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'Free play' for children, teens is vital to social development, psychologist says
This is Boston College psychology Professor Peter Gray. Credit: BC Media Technology Services
A new theory about early human adaptation suggests that our ancestors capitalized on their capacities for play to enable the development of a highly cooperative way of life.
Writing in the current edition of the interdisciplinary American Journal of Play, Boston College developmental psychologist Peter Gray suggests that use of play helped early humans to overcome the innate tendencies toward aggression and dominance which would have made a cooperative society impossible.
"Play and humor were not just means of adding fun to their lives," according to Gray. "They were means of maintaining the band's existence - means of promoting actively the egalitarian attitude, intense sharing, and relative peacefulness for which hunter-gatherers are justly famous and upon which they depended for survival."
This theory has implications for human development in today's world, said Gray, who explains that social play counteracts tendencies toward greed and arrogance, and promotes concern for the feelings and wellbeing of others. "It may not be too much of a stretch," says Gray, "to suggest that the selfish actions that led to the recent economic collapse are, in part, symptoms of a society that has forgotten how to play."
Interest in play is very much on the upswing among psychologists, educators, and the general public, according to Gray. "People are beginning to realize that we have gone too far in the direction of teaching children to compete," he said. "We have been depriving children of the normal, noncompetitive forms of social play that are essential for developing a sense of equality, connectedness, and concern for others."
Gray stressed that the kind of "play" that helped hunter-gatherer children develop into cooperative adults is similar to the sort of play that at one time characterized American children's summers and after-school hours in contemporary culture. This play is freely chosen, age-mixed, and, because it is not adult-organized, non-competitive, he said. This "free play" is distinct from leisure pursuits such as video games, watching TV, or structured extracurricular activities and sports.
"Even when children are playing nominally competitive games, such as pickup baseball or card games, there is usually relatively little concern for winning," said Gray. "Striving to do well, as individuals or teams, and helping others do well, is all part of the fun. It is the presence of adult supervisors and observers that pushes play in a competitive direction--and if it gets pushed too far in that direction it is no longer truly play."
The most important skill for social life, Gray said, is how to please other people while still fulfilling one's own needs and desires. In self-organized play, he contends, children learn to get along with diverse others, to compromise, and to anticipate and meet others' needs. "To play well," he said, "and to keep others interested in continuing to play with you, you must be able to see the world from the other players' points of view.
"Children and teenagers in hunter-gatherer cultures played in this way more or less constantly," he said, "and they developed into extraordinarily cooperative, egalitarian adults. My observations - published in previous articles - indicate that age-mixed free play in our culture, in those places where it can still be found, has all of these qualities."
Gray's article addresses not just children's play, but also play as a fundamental component of adult human nature, which allowed humans to develop as intensely social and cooperative beings. Through the course of his research, he said, it became increasingly apparent that play and humor lay at the core of hunter-gatherer social structures and mores.
Hunter-gatherers used humor, deliberately, to maintain equality and stop quarrels, according to Gray, and their means of sharing had game-like qualities. Their religious beliefs and ceremonies were playful, founded on assumptions of equality, humor, and capriciousness among the deities. They maintained playful attitudes in their hunting, gathering, and other sustenance activities, partly by allowing each person to choose when, how, and how much they would engage in such activities.
"Professor Gray's novel insight sheds new light on the question of how such societies can maintain social harmony and cooperation while emphasizing the autonomy of individuals," said Kirk M. Endicott, a leading anthropologist and hunter-gatherer expert at Dartmouth College. "Conversely, his demonstration of the wide-ranging role of play in hunter-gatherer societies focuses attention on the importance of play in the evolutionary success of the human species."
Source: Boston College (news : web)
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'Free play' for children, teens is vital to social development, psychologist says
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The Importance of Free Play for Kids
Verywell Family's content is for informational and educational purposes only. Our website is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
Ⓒ 2021 About, Inc. (Dotdash) — All rights reserved
Vincent Iannelli, MD, is a board-certified pediatrician and fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Dr. Iannelli has cared for children for more than 20 years.
Ann-Louise T. Lockhart, PsyD, ABPP, is a board-certified pediatric psychologist, parent coach, author, speaker, and owner of A New Day Pediatric Psychology, PLLC.
Michael H. / DigitalVision / Getty Images
Few things are more associated with childhood than play, but some kids aren't getting enough free play time. These are times when kids need to use their imagination or enjoy physical activity rather than being coached on a team or watching electronic entertainment, and there are many benefits to this type of simple, unstructured play.
