Encouraging creative play
Children benefit from fewer toys and minimal intervention from adults
Giving children fewer toys to play with
When I take my children outside, their imaginations quickly take flight. A stick becomes a wand, sand becomes a castle, or mud becomes a cake. They can spend hours playing in nature, whereas at home they become restless more quickly, even when they have access to plenty of toys. We rotate toys and try to keep clutter to a minimum (easier said than done!), since we have learned that the children are far more interested when fewer toys are available. There’s a good reason why: Too much choice is overwhelming for most of us. It turns out the same is true for children, and fewer toys can lead to more engaged play.
“Fewer toys can lead to more engaged play.”
In one study, toddlers who were presented with just four toys played more creatively, with greater focus, and for a longer time with each toy, than children who were presented with 16 toys. Those given more toys tended to move between them more quickly, suggesting that they were distracted by the sheer abundance of options. The researchers concluded that the presence of more toys leads to “persistent distraction, influencing the quality of toddler play”, which can cause them to stop playing with any given toy more quickly.
Letting children take the lead when playing
When adults become too involved as a child is playing, imaginative play declines. Four- to six-year-olds in one study were given a new toy to play with, featuring several tangled tubes of multiple colours that lit up, played music, squeaked, and revealed a secret mirror when manipulated in certain ways. In one scenario, researchers acted as if they didn’t know what the toy could do, whereas in another, they showed the children that the toy squeaked when a tube was pulled. Each child was then left to play alone with the toy. Those who had not seen the toy’s squeak function found more ways to play with it, while those who had been shown that function made the toy squeak repeatedly and played with it for less time. Instructing children how to play, the study suggests, “constrains children’s exploration and discovery”, whereas children who are given free rein tend to play longer.
There may be other counterintuitive benefits to letting children take the lead. When parents in one study directed play by giving instructions or suggestions, children aged four to six found it more difficult to regulate their behaviour and emotions. “Too much direct engagement can come at a cost to kids’ abilities to control their own attention, behaviour and emotions”, said an author of the study, Jelena Obradović of Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education, in a press release. “When parents let kids take the lead in their interactions, children practise self-regulation skills and build independence.” If a child is playