Researchers surveyed the opinions of 1,172 parents across the United States about the relative educational value of free play, guided play, and games. The results showed that parents tended to rate free play as the most educational. However, their opinion differs from that of experts who emphasize the effectiveness of guided play with learning “goals.” This means efforts are needed to educate American parents about the difference between free play and guided play with their children.
Child psychologists have long known that play is essential to children's cognitive development because it enhances children's social, physical, and emotional skills. But in the 21st century, experts have repeatedly warned that play is under siege for American children. Children were playing less and, as was feared, the quality of their play was decreasing.
But do today's parents fully realize the importance of letting their children play? Yes, we discovered a team of researchers who tested this by surveying the opinions of 1,172 American parents. Their results showed that today's parents understand how important play is to their child's well-being. However, they also indicated that efforts are needed to educate parents about the value of playful learning (or “guided play”) for achieving learning goals in reading and math. Result is, Frontiers of developmental psychology.
Lead author Charlotte Wright, a senior fellow at Temple University's College of Liberal Arts in Philadelphia, said: “This time around, American parents understand that play is more effective for learning than direct instruction.'' “It shows that.”
“Until recently, people generally thought of play as the opposite of work and learning. What we found in our research is that in the eyes of parents, this separation no longer exists and is a positive This is a significant development.”
Parents rate free play the most
The parents were between 18 and 75 years old, and the children were between 2 and 12 years old. Parents were white (68.9%), Hispanic (14.4%), black (10.3%), Asian (3.4%), mixed race (2.6%), or American Indian or Alaska Native (0.4%). Household income ranged from less than $25,000 to more than $100,000. Their education level ranged from not having a high school diploma (4.4%) to having a graduate degree (11.9%).
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Results showed that parents tended to rate free play as best for learning, followed by guided play, games, and direct instruction. This is true whether these types of education are explicitly specified or implied only in certain scenarios.
Parents with higher levels of education and household income were more likely to rate free play as the most effective learning method. Similarly, parents of girls were more likely than parents of boys to rate free play as most educational. In contrast, Black or Hispanic parents were more likely to value direct instruction more highly than play formats.
An example of guided play
The current research consensus is that guided play is more effective than free play for children to learn skills such as math, language, literacy, and spatial awareness needed for STEM skills.
Guided play, which can be done at home or in the classroom, differs from free play in that it is initiated by an adult and allows children to work toward a specific goal. For example, learning in a Montessori classroom or a children's museum is initiated by an adult who constantly reflects on the learning goals. However, it is the children themselves who drive the exploration within such guided learning environments, giving them choice and voice.
The authors offer the following example guided play scenarios: “Ola, Rauf's father, says to Rauf, 'Can we build a tall tower with these blocks?'” When Rauf tries to build a tower, Ola follows Rauf's lead and meets the needs. Ask questions to support him accordingly (e.g., “Hmm, if I put the blue block at the bottom, the tower keeps falling! What other blocks can I try?”).
Therefore, adults become the support team for guided play, but they are not the directors.
Parents' and experts' perceptions differ
Wright et al. “Many parents in the United States hold perceptions that are not completely consistent with scientifically based research, such as believing that free play has greater learning value.'' […] compared to guided play. ”
The results also showed that the more parents were informed about current theories about children's cognitive development (as measured by questions on the Infant Development Inventory (KIDI) questionnaire), the more they tended to value guided play.
The concepts of different types of play, such as guided play and free play, have only recently been introduced in research and may not yet be clear to the public. Also, because guided play requires parents to engage with their children during the play experience, they may underestimate guided play in favor of free play.
The importance of educating parents
“While free play is critical to children's well-being, recent research shows that guided play is the best way to support children's learning of learning skills such as reading, STEM, attention, memory, and flexible thinking. This highlights that this is a more effective approach.” Mr. Light.
Dr. Kathy Hirsch-Pasek, the institute's lead author, said: “We are building on parents' knowledge of the importance of play so that they can create opportunities for guided play during everyday activities such as doing laundry or taking walks. We need to help them hone it.” Play in the park or do puzzles. When parents start thinking of these as “learning” moments during daily play, children thrive and parenthood becomes even more fun. ”
