mind and body in ways that following adult direction will never match.
Aw…to be free. Free to play whatever you want. Free to explore. Free to wander away from the house. Free to make mistakes. Free to jump, spin, dance, shout, and climb. Free to take risks. This is active free play—moving the body, stimulating the senses, and igniting the imagination so that the whole body and brain are engaged at once. Neurons are firing on all cylinders as children explore their surroundings. They are fully alive.
Active free play outdoors is becoming rare, a thing of the past. Yet it is more important than ever that we stop overscheduling our children and start to reintroduce more opportunities for play and movement. Children’s minds and bodies depend and thrive on active free play.
Unrestricted and unsupervised play is one of the most valuable educational opportunities that we can offer our children. I once had the privilege of hearing Peter Gray speak. He is what I would call a “play expert”—a scientist and researcher who studies the evolution and theory of play. He defines “play” by talking about its distinct qualities. First, he says that play is self-driven and self-directed. You always have a choice whether you want to play or not. He says, “The ultimate freedom in play is the freedom to quit” (Gray 2013, 141).
According to Gray, when adults take over and direct play for children, it is no longer considered play. For instance, adult-led academic games may be fun for kids who choose to play them in school; however, they may feel like punishment for kids who didn’t make that choice (Gray 2013). A game of “kick the can” or pickup basketball that kids play on their own is “play.” A little league game directed by adults is not.
Play is guided by mental rules. As Gray states, there is no such thing as “unstructured play,” because when children get together, they form their own rules (2013). For instance, if children play “house,” they are likely to assign roles to each other. “I will be the mother,” one child shouts out. “No, how about you be the sister?” another child suggests. “Okay, only if next time I get to be the mother,” the first child answers. Their games can become quite complex and structured, whether adults see them that way or not.
Oftentimes in the woods at TimberNook, children create societies and even their own hierarchies. They take on roles such as “top spy,” “teepee protector,” and “first commander” and report back to the leader who sits perfectly perched in the tree donning a feathered mask. They go against other teams and decide on methods of “attack” and strategies for how to hide their “goods.” Sometimes these intricate games are remembered and picked right back up the following summer. These play ideas are never suggested by an adult. In fact, the adults watch from a distance with awe as the elaborate play unfolds in front of them.
Play is also imaginative. It is serious for the children, but also not serious. It feels real to them, but it isn’t real (Gray 2013). Children will often play so deeply that they appear to be in another world. I once witnessed a little boy stop and ask another boy, who was involved in superhero play, “Wait! Is this real?” Sometimes they take breaks from their pretend play to eat a snack or lunch or go to the bathroom. “Freeze!” one child yells. “Snack time.” Another child involved in the play then seeks reassurance that this is in fact just a break from their play. “We are going to play after, though, right?”
Play is motivated by means more than ends. When we engage in an activity purely to end it, that is not play. For instance, reading a book in order to do well on a test is not play. Most often, children don’t want their bouts of play with friends to end. Play is constantly evolving and developing into new forms of play and play schemes. Play is also not passive but requires constant assessment and engaged minds (Gray 2013). Yet it shouldn’t be stressful to children. They may not always be happy during play experiences, as rules get negotiated and feelings get hurt from time to time. However, they always have the choice to not play and the freedom to change the play experience.
Giving your children time to engage in free play is like giving them a very special gift—a gift that keeps on giving, preparing children for adulthood by cultivating and nurturing essential life skills. Play allows children opportunities to get creative, to practice regulating emotions, to enhance social development, and even to learn about themselves in the process.
Having the ability to play away from the adult world opens up many opportunities and feelings of freedom. It is fertile ground, a blank slate on which children develop their own stories and preferences. Children take ownership over their play experiences and get creative with what is around them. A stick can become a wand, a weapon, a fishing pole, a horse on which to gallop, a building material, or a tool. Leaves can become an ingredient for soup, a prop for art, medicine, money, decor, and so on. The possibilities are endless.
When offered their own free play, children decide what they want to play and with whom. Coming up with play schemes or ideas is not only great fun but also a mental challenge for children. If they want to play with others, they have to learn how to invite others to join their play. They also learn how to present their play opportunity so it sounds worthy and pleasurable. Once there are a few children involved, they start negotiating their play schemes and creating a more elaborate form of pretend play.
