A few weeks ago I took my son to CHEO for an appointment with a specialist. The waiting room was stuffed with children and parents. I would have expected a certain amount of ambient noise in such a setting, but the room was eerily quiet. With only one exception, the parents were tapping away on their laptops and cell phones. When the children tried to interact with their parents, the parents only lifted their gazes briefly from the flickering screens. This left the children to either watch The Wiggles or to do some colouring. One very young child, who was still developing his fine motor skills, tried to show his father his picture. His father looked over his laptop and told his small son to start over again - and this time to colour evenly and inside the lines.
There is evidence that as toys in Canada become more digital and less mechanical, and as art becomes perceived as colouring inside the lines rather than creating one's own drawing, they present an obstacle to a child's intellectual and motor development. According to McLean's magazine in the article "Why Your Teen Can't Use a Hammer, "Occupational therapist Stacy Kramer, clinical director at Toronto’s Hand Skills for Children, offers one explanation for what’s happening. It begins with babies who don’t get put on the ground as much, which means less crawling, less hand development. Then comes the litany of push-button toy gadgets, which don’t exercise the whole hand. That leads to difficulty developing skills that require a more intricate coordination between the hand and brain, like holding a pencil or using scissors, which kindergarten teachers complain more students can’t do. “We see 13-year-olds who can’t do up buttons or tie laces,” she says. “Parents just avoid it by buying Velcro and T-shirts.” Items that—not incidentally—chimpanzees could put on."
Most of the social and problem-solving skills we master are developed and honed through early play. A play-based kindergarten classroom offers rich opportunities to improve fine motor skills, solve problems, and develop social skills. Children frequently return to the same books, games, or equipment again and again as they master particular concepts. They need to create and activate their own games and imaginative play as part of their development. Adults can introduce games and activities, but children must have a certain amount of free choice and free play to have opportunities to develop and to construct their own meaning.
Perhaps the best demonstration of this comes from an afternoon in early November. I had put out a variety of 3-D shapes in different areas of the classroom. As an afterthought, I put out some hula hoops for the children to sort their shapes before sitting down to read with a child. When I returned to the hula hoops, the children had discovered that they could make spheres roll around the perimeter of the hoops, tight against the inner wall. They were now deeply engrossed in discovering what other solids could perform the same behaviour. On their own terms, they were building a far deeper understanding of the properties of shapes than would have been the case if I had simply made them follow a set of rules.
If you ever feel guilty about a messy, toy-strewn house (which was certainly my case when my children were young), you may enjoy the article Bringing Imagination Back, which looks at how parents and teachers are restoring play and play-based learning to the lives of children. In the meantime, when your children come home and can't wait to tell you about something they did during playtime - they're also telling you, if you "read between the lines", what they learned today and how they built on what they learned yesterday. Step by step, block tower by block tower, their minds and skills are developing as they make sense of the world around them.
There is evidence that as toys in Canada become more digital and less mechanical, and as art becomes perceived as colouring inside the lines rather than creating one's own drawing, they present an obstacle to a child's intellectual and motor development. According to McLean's magazine in the article "Why Your Teen Can't Use a Hammer, "Occupational therapist Stacy Kramer, clinical director at Toronto’s Hand Skills for Children, offers one explanation for what’s happening. It begins with babies who don’t get put on the ground as much, which means less crawling, less hand development. Then comes the litany of push-button toy gadgets, which don’t exercise the whole hand. That leads to difficulty developing skills that require a more intricate coordination between the hand and brain, like holding a pencil or using scissors, which kindergarten teachers complain more students can’t do. “We see 13-year-olds who can’t do up buttons or tie laces,” she says. “Parents just avoid it by buying Velcro and T-shirts.” Items that—not incidentally—chimpanzees could put on."
Most of the social and problem-solving skills we master are developed and honed through early play. A play-based kindergarten classroom offers rich opportunities to improve fine motor skills, solve problems, and develop social skills. Children frequently return to the same books, games, or equipment again and again as they master particular concepts. They need to create and activate their own games and imaginative play as part of their development. Adults can introduce games and activities, but children must have a certain amount of free choice and free play to have opportunities to develop and to construct their own meaning.
Perhaps the best demonstration of this comes from an afternoon in early November. I had put out a variety of 3-D shapes in different areas of the classroom. As an afterthought, I put out some hula hoops for the children to sort their shapes before sitting down to read with a child. When I returned to the hula hoops, the children had discovered that they could make spheres roll around the perimeter of the hoops, tight against the inner wall. They were now deeply engrossed in discovering what other solids could perform the same behaviour. On their own terms, they were building a far deeper understanding of the properties of shapes than would have been the case if I had simply made them follow a set of rules.
If you ever feel guilty about a messy, toy-strewn house (which was certainly my case when my children were young), you may enjoy the article Bringing Imagination Back, which looks at how parents and teachers are restoring play and play-based learning to the lives of children. In the meantime, when your children come home and can't wait to tell you about something they did during playtime - they're also telling you, if you "read between the lines", what they learned today and how they built on what they learned yesterday. Step by step, block tower by block tower, their minds and skills are developing as they make sense of the world around them.
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