The Power of Play: How Spontaneous, Imaginative Activities Lead to Happier, Healthier Children

by David Elkind

In modern childhood, free, unstructured play time is being replaced more and more by academics, lessons, competitive sports, and passive, electronic entertainment. While parents may worry that their children will be at a disadvantage if they are not engaged in constant, explicit learning or using the latest "educational" games, David Elkind's The Power of Play reassures us that unscheduled imaginative play goes far in preparing children for academic and social success. Through expert analysis of the research and powerful situational examples, Elkind shows that, indeed, creative spontaneous activity best sets the stage for academic learning in the first Children learn mutual respect and cooperation through role-playing and the negotiation of rules, which in turn prepare them for successful classroom learning; in simply playing with rocks, for example, a child could discover properties of counting and shapes that are the underpinnings of math; even a toddler's babbling is a necessary precursor to the acquisition of language. An important contribution to the literature about how children learn, The Power of Play suggests ways to restore play's respected place in children's lives, at home, at school, and in the larger community. In defense of unstructured "down time," it encourages parents to trust their instincts and resist the promise of the wide and dubious array of educational products on the market geared to youngsters.

Genres: Parenting, Education, Nonfiction, Childrens, Plays, Psychology, Teaching

240 pages, Paperback

First published December 5, 2006

About the author

David Elkind is an American child psychologist and author. His groundbreaking books The Hurried Child and Miseducation informed early childhood education professionals of the possible dangers of "pushing down" the elementary curriculum into the very early years of a child's life. By doing so, he argued, teachers and parents alike could lapse into developmentally inappropriate instructional and learning practices that may distort the smooth development of learning. He is associated with the belief of decline of social markers.

He also wrote Ties that Stress: The New Family Imbalance (1994), All Grown Up and No Place To Go (1988), and Reinventing Childhood (1988). His most recent article titled, "Can We Play?", is featured in Greater Good magazine (published by the Greater Good Science Center), and discusses how play is essential to positive human development but children are playing less than in previous eras.

from wikipedia.org

Reviews

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a hard book to rate. I really liked the concepts and message behind the book but the writing style was sometimes too slow and boring for me. I happened to find this book on the shelf at the library while looking for something else and picked it up because its a topic of interest to me.

There were great take away notes for me to keep in my mind as I raise my son. Like not interrupting his free play with my ideas of how I think he *should* be playing. And ultimately, it reinforced my ideas that play based learning is the way to go with preschool aged children. I even took snap shots of some of my favorite quotes!

I found the last chapters of the book where he writes about what parents can do to help foster a love a learning in their children and specific education methods to be the most interesting and practical. I also liked that in these chapters he included research to back up his claims.

I was disappointed in the lack of research he provided to support his position. I know that it wasn't for lack of it- there is plenty of research to be found on the importance of play in learning. So I wonder if it was to avoid overwhelming the reader, who would most likely be a parent without a child development background. Which I can excuse and perhaps I need to look for other books directed more at professionals.

Overall, I would recommend this book to the parent of a young child who is feeling overwhelmed by the pressure that children should be excelling academically before they've entered kindergarten. In the mainstream media and culture, the idea that young children and toddlers are "sponges" and should be filled with as much knowledge as possible runs rampant. Parents buy videos and toys purported to help their child learn another language or even to read and it makes me sad. True learning and thinking comes from exploration, observation, imitation, and experimentation not memorization.

[Diana Strand · Rating 4 out of 5]

The heart of this book is that play, love, and work are the essential trio, whether for children or any happy, healthy human being. Take away one leg of the trio and you'll truly have an unbalanced life. American society today is either totally repackaging play as licensed toys with no room for imagination or turning it into something "developmentally appropriate" for an educational benefit, thereby turning play into work.

Parenting today no longer seems to include sending kids outside to play at whatever their imagination gets them into -- see Free Range Kids and Last Child in the Woods. In fact, a complete parenting course could be presented based on just those 3 books. I think Elkind would hear strong agreement from the other 2 (as well as John Rosemond) in regards to his assertion that no child needs more than 1 social activity (like scouts), 1 athletic activity, and 1 artistic activity (like music lessons) to provide all the enrichment he needs and still have time for spontaneous, self-directed play (p. 82.)