This delicate back and forth teaches them how to compromise and work with others as well as how to self-direct and generate creative ideas. These are important characteristics that foster creativity, independence, and interpersonal intelligence (the ability to relate to and understand other people). Interpersonal intelligence really needs to be learned through real-life experiences; it can’t be taught through textbooks or lectures. Role-playing, which children who struggle with talking and interacting with others practice in social-skill groups after school, won’t be as effective as practicing and experiencing firsthand how to make and keep a friend.
Through play and risk taking, children also learn about themselves. They learn their interests, their abilities, and how to regulate their emotions. Children learn to work through frustrations, fear, and anxiety as they successfully climb onto large rocks to have a picnic with friends or by having to negotiate a new play scheme because a friend just threatened to not play if they didn’t.
Children test their limits both physically and mentally, growing stronger each time they play. They develop a sense of confidence as they climb a tree a little higher or another child agrees to play with them when they ask. They learn patience and how to persevere in order to keep the game going. Through free play, children become flexible, resilient, and capable. Free play lays the foundation for a successful working career and the development of long-term relationships as an adult.
In an effort to fight the nation’s rising obesity problem, in the past decade there has been a significant increase in the number of available exercise classes, youth sports teams, running programs, and fitness camps for young children. According to the US Youth Soccer Organization, the number of children who participated in youth sports between 1981 to 1997 grew by 27 percent—and continues to grow (Kelley and Carchia 2013). Everything from yoga classes to enticing running programs are being implemented all over the United States. However, the waistlines of America’s children continue to grow, and obesity is still on the rise. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 16.9 percent of children were obese in 2009. This is triple the number of children who were obese in 1980. Obese children often grow up to be obese adults. By 2030, the CDC predicts that 42 percent of all Americans will be obese (Ogden et al. 2012).
Clearly all this time that adults are spending organizing exercise opportunities for children and encouraging them to play multiple sports, even at the age of three or four, hasn’t forestalled the epidemic. The well-meaning push for organized sports has overlooked the fact that for generations children simply played outdoors and didn’t don fancy jerseys, nor were they subjected to rigid schedules and rules. They got their exercise by playing pickup basketball with friends after school, by playing tag out in a field for hours, or by making forts in the woods with no adult present.
Not only did this form of free play ignite their imaginations and creativity, it also challenged their bodies in a multitude of different ways for hours on end. No one determined the rules for them; they set the rules, and then through determination and interest they tested their own abilities. They challenged their senses and their muscles and learned to persevere and overcome personal goals and obstacles.
A good example of active free play is good old-fashioned pond hockey. Even though people still play pond hockey today, it is now rare for children to take off on their own to start up their own games on an actual pond or lake. In the past, children, both young and old, would have walked to the pond by themselves with skates in hand. If there were enough kids to play and the ice was thick enough, they’d set up the goals, which could be anything from an egg crate to ski poles stuck in the ice.
Children would pick their own teams based on their abilities and set their own rules. They’d have to regulate how hard to hit the puck in order to successfully complete passes to young kids versus older and more skilled kids. The bumpy ice further challenged the children’s motor and balance skills as they maneuvered the uneven terrain.
Most importantly, the children were out there by choice and to have fun. No adults were standing around, shouting orders. In the name of fun, children tolerated and endured skating for hours, sometimes even until the sun went down. They challenged their bodies and their limits, while enhancing their skating skills every time they went back on the ice. Active free play outdoors develops the senses, builds strong muscles and bones, and fosters a healthy immune system.
Active free play develops the strong muscles and bones needed for stability, injury prevention, endurance, and strength. This development is further enhanced when the play takes place outdoors. Studies of children in Norway and Sweden compared preschool children who played on relatively flat playgrounds with children who played among large rocks, trees, and uneven terrain. They found that children who played in natural areas tested better on their motor skills, especially in regards to balance and agility (Grahn et al. 1997).
Katy Bowman, a biomechanical expert says that when children are exposed to low and gentle forces multiple times each day, even as babies, they quickly develop the muscle strength they need to support their own weight (Crawford 2013). This happens naturally through play. Children pick up heavy sticks to use for building, run up and down a slanted beach over and over again to refill a bucket of water, and climb over fences and fallen logs to get to the other side of a field. When children play outdoors, they are naturally motivated to move—strengthening their muscles with each move, each step, and every encounter with nature.
