Let's Get Kids Playing Again

Give a toddler a stack of colorful rings and watch what happens.

The rings probably won't go on in the right order. Some may not go on at all. One might end up across the room. The tower will come apart, and the child will start again.

To a grown-up, it can look like a very simple toy.

To the child, it's a problem worth solving. What fits? What falls? What happens if I turn this over? And why does it work this time when it didn't work a minute ago?

There is something important happening in that little game. The child is using their hands, paying attention, experimenting, and discovering what they can do.

That's play. And we need to make more room for it.

Play isn't what happens after learning

It's easy to think of play as the break between important things. First the learning, then the fun.

But for young children, the two are often inseparable.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has described the importance of developmentally appropriate play for language, thinking, social and emotional skills, and self-regulation. The Center on the Developing Child at Harvard explains how playful activities can help children practice attention, memory, and self-control.

Those may sound like big words for small games. But think about what a child actually does while playing.

They try something. It doesn't work. They try something else. They pay attention to what changed. Sometimes they ask for help. Sometimes they refuse help because they are determined to figure it out themselves.

They aren't filling out a worksheet about problem-solving. They're solving a problem they chose.

That's worth protecting.

Start with the little ones

Toddlers don't need complicated rules or expensive equipment to find something interesting.

They can spend an astonishing amount of time stacking, sorting, carrying, rolling, opening, closing, pushing, pulling, and knocking things over. Often the best part is doing the same thing again.

The activity looks different every time because the child is changing. Their coordination improves. Their ideas change. What felt impossible last week suddenly works.

Simple, age-appropriate play invites practice with movement, coordination, attention, and exploration. A grown-up can join in without taking charge: offer a piece, name a color, take a turn, or simply watch and respond.

The goal isn't to turn every toy into a lesson. It's to let curiosity lead.

How much moving, for the littlest ones

It helps to know what the experts actually recommend, because the number is bigger than most of us would guess.

The World Health Organization's guidelines for children under five ask for activity spread across the whole day. For babies who are not yet mobile, that means being active several times a day, mostly through floor-based play, including at least 30 minutes of tummy time while awake.

For one- and two-year-olds, the WHO recommends at least 180 minutes a day in a variety of physical activities, at any intensity. Three- and four-year-olds get the same 180 minutes, with at least 60 of them at moderate to vigorous intensity.

That is three hours. It sounds like a lot until you watch a toddler for a morning. Most of it is not exercise. It is crawling under the table, carrying a cup from one room to another, climbing onto the couch and back down, and doing it again.

The same guidelines say young children should not be restrained for more than an hour at a time: strollers, high chairs, being strapped to a grown-up's back. Every child sits sometimes. The point is not to let sitting become the whole day.

And when a young child is sitting, the WHO says the kind of sitting matters. Reading, storytelling, singing and puzzles with a caregiver are described as very important for development. That is play too. It just happens to be quiet.

None of this needs equipment. It needs floor space, a little time and a grown-up who is willing to get down there.

Then get them moving

As children grow, the possibilities grow with them.

A ball to chase. A safe place to climb. A path to balance along. A game of tag. A made-up obstacle course. A backyard that becomes an entire imaginary country for the afternoon.

All of that counts.

The CDC recommends that children ages three to five be active throughout the day and that children ages six to seventeen get at least an hour of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity daily. Active play is one of the ways children can enjoy moving rather than treating movement as an assignment.

It doesn't have to look like organized sports. Sometimes all it takes is the suggestion, "Can you get from here to there without touching the grass?"

A game begins. Then a child changes the rules. Then another child has a better idea.

Now they're playing together.

And let them figure things out with other kids

One of the best things about play is that it doesn't always go according to plan.

Someone wants to be first. Someone else says the rules aren't fair. Two kids disagree about whether the ball was out. A tower falls and everybody points at somebody else.

It's tempting to solve every dispute for them. Sometimes adults need to step in, of course. But with age-appropriate guidance, play gives children chances to take turns, negotiate, cooperate, lose, recover, and try again.

They learn that other people have ideas, too.

The American Academy of Pediatrics also identifies social and pretend play as opportunities for children to practice language, cooperation, and relationships. That's a pretty good return on an afternoon with a ball or a cardboard box.

This isn't a war on video games

Video games can be creative, challenging, funny, and social. Some are wonderful experiences. MarketingOB1 is interested in games in all their forms.

But a child who loves a screen-based game should also have opportunities to move their body, build something with their hands, invent a world, and play face to face with another person.

One doesn't have to be the enemy of the other.

The question is whether we're making space for enough different kinds of play.

And whether the games and toys we bring into our homes actually invite children to do something, rather than only watch something happen.

What if we judged toys by what happens after the box opens?

A beautiful box can get a child excited. An impressive commercial can get a parent to notice. Neither tells you very much about whether a toy is worth keeping.

I'd rather ask a different set of questions.

Does the child want to try it without being persuaded? Does it leave room to experiment? Can the child invent a different way to play? Can somebody else join in? Will they ask to play again?

Not every toy needs to do all of those things. Sometimes a silly five-minute game is exactly what a family needs. But the best play experiences have a way of creating more play.

A child doesn't just follow the instructions. They make up new ones.

A small challenge for this week

Pick one simple, age-appropriate activity that doesn't require a long setup or a complicated explanation.

For a toddler, that might be stacking or sorting a few safe, appropriately sized objects with an adult nearby. For an older child, it might be building a fort, throwing a ball, making an obstacle course, or inventing a new game with a friend.

Give the child enough time to get interested. Join in when invited. Resist the urge to improve the rules immediately.

And then watch for the moment that matters most.

Can we do that again?

That's the kind of question I want MarketingOB1 to help more families hear. Let's get kids playing again.

This is not medical advice. A pediatrician is the person to ask about your own child.