Elkind also stresses the integration of play, work, and love in what he calls lighthearted parenting and encourages us to use humor as a means of communication with our children. Besides using humor to discipline and socialize our children, Elkind also encourages us to share our passions, and to establish patterns of family play, games, and experience sharing (p. 171.) In fact, the universal trait in those who excel in their professions before age 40 seems to be that they felt an underlying love, respect, and honesty from their families (p. 187.)

Where this book really shows the errors of American society, however, is in our education system which has gone to a "factory model" (p. 200- 201.) He takes a long look at John Dewey's concept of progressive education, stating that its project method combines creativity, self-motivation, and practical learning -- play, love, and work (p. 196.) With such integration, he also has a favorable view of the Montessori and Waldorf methods.

We know that children learn about their world through play, by experimenting and by developing mastery of a skill at their own pace, yet as soon as they are in school, it's all about drill-to-kill, busy work, and teach to the test. We know that the best early childhood programs are play-based, yet with the pressure to get ahead, too many of them are now academic in focus. In looking at the results of several studies (p. 209 - 212), Elkind is even able to state that not only is there later academic advantage for children who attend an academic program, but that such children also have higher levels of test anxiety, were less creative, and had more negative attitudes toward school than did children who attended play-based programs (p. 211). Oh that every parent could read that before selecting a preschool!

[Kristen · Rating 2 out of 5]

boring. i agree with the author's ideals but, just couldn't get interested. It reads like a research report. The information is good and much i already knew and agreed with. I stopped reading after a few chapters.

[Lisalou · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's difficult to read a book where you agree with the basic premise and find a chunk of it a good read but at the same time you'd like to go in and completely restructure the book and make the author rewrite some parts.

What's good -
Elkind goes through play in terms of child development through different age groups. Very helpful in understanding why dd plays certain ways.
Interesting chapter on over involved parents. He summed up some of my own insecurities well and gave me tools to overcome them.

What's bad -
Boring beginning with useless video game reviews. I think at this point most parents have actually played at least one video game at some point. Pointers for what to look for in video games for each age group would have been more useful.
Underlying reinforcement of gender stereotypes. There are quite a few sort of apologetic reference to alleged gender preferences when it comes to play. Not surprising for an author that uses Freud as a basis for segmenting child development.
And really there are very few useful conclusions or suggestions. The one chapter on playful parenting is nice but more would have been helpful.

Overall not worth paying for but a mildly interesting read where I'm sure I could find what was useful about it in other more interesting books.

[Maddy Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

had to read this for my child life principles and perspectives class and thought it was relatively applicable to the ccls profession, but would have never read it otherwise

[Crystal Falconer · Rating 1 out of 5]

This guy is a complete F*&^ing tool and this is the stupidest book I have read in a really long time. And I have read some crap in my day. This guy seems to think that no one should expose kids to structured activities or challenge them intellectually, but instead give them battery-free wooden toys and put them in a room with nothing but imagination-and he thinks this is therapeutic for them! Sounds more like punishment to me. I am a big fan of imagination and love to think about kids pretending to be Robin Hood, or playing "school" or whatever role playing they enjoy-for me it was Indiana Jones, in particular. But I am not a fan of dumbing down kids by not seeing what they are capable of achieving when taught things like letters or numbers at an early age. Kids love to memorize things and he completely throws it out the window. He even criticizes parents for letting kids play T-Ball! It's too structured, apparently. I say let the kids try whatever you can, and if they don't seem to be fans, let them walk away.

I do agree that kids who are "overbooked" with structured activities are probably not having as much fun as they could, like I said, playing "Indiana Jones" with a makeshift whip made from rope was my favorite pretend play when I was younger, and I would have been sad to miss it in favor of piano lessons.

The guy is still a putz.

[Christina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book, although parts of it read a bit like a research paper, alternating with personal examples of the author's kids and grandkids. I thought the author made some good points about what needs to happen and not happen in a child's life before age 6. I also liked he was not against all media time but for balance and moderation.

Some of the research details on types of toys and games were more of "skim reading". Elkind also had an interesting approach to making discipline more humorous, and gave some fun ideas to try in certain cases (reminded me of "Creative Correction" by Lisa Whelchel).

