SCOTLAND

Let the children play

It seems that we are constantly hearing stories about the problems with today's youth like anti-social behaviour, the rise in underage drinking and the increasing obesity epidemic.

Scottish Executive figures recently showed that by the time our children reach the age of 12, a whole third are classed as "overweight", and almost one in five are "obese". Worse still, more than one in ten are considered "severely obese".

Taken together, these reports suggest a nightmare vision of troubled youth.

Although we should keep things in perspective - most young people in Scotland aren't affected by these issues, - we, as a society, need to work together to help young people who are more vulnerable.

And the solution? Barnardo's, one of the UK's leading children's charities, believes that one solution is as simple as allowing children to play - perhaps so simple that we have taken it for granted and forgotten how important it is. By play, I mean simply what children and young people do when they follow their own ideas and interests, in their own way and for their own reasons.

Or as one child put it "play is what I do when nobody is bossing me around". An increasing body of research is showing that this free playing brings many vital benefits.

The British Medical Journal has reported that the main solution to the "obesity epidemic" in young children should be to "reduce television viewing and promote playing". Other researchers found that free play, far from being simple time out for children, was second only to PE classes in terms of burning off calories.

But play is about more than simply exercising the kids. While it can provide a useful and enjoyable focus, play also has a social dimension, and the interaction, negotiation and teamwork promoted by playing in groups and teams helps in developing children's social skills.

A recent youth justice report stated: "A lack of structured leisure activities was cited in social work reports as a factor contributing to offending behaviour for 59 per cent of the sample."

Through play, children learn about themselves and their environment, and are able to test and expand their own limits. Playing is now accepted as a crucial part of personal development and the Mental Health Foundation has found that lack of play opportunities is a cause of increasing mental health problems in children and young people.

Unfortunately, for too many of our children the opportunities to play are limited and seem to be getting worse.

Only recently, the Edinburgh Evening News highlighted how a group of campaigners were evicted from Dalkeith Park in an attempt to block a bypass being built and there was also another story, on January 25, headlined "Campaigners swing into action with park-revamp call", about how a group of residents living near Leith's Dalmeny Street Park have formed a campaign to refurbish it.

Fears over stranger dangers and road accidents are causing parents to control their children's movements, so that the distance from home which children are allowed to roam has shrunk to a ninth of what it was in 1970. When they do go out, unaccompanied children are increasingly seen as a social problem and children themselves say that hostile adults make them feel unwelcome outside.

The space available for children to play in is shrinking as streets are increasingly dominated by cars, and new developments mean that playing fields have been lost at a rate of one a day in the last eight years. In the UK there are now 80 acres of golf course for every one acre of children's play space.

Despite growing concern over the problem of play deprivation, it seems that the penny has yet to drop with politicians.

Among the Government's numerous strategies, on everything from water pollution to railways, there is currently no policy for helping children to play.

Efforts to support play can take many forms - providing a swing park, marking out some football pitches or just leaving some good open space for running around or playing hide and seek.

It should involve teachers and nursery staff understanding the importance of free play. It needs to bring new facilities to the most deprived areas. It can involve regulating new housing development so that good quality children's play space is central to the design. It requires the political will to reclaim residential streets from domination by the car.

Now, more than ever, play provides a targeted and effective response to the needs of children and young people in Scotland and it should be supported with a vigour that reflects that.

Barnardo's and Play Scotland are calling for a broad package of measures - a Play Strategy - that aims to provide a safe, accessible and challenging play environment for every child in Scotland.

John Watson
11 February 2006

http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/opinion.cfm?id=218022006

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