The outdoor environment is unpredictable. Rocks, sticks, and logs vary in size and weight. Children must learn how to regulate their strength to pick them up, each time testing their physical limits. Climbing, hanging, and digging also help develop the muscles of the core and upper body. Navigating the uneven and varying terrain that the outdoors offers (especially with bare feet) challenges the muscles of the legs, ankles, and arches of the feet. Developing muscle strength through play helps provide stability and strength for the spine and limbs.
Tendons and ligaments are also strengthened through active play. When children move and play outdoors, they are naturally stretching and lengthening their connective tissue and increasing their range of motion. For instance, when they reach up high to grab a tree limb or pull themselves up onto a large boulder, they are improving their range of motion. On the other hand, when connective tissue remains in a loose state consistent with nonuse, it will gradually shorten and become tight. Tight ligaments, tendons, and muscles are more prone to tears. Children need to move and play to keep connective tissue flexible and healthy in order to prevent injury.
Just like muscles, bones develop and strengthen through varying the type and amount of gravitational loads to the body. Things like running on uneven terrain, jumping off of small rocks, and stomping in puddles are all great ways to provide healthy weight-bearing opportunities to strengthen bones. When children don’t experience enough of these movement opportunities, their bones break down and a release calcium, which is reabsorbed by the body, leaving bones more brittle and weak and increasing the risk of fractures (National Space Biomedical Research Institute n. d.).
Dr. Sheref Unal, assistant professor of pediatrics at the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, emphasizes the importance of developing strong bones from the moment a child can move around. He states that weak bones in children are caused by sedentary lifestyles and lack of exposure to vitamin D from sunlight. Dr. Unal reports, “If they don’t achieve good bone strength during childhood, it can lead to things like osteoporosis or brittle bones later in life.” He recommends that children go outdoors for vitamin D and experience active play in order to develop strong and healthy bones (Southern Illinois University School of Medicine 2007).
Active free play outdoors offers many opportunities to stimulate the senses of the muscles and joints, developing a strong proprioceptive sense. The senses of push and pull that happen when children interact with their environment (for example, picking up heavy sticks to build a fort) create new gravitational loads and adaptations that strengthen bones and muscular tissue over time, offering children increased awareness of their muscle’s capabilities and of their positioning for better body awareness.
Great examples of “heavy work” outdoors include pulling a sled up an inclined hill, digging in the dirt to plant new flowers, and climbing a tree. All of them apply added forces and make the muscles work harder, providing excellent sensory input to the muscles and joints. For instance, walking up an inclined hill adds gravitational loads and expectations to your core and leg muscles, essentially making them work more. Digging in the dirt increases sensory stimulation to the muscles and joints surrounding the shoulder complex, arms, hands, and wrists. Climbing a tree provides increased awareness to the many muscles and joints that are activated while scaling upward.
The more time children play outdoors, the more they are exposed to natural forms of heavy work. Over time their body adapts to the various loads and forces to develop better body awareness and a sense of the right amount of force to apply when interacting with their environment. In other words, they learn to regulate how much pressure to apply when playing a game of tag or holding a baby chick.
Having a strong proprioceptive sense due to years of outdoor play comes in handy when children later learn how to do more precise work, such as sawing the limbs off a dead tree or using a sewing needle with great skill and accuracy. Therefore, it is essential to offer your children plenty of outdoor time to equip them with a good sense of body awareness and to learn how to accurately assess and engage with the world around them.
Children will naturally spin, go upside down, roll down hills, and move their body in all different directions when given the opportunity. Have you ever observed your child spinning just for fun? As children play and move through space, they activate the hair cells in the inner ear. This activation sends motor messages throughout the spinal cord, contributing to the maintenance of muscle tone and body posture (Ayres 2000). In essence, spinning and similar movements contribute to the healthy development of the vestibular sense. As you learned in chapter two, the vestibular sense lays the foundation for many of the other senses. The vestibular sense is necessary for attention, balance, eye control, postural strength, and more.
Spinning in circles is one of the best activities to help children gain a good sense of body awareness. It basically establishes their center, or core. Until children have good awareness of where their center is, they will have trouble establishing a dominant side for writing and throwing, and coordinating the two sides of their body will be difficult. This is why it is important to allow your child to roll down hills and spin in circles just for fun.
