Benefits of Free Play for Children!

Hello Clients, Families and Friends!

This month, our nanny boutique research team has decided to share some recent articles about the developmental benefits of adding unstructured free-time to your child(ren)’s day.

We all know that educational activities, structured games, and organized play groups are an imperative part of social and cognitive development. But today, we want to recognize the benefits of “down-time”, which allows children to entertain themselves, learn independently and imagine freely--without rules, guidelines, or a series of pre-determined steps to follow.

Studies are showing that free-time for both babies and young children helps them to learn self-soothing practices, gain independence, and enhance self-discovery. Time spent without direction or stimulation also allows babies and young children time to process all they’ve experienced throughout the day.

With the rapid pace in which growing children acquire new information, they often need time and space to try out new movements, sounds, and words they’ve learned, without any external influence. This allows them time to overcome the many challenges they experience during the day, on their own, which will help aid future cognitive decision-making and strengthen their thought processes.

We’ve found a few great articles that support the developmental benefits of unstructured playtime, and hope that you find them as interesting as we did:

“I’m So Bored” - 6 ways to help your child learn to enjoy unscheduled time: http://www.parents.com/parents/story.jhtml?storyid=/templatedata/parents/story/data/6120.xml

“6 Surprising Things Your Baby Needs”: http://www.parenting.com/parenting/baby/article/0,19840,1538412_2,00.html?stage=12

“When You Can’t Do it All: How to Avoid Over-Scheduling Your Kids”: http://www.babyzone.com/toddler_preschooler_fun/a2229/1#bm3

“Imagination”: http://www.babyzone.com/toddler_preschooler_fun/Play/a321

We are dedicated to helping our families and nannies, and will continue to share our resources about childcare with you in the future!