I enjoyed reading about some of his family traditions and passions, including water sports and playing cards. These were great examples of things you can share with your kids into adulthood and got me thinking of what passions we want to intentionally share with our kids. In the same chapter on "Lighthearted Parenting", he also gives some great tips about building sharing skills and asking questions into family time. This book was not what I expected, but I picked up some great tips and enjoyed parts of it.

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I agreed with a lot of the author's ideas, but I didn't learn much new information and parts of the book felt out-dated.

[David Hollingsworth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is, at its core, about the value of play for children. The full thesis of the book is that children (and even adults) operate best when play, love, and work are in balance for each of us. He goes on to say that in the modern world we overemphasize work while not appreciating play nearly enough. This manifests in a number of ways, such as how we over-schedule children into structured activities, such as sports teams or music lessons; he is not against those sorts of activities at all, but is worried that we overdo them to the point that children don't get enough unstructured free play, which is essential for their healthy development.

A number of other reviews on here have called this book boring. I don't agree overall, though there are points where Elkind delves into the details of psychological theory that I don't think add much to his main point. Those specific parts can be a little tedious to get through, but I didn't find that to be an issue for the overwhelming majority of this book.

If there's anything that doesn't work about this book overall, it's something that's not really Elkind's fault- that is, the fact it was written in 2007 means a lot of his analyses for popular programs for children are very out of date. This is especially true when he talks about computer games and learning software for kids, as well as when he talks about technology overall from the time period more broadly. Obviously when he's speaking in really general terms about things like TV and computers it's still relevant, but almost any time he gets more specific than that he's talking about stuff that just isn't part of the modern world. Again, not really his fault, but it definitely makes this book feel a little dated.

Overall, I thought this was a solid read. If I could give it 3.5 stars I would, but it's a respectable 3.5, which is why I bumped it up to a 4 instead of down to a 3. While I already started the book thinking free play for kids is a good thing, I definitely now feel I have a deeper understanding as to why it is important. I wouldn't call this book a must-read, but it is definitely worth checking out if you're interested in learning about the value of play.

[Elisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

One major idea is that learning, and flourishing, is most likely to occur when we combine play, work, and love. I want to read more on the concept of flow related to this. The book argues for more down time for children to simply imagine and play, debunks approaches that push academics before kids are developmentally ready, and proposes learning that is child-led and play-oriented. I loved the suggestions about handling discipline with humor and have seen good results from them since reading that part. One word of caution that stood out in discipline: problem behaviors don't last long but our response to them can have very ling lasting results. I also liked the glimpse into the perspective from which the very young view the world and insight into why kids play as they do: the whole world is totally novel! One concept I found as an aha! moment was that many disciplines require the imagination; we must imagine to engage in study of literature and history and even science. Play-acting builds perspective taking abilities and even provides therapy. Observing is huge for science and there is no better place to start than the back yard; playing with the hose and dropping paper are giving kids a sense of how water and air move. Arguments made against excessive screen time were compelling. I liked the guideline of 6 for starting organized sports and no more than 3 organized activities at any time: one in arts, one in sports, one in academics. Also he argued we shouldn't force kids to pursue activities they don't like and should rather find their passions and let them really get into them. Arguments for down time with families and sharing our own passions, family cohesion leads to success and happiness, most successful basis for a family is built on love, respect, and honesty.

[Jessica Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book, highly recommended. It is so important to remember that children dont think the same way we do. You would think that would be obvious but it can be so hard and frustrating to try and teach something and no matter what you say or do they JUST DONT GET IT. But if we change our mindset to be more in line with how the child thinks, things will go much smoother. I appreciated that this book wasn't all doom and gloom. There is so much out there working against kids and the author gives suggestions on how to work around those issues to give your child what they need, instead of dwelling on how our culture today is ruining everything. This book could have been 5 stars but there were a few grammatical errors and sometimes the statistics used were not explained very well. Overall though, great book.

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

The most interesting part of this book was the "invisible audience."