Play is essential to development because it contributes to the cognitive, physical, social, and emotional well-being of children and youth.
Play is so important to optimal child development that it's been recognized by the United Nations as a basic right of every child.1
But with all of the structured activities and the strictly scheduled lives kids often live these days, some are left without any real time to just play. Even when given time to play, they may be too tired after participating in organized activities to take advantage of the opportunity.
There are a host of factors that have led to a decrease in free play time, including a greater emphasis on academic preparation, working parents with little free time to care for children, more electronic screen time, less time spent playing outdoors, perceived risk of play environments, and limited access to outdoor play spaces.
"Children are designed, by natural selection, to play," wrote Peter Gray, PhD, professor of psychology at Boston College, in the American Journal of Play. "Wherever children are free to play, they do."2
However, the last half-century has seen a decline in kids' opportunities to play. Precisely how fast and how much the opportunity for real free play has declined is difficult to quantify, though historians suggest that the decline has been continuous and great. It has also led to lasting negative consequences.
In that same article, Gray detailed how the lack of play affects emotional development, leading to the rise of anxiety, depression, and problems of attention and self-control.
Gray argues that, without play, young people fail to acquire the social and emotional skills necessary for healthy psychological development. 
In a special report on play, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) outlined a host of payoffs from free play, including that it:3
Of course, free play is also fun, and all that running, biking, and jumping kids often engage in helps build healthy bodies. That's a significant benefit, considering that 20% of American children are obese.4 Many experts attribute the dramatic rise in childhood obesity and the decline in physical fitness at least partly to the decline in outdoor play.
The ability for kids to manage their emotions and behaviors, what experts call emotional regulation, may also be a casualty of too little play—and a factor in the high rate of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Children learn how to regulate fear, anger, and other emotions while playing. This teaches them how to maintain emotional control in threatening and real-life situations, all of which seem to be a strong countervailing force to the impulsivity, hyperactivity, and lack of emotional control that characterize ADHD.
At least one play-based intervention aimed at improving the social play skills of children with ADHD has shown significant success5 by having assigned but free-form play-dates under parental supervision among the children, their parents, a designated friend, and that child's parents.
It's important to note that this kind of play is meant to be unstructured, child-driven play. It's not the kind of playtime that's controlled by adults, and it doesn't include passive play, such as sitting in front of a video game, computer, or TV.
Keep in mind that while free play isn't controlled by adults, that doesn't mean you shouldn't supervise your kids while they're playing, especially if they're playing outside.
True free play involves any kind of unstructured activity that encourages children to use their imagination, such as playing with blocks, dolls, and toy cars. It wouldn't include playing with most electronic toys.
A group of kids playing soccer in the backyard together (versus playing on a team with a coach) would be another good example of free play time. This type of active free play is also a good way to help your kids meet their daily physical activity requirements.
More examples of free play include:
If you're counting on school recess to provide your child with a healthy dose of free play, you may want to rethink that decision.
The length of school recess may be too short to count as free play. In fact, it is rarely mandated at the state level and some schools have eliminated it altogether. And recess is often a very structured event.6
If you're constantly running from activity to activity and your kids are over-scheduled, consider cutting back and adding in some free play. Unstructured play lets your kids explore their imagination and the things around them. In a time when so many parents deal with hectic schedules, it's good to remember the importance of a little free time.
As the AAP notes, some of the best interactions between parents and kids occur during downtime, too. Collaborating on meals, working on a hobby or art project, playing sports together, or even just talking are great ways to bond that don't require money or elaborate planning. Remember, activities don't need to be expensive or exciting to be special.
Get expert tips to help your kids stay healthy and happy.
Verywell Family uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
International Play Association. UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Adopted November 20, 1989.
Yogman M, Garner A, Hutchinson J, et al. The power of play: A pediatric role in enhancing development in young children. Pediatrics. 2018;142(3):e20182058. doi:10.1542/peds.2018-2058
Riser-Kositsky M. 7 Things to Know About School Recess. Education Week. July 17, 2018.
Franke B, Michelini G, Asherson P, et al. Live fast, die young? A review on the developmental trajectories of ADHD across the lifespan. Eur Neuropsychopharmacol. 2018;28(10):1059–1088. doi:10.1016/j.euroneuro.2018.08.001
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Verywell Family's content is for informational and educational purposes only. Our website is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
Ⓒ 2021 About, Inc. (Dotdash) — All rights reserved
Verywell Family is part of the Dotdash publishing family.

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