The pandemic response has caused children to be restricted and observed like never before and the use of the screen as their play, leisure and communication channel has led to a reduction in physical exercise, worsening eyesight and lack of experiences.
Mums in nurseries are describing a picture where babies – born during the pandemic – seem much younger than their older siblings at the same age: ‘They have missed a year of life.’ That includes everything from exploring their environment and meeting new friends to trying new food or experiencing the weather.
We can clearly see the effect on young children of staying at home. They are not used to new faces, lots of people in the same space, or exploring. The impact is fundamental and all-encompassing.
As we move towards the end of 2021, we must create opportunities for children to experience all the things they have missed and accept they will experience them in new ways. Luckily, we already know about a super medicine for loneliness, isolation, lack of exercise, boredom, restriction, lack of creativity and depression. It’s called Playing Outside.
Never has it been more important to facilitate children’s outdoor play. Children’s brains are literally trying to develop – we don’t need to train, cajole, bribe or force them. Their neural networks are raring to go. Let them play outside, choosing what they want to do. Let them have agency, meet peers, take risks and do what they naturally want to do when we don’t tell them what to do.
Contact with nature is proven to soothe and calm.
Playgrounds are special places because that is where adults allow children to work things out for themselves. Spaces are planned and designed with children in mind (unlike nearly everywhere else) so caregivers feel able to let, and thereby create, the space and time for free play. Children can interact with their environment and each other in unrestricted ways that allow them to develop a sense of self and increase self-confidence by trying things out and managing risks. These vital skills develop naturally with free play outside.
Now is the time to invest in play across the board, from increasing the playgrounds and park spaces for children to rethinking our shared spaces such as pavements, roads and thoroughfares and ensuring there is a focus on free play in every school, every day. We have a chance to be part of the solution to support the next generation to recover quickly and naturally from this disaster and I firmly believe it is play.