As children, we have thoughts but we don't think about our thoughts. It's only in our teenage years that we have enough conciousness to think about our thoughts. But then we make the mistake of thinking that everyone else is thinking about the same thing we are...ourselves!

In effect, we create our own "invisible audience" and feel awkward and weird and have low self esteem.

Alas, the "invisible audience" phenomenon does not die with puberty. It rears its ugly head whenever we are in a new or foreign situation. For example, college freshmen report more "invisible audience" thoughts/experiences than college seniors.

Think about THAT the next time you start a new job at a new company!

[Fatma · Rating 4 out of 5]

لكل من يشكك في قدرة اللعب على التعليم عليه بقراءة هذا الكتاب، وتأمل الدراسات التي قامت حول علاقة اللعب بالتعليم وأثره الإيجابي عليه، سواء اللعب الحر أو اللعب الموجه..
كتاب يجعلنا نشعر أننا نظلم الأطفال الصغار حين نثقلهم بالمعلومات في ظروف تعليمية بحتة، أقرب للعقاب منها لاكتساب معلومات وفتح أبواب وآفاق جديدة للحياة..
الطفل بطبيعته يتعلم وهو يلعب.. يتعلم اللغة من أبجدية ومفردات وحوار وطلب وطرح أسئلة وفهم المسموع والتعبير عن الذات والمشاعر، ويتعلم القيم كالاحترام والتعاون والصدق والعدل والشجاعة، ويتعلم الكثير الكثير بحسب نوع اللعبة..

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, it is a tad dated, but to be honest I felt like most of the thoughts and ideas still applied to us today and I wish we had made more progress in education to be more play oriented. As a former teacher I can tell you that the rote way of teaching described is still the case and the realization for me that blocks of teaching originated in the same way that hourly wages did was shocking to say the least and made me realize how inappropriate and inapplicable it feels for students and kids.

[Jennifer Dziedzic · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book could have been written more succinctly. It could have been half the size. The author wrote an example for each developmental milestone and concept which I found a bit redundant. If you have a background in education or pediatrics, you could skim this book and omit the examples and you would get the gist of it. I loved the discussion of “hot” and “cold” media and the studies related to this with children.

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Picked this up because it was on my husband’s bookshelf from an old research project, but some of the book’s research is now outdated (circa 2007) and this reads more like a children’s development piece than one that centres on play. The premise overall is well-intended, but the conclusions sometimes feel biased and non-imaginative. It lacked the real insight I hoped for.

[Kristin · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book has some good insight on play. However, it is outdated since it talks a lot about technology from the early 2000s. It also reads very much like a book a college professor authored and then listed as required reading for his class.

I wanted to read more about the benefits of play and fewer comparisons of how technology is distracting kids from truly playing.

[J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are some legitimately interesting ideas here, but an awful lot of fluffiness surround them. I’m not sure the overall “get them outside and get out of their way” approach solves all the trouble that he says it does. The anti-tech bias of the early chapters falls apart in the last one, which was frustrating. An interesting point to start the conversation but not a final statement.

[Nimitha · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great read. I especially loved how Elkind explained certain developmental leaps like attaining the age of reason. We could connect A's sudden ability to consider one existing as two and his interest in math/language to this at around 5.5 years of age.

[Ronald J. Pauleus · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very interesting book on kids. I learned a lot and have seen now the importance of "play" in the life of kids and even adults.

"It is only when we integrate play, love, and work that we, as children and adults, can live happy, healthy, and productive lives."

[Tia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I find field of child development to be loaded with books that would have been better as blog posts - this book is not one of those. The author has some serious packs a lot of references/quotes in his chapters. However, it's just not an interesting read - helpful if skimmed.

[Jenna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Helpful chapter on education.

[Jaraka Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great content. A bit redundant and slow to read.

[Maria]

I think I'm the wrong audience for this. I was hoping for something this just is not.

[Maeve · Rating 3 out of 5]

An introduction to play and the importance of it in early childhood development.

[Zane Carey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting and gave me ideas for what to do in my classroom.

[Rhea Wiebe]

p77

[Drew]

Recommended By: 1,000 Hours Outside

[Faith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good for parents but slightly less so for teachers

[Caroline Carlisle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good read for someone getting a masters in developmental psychology maybe.