Unstructured outdoor playtime, which seems to be steadily disappearing, needs to be restored to children’s lives, researchers say.

“The public’s main concern right now seems to be about childhood obesity,” study co-author Dr. Hillary L. Burdette, of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, told Reuters Health. “However, we think it is important to emphasize to parents that reductions in free play might negatively impact children in other ways, such as limiting their ability to be creative, get along with other children, problem solve, and be calm and attentive when necessary.”

Even some grandparents see the change in kids’ activity levels - as children’s waistlines grow bigger - and many say, according to one study, that children just do not play the way children did years ago.

They are right.

From 1981 to 1997, there was an estimated 25 percent drop in free playtime among children. These days, instead of running around in the park with their peers, children spend their free time watching television, playing video games or participating in other passive, sedentary activities, researchers note.

In the current article, Burdette and her co-author, Dr. Robert C. Whitaker, maintain that free play needs to be resurrected.

In addressing the obesity epidemic, they add, public health officials may be more successful if they promoted free play in terms of children’s overall well-being rather than just its health benefits.

“We may get further in obesity prevention by emphasizing that research in neurobiology now supports grandmother’s conventional wisdom about the value of free play,” Burdette said.

“Specifically, we suggest ... emphasizing the benefits of play for children’s social, emotional, and cognitive development,” she added. “Play is about more than improving fitness and reducing fatness.”

In fact, the term “play” is preferable to “physical activity,” or “exercise,” they write, explaining that parents may react more positively to the term.

Further, some parents may consider their children to be too active, particularly in cases where the child is receiving treatment for attention-deficit disorder, and may misunderstand advice to increase their child’s level of physical activity. The term “play” may eliminate some of this confusion.

Results of a national survey show that most parents and teachers believe that children who are physically active learn better and are better behaved than their peers. Further, experiments with rats and mice show that those exposed to an enriched environment have improved learning and memory. The same may be true among children who often engage in problem solving and creative thinking during outdoor play.

Children’s affiliation with others during free play cultivates their social skills, such as in deciding what to play and who to play with. Also, such unstructured play time is likely to improve their emotional well-being, as it may reduce anxiety, depression, aggression and sleep problems, Burdette and Whitaker write.

Parents may also reap some benefits by joining their children in play. As they increase their own levels of physical activity, they may also experience positive mood changes.

“If playing with a child makes both the parent and child feel better, play will be sustained without any public health prescription,” the researchers write.

Efforts to increase free play time among children must extend beyond parents, however, since many children spend significant amounts of time in preschools or some other type of daycare. Such facilities are “ideal venues” to incorporate guidelines for unstructured playtime, the researchers write.

Also, the report indicates, communities need to address the issue of safe outdoor play spaces, including playgrounds that are free of litter and illegal activity.

SOURCE: Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine, January 2004.