David Clarke at the Ohio State University College of Medicine has confirmed the positive results of spinning. With fewer opportunities to spin and the disappearance of merry-go-rounds (you’ll learn more about changes in playgrounds in chapter six) comes a new worry: an increase in learning disabilities. Clarke’s studies suggest that certain spinning activities lead to alertness, attention, and a sense of calm in the classroom (Jensen 1998).
I’ve heard from many children that they are not allowed to spin on their swings at school or even to just spin in circles for fun—that this has become a forbidden activity in recent years. Adults have told me that they are nervous that their children might get dizzy, fall, and hurt themselves. However, spinning actually helps them develop better body awareness and improved attention. Over time, with many opportunities to spin, go upside down, and stimulate the vestibular sense, children develop the ability to navigate their surroundings with ease, strength, and accuracy. They become more coordinated, sure-footed, and less likely to trip or run into things. The vestibular sense also improves their ability to concentrate in the classroom.
Therefore, we should be careful about eliminating play opportunities that foster healthy sensory and motor development. If we simply set up an environment that allows for full movement experiences and put fewer restrictions on children, they will naturally seek out the opportunities they need for healthy sensory integration on their own.
The role of movement should not be overlooked when addressing the increase in colds, illnesses, and allergies in childhood that we learned about in chapter one. When children move on a regular basis, they increase blood flow to different parts of the body, increase oxygen intake, and activate their lymphatic system. The lymphatic system transports lymph, essentially a clear and colorless fluid that contains essential infection-fighting white bloods cells, to different parts of the body. This system helps rid the body of toxins, waste, and other unwanted materials.
The lymphatic system is vital for maintaining a healthy immune system. However, unlike the circulatory system, it doesn’t have a pump and moves only in one direction. This means it relies on the movement of our muscles and our diaphragm (muscle that aids deep breathing) in order to effectively replenish the system and get rid of toxins. If a lymph system becomes less active due to lack of movement, the body can be less protected against colds and illnesses.
Activities such as jumping and other vigorous up-and-down movements are reported to increase lymph flow by fifteen to thirty times. Dave Scrivens, a certified lymphologist, says that the “lymphatic system is the metabolic garbage can of the body. It rids you of toxins such as dead and cancerous cells, nitrogenous wastes, infectious viruses, heavy metals, and other assorted junk cast off by the cells. The movement performed in rebounding provides the stimulus for a free-flowing system that drains away these potential poisons” (2008). Movement also helps stimulate the gut, which aids good digestion and normal bowel movements. Lastly, increased heart-pumping exercise has been known to expand the lungs over time, increasing the intake of oxygen.
In order to increase our children’s endurance, strength, and tolerance for playing outside so they can reap countless health benefits, we need to expose them to the great outdoors on a frequent and regular basis. The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, issued by the US Department of Health and Human Services, recommends that children receive sixty minutes or more of physical activity each day. In my interview with Dr. Faria, a well-respected chiropractor, she stated that “This is just to prevent disease. Sixty minutes of movement a day is not enough to promote health in children.”
Children need to move for hours every day in order to reap the sensory, cognitive, and health benefits that develop strong and capable children. Just like exercise for adults once a week isn’t enough to make adequate changes to our fitness level, exercise once or twice a week at soccer practice is not enough sensory input to make lasting changes to a child’s sensory system. Children need to get outdoors, stimulate the senses, and move their body in all different directions on a daily basis. We were made to move, adapt, and move some more.
How do you know if your child is getting enough active play? Children should be getting daily movement experiences throughout the day in order to develop strong and healthy musculoskeletal and sensory systems. This lays the groundwork for the development of higher-level mental and physical skills as children age. Ideally, kids of all ages should get at least three hours of free play outdoors a day.
Not only is allowing children enough time to play important, but the quality of that time will determine the amount of developmental benefits they receive. The following are some basic tips on how to foster strong, healthy, and capable kids. These tips will be explained in greater detail in the following chapters.
You don’t need to structure your children’s activity during recess or when they are home. Simply step back and allow them ample time to move and play outdoors on their own. Your children will naturally create their own play opportunities and seek out the type and amount of movement they need—without the need for adult intervention. Active free play is critical for developing healthy bodies and minds. It allows children to develop creativity, independent thinking skills, confidence, emotion regulation skills, strength, and healthy sensory and immune systems.