Undirected Play: Giving your child the best chance to develop into a healthy, well-rounded person

Undirected, free play is essential for the healthy development of children. Play allows children to have time to imagine, time to use and explore their creativity, time to discover their own interests, time to be engrossed in a task, time to try out different roles, time to develop new competencies and become resilient, time to practice leadership, time to engage and interact with others, and time to have super personalised fun.

We know today that unstructured, free play is important for a child's healthy physical, emotional and social development. It is also crucial for a child's developing brain. However, in today's complex and busy life, there often does not appear to be enough free play time made available for them. Instead, in the last decades or so, free play time has given way to the pursuit of academic instruction and other formal structured educational activities.

This turn-around has been driven by a sophisticated, carefully constructed marketing machine that constantly bombards parents with messages to the effect that good parents expose their children to enrichment tools and activities. As a result, parents and caregivers spent much of their time arranging special activities for their children and transporting them hurriedly from one venue or activity to the next. Even if they themselves are exhausted from their own day's work, they will seldom break the child's schedule for fear that if they do, their child will be disadvantaged and left behind. Such is the power of marketing.

Of course, we recognise that organised activities do have their benefits and advantages, especially for some groups of children, but not when these activities are at the expense of free play. There is the additional danger that this hurried, activity-packed lifestyle is stressful to children and that it can lead to anxiety and even depression (Rosenfeld AA and Wise N. 2001; Elkind D. 2001; cited in: Ginsburg K.R. 2004).

What can you do to contribute to your child's healthy development:

• Afford children unscheduled, free, child-driven play time.


• Discourage your children from overusing screen-based entertainment, including computer games and other electronic media.


• Have your children play with active 'true toys': building blocks, boxes, dolls and others that leave it up the child to decide how to use them.


• Recognise that toy manufacturing companies and activity providers are primarily interested in their bottom line.


• That toy manufacturing companies and activity providers use highly sophisticated psychological means to make sure that you buy their products and services.


• Share some spontaneous time with your children, play with them, laugh with them, imagine with them, and cherish each other.


• Be their role model, hug them often, provide subtle guidance, and be consistent in your decision-making.


• Read to your children, even at a very early age, and involve them in conversation.


• Arrange play groups and 'safe spaces' in your neighbourhood.


• Balance your children's academic and extracurricular activities and adapt them to each individual child in your care.


• Encourage, but avoid pressuring your children; praise them when praise is due.

The above information was sourced and collated from the following professional paediatric and scholarly resources:

Ginsburg K.R. 2007. The Importance of Play in Promoting Healthy Child Development and Maintaining Strong Parent-Child Bonds. American Academy of Pediatrics, vol. 119(1),pp. 182ff.

Hillary L. et al. 2005, Resurrecting Free Play in Young Children. Looking Beyond Fittness and Fatness to Attention, Affiliation, and Affect. –Arch. Pediatr.Adeolesc. Med. Vol 159, pp. 46ff.

Wenner M. 2009. The Serious Need for Play. Scientific American Mind.

Pellegrini A.D. 2009. The role of play in human development. Oxford University Press.

Medica Pura

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