Healthy Play During the Holidays
Written by Kayla Knowlton and Mark Bittner
It’s that time of year again! The holidays are upon us, time is ticking down, and adults everywhere are being overloaded with lists of gifts that children are hoping to receive during their upcoming holiday celebrations. It’s challenging to turn on the TV, check your social media, or listen to your favorite podcasts without being bombarded by advertisements for children’s toys, games, and accessories that are ramped up due to the holiday season. As tempting as it is to buy your child the latest and greatest new toys or games, we should try to proceed with caution. There are several reasons we may want to “pump the brakes” before making the next purchase.
The Value of Play
Play is essential in early childhood! Play is important for children to learn life-long lessons, to construct knowledge, learn important social rules, and engage in skills that boost their “academic” skills (reading, writing, math, biology, physics, etc.) In childhood, play is a child’s language and one of the biggest avenues for developing skills. However, many toys that are currently manufactured aren’t designed to engage children in appropriate developmental play and can actually hinder play.
Some of the best and most meaningful play comes from toys that are “open-ended”, meaning these toys have more than one purpose or more than one solution. An example of this would be assorted sized wooden blocks which can be used to construct anything that a child can think of and can greatly contribute to creativity. Unfortunately, many toys and video games can have the opposite result; they fail to engage children in creative play. They don’t encourage social skills, turn taking, typically have one solution (often resolved too quickly), and they can also promote sexism, violence, and unhealthy competition.
Marketing
Many of today’s toys are produced to support movies, tv shows, or indulge children into further unhealthy consumerism. Many of these toys may look fun to children in commercials, but often fall flat after a few moments of play. The advertisements are enticing, they are designed to be attractive to children, but ultimately do not engage children in appropriate play and quickly become boring. I have witnessed children who may play with an item they really wanted once or twice and then never touch it again, mostly because the toy or game is not creative, does not challenge the child in an appropriate way, or cannot be played with others.
Media
With the evolution of media and technology over the last two decades, much of what children enjoy playing, is done on gaming systems, laptops, tablets, or phones. As fun as this can be, it is linked to some major issues concerning childhood development and appropriate play. Some of the major issues linked to media and technology surrounding play are; lack of movement, lack of nature-based play (getting outside), violent play, and unhealthy social situations. In addition, there is heavy research to support less screen time in early childhood (NIH 2022, Mayo Clinic 2021, Cleveland Clinic 2022, Harvard 2003). In fact, excessive computer/video game play has shown to actually change the wiring in our brains. Additionally, the blue light given out by tablets, phones, tv screens has a negative effect on sleep patterns and can disrupt the circadian rhythms that are essential to healthy sleep and overall growth and development (CDC 2022).
As tempting as it is to appease the littles in our lives, it is important that we take some time while doing our shopping to consider finding toys that encourage open-ended play, outdoor play, creativity, and socially appropriate play. Some of the best toys involve nothing more than a used refrigerator box, markers, blankets, and creative imagination! It’s okay to include a gift or two that your child really wants. It can be hard to resist the temptation of your favorite Disney Princess or the possibility of warm snuggles with your favorite Paw Patrol stuffy, but it’s also important that we do our best to engage our children in developmentally appropriate play that benefits their growth.
Here are some resources to help with questions you may have or may want to share with other parents:
https://www.apa.org/monitor/2020/04/cover-kids-screens
https://health.clevelandclinic.org/how-screen-time-can-slow-your-childs-development/