A child’s work is to play, but it seems that today’s children do more than “just” play. Scheduled activities, homework, club meetings, and extracurricular classes leave little time for unstructured, imaginative play.

According to Howard Chudacoff, a cultural historian at Brown University, in the 1950’s children’s play became focused on things versus the activities around which play had centered for so long.

Worries about safety and enriching children by means of regulated activities have turned the focus on play away from imagination-driven playtime that encourages children to regulate themselves, to the detriment of children. The lack of time spent making up games and using their imaginations has resulted in children who cannot control their emotions and behaviors or resist impulses.

When children engage in imaginative play, they engage in a kind of discussion with themselves in which they state what they are going to do, and then do it. Structured classes and leagues don’t allow for this kind of internal dialogue, and therefore children do not develop self-regulation strategies.

Self-regulation is important to develop and maintain; the more self-regulation a child has, the lower the chance of his dropping out of school. A better predictor of school success than his IQ, this self-regulation of emotions means children are better able to learn. As researcher Laura Berk explains, "Self-regulation predicts effective development in virtually every domain.”

Just child’s play? Think again. Make-believe games and time spent freely using his imagination results in a child who is better able to control himself and to learn. While this seems to fly in the face of “enrichment programs,” evidence suggests that time spent in play is more valuable than in a structured setting.

Read or listen to the National Public Radio story at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19212514