Benefits to Unrestricted Child's Play

Benefits to Unrestricted Children’s Playtime

Jennifer Monger

Paul S. Humenik

Introduction to Sociology

06/09/13

Childhood has been studied by many theorists such as Sigmund Freud, and Jean Paiget. Sociologist looked at childhood as a unique step in life. Theorists look to understand the elements of development that happen in childhood. One of the most applied theories on childhood is based on children learning through play. In the past years it has been seen that increasing restricted free play has also increased emotional disorders in children.

Play is a very crucial part of a child’s development. Playtime will teach children social skills such as interaction, decision making, speech development, and conflict resolution. Emotional skills developed are confidence in them self as well as to explore new surroundings. Playtime also promotes creativity. Lack of free play, activities not led by an adult, is speculated to be a factor in children’s mental health issues. Restriction of children’s outdoor play has become an issue because of the growing concern of parents about crime, abduction, and car traffic. Other factors restricting children’s playtime is technology, schools decreasing or eliminating recess time, and more emphasis on academic skills at early ages. In the American Journal of Play: The Decline of Play and the Rise of Psychopathology in Children and Adolescents (Gray, 2011) depicts how play time has been limited but also the effects on the emotional development of children.

The issue of the effects on restricted children play time is a sociology issue because it studies how children learn to interact and how limiting the freedom to unrestricted play may cause developmental and emotional development issues. Sociological theory is defined (Ritzer, 2007/2010/2013) “as a set of interrelated ideas that allow for the systematization of knowledge of the social world.” Jean Piaget’s theory of Cognitive development outlines the stage...