Benefits of Unstructured Play
Unstructured play is play time that is initiated by the child without help from anyone, it is personal to the child, is open-ended, and is not ‘rules orientated’. Above all, it is imaginative and self-directed, offers endless possibilities, and is a source of joy for your child. Structured play, on the other hand, is any play that is influenced or directed by someone other than the child. It has pre-existing objectives and rules and may have a beginning and an end. Playing a board game with specific rules and directions with an adult playing or looking on is also an example of structured play. While this is important to a child’s overall development, it frequently overshadows the other type of play that is just as crucial to healthy outcomes for children, the unstructured play. In a society where families tend to focus on giving children the best opportunities for success, they often mistakenly schedule and guide a child’s day from beginning to end. Parents tend to fill children’s days with activities that they think are important to achieving that goal.
Children benefit greatly from open-ended time where they are in their parents’ view but have some independence in solving problems and determining how the play proceeds. Unstructured play helps children develop their sense of self-exploration and discovery, encourages and facilitates social interaction, promotes self-regulation and flexibility, helps with problem solving and unassisted decision making, improves tolerance for differences in opinions and communication skills, helps children to develop their emotional physical and cognitive skills, and builds their confidence and self-esteem. Unstructured play also provides an environment where creativity, imagination and self-expression are encouraged. Moreover, according to Harvard University Center on the Developing Child, unstructured outdoor play also offers opportunities to develop your child’s executive functioning skills because children tend to develop rules for the imaginary scenarios they create, remember and try out complex ideas, apply the rules to the scenarios as they go along, and regulate each other’s behavior.
Unstructured play changes the structure of the brain in important ways, strengthening the connections of the neurons in the prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain considered to be the executive control center responsible for solving problems, making plans and regulating emotions. The social skills acquired through play may help children become better students. Research has found that the best predictor of academic performance in the eighth grade was a child’s social skills in the third grade. It also allows children to learn about themselves, what they like and don’t like, and even make mistakes without feeling any pressure or failure.
Moreover, unstructured play, whether running around in the yard, climbing trees or playing on commercial play structures in schools or public parks, means moving the whole body around. Physical activity helps children maintain a healthy weight and combats the development of type 2 diabetes by increasing the body’s sensitivity to the hormone insulin. Therefore, many experts feel that unstructured play is a necessary part of childhood.
To help your child get the most out of their unstructured playtime, have a big enough space for your children to play, allow plenty of time, and have a variety of materials on hand, such as age-appropriate toys. For preschool children in particular, it is important to have nontraditional items available for your child’s unstructured play, to encourage their creativity, such as for example cardboard boxes, sidewalk chalk, hula hoops, sticks and rocks, paper towel rolls, or buttons. Please keep in mind the choking hazard for small items, and also it is important to note that unstructured play is not the same as unsupervised play, and that preschoolers should always be under the direct supervision of a parent, teacher, or other trusted adult. Recent research suggests that children should experience twice as much unstructured time as structured play experiences, and that unstructured play is as important as structured play for providing a rich experience for children, and parents should seek to expose their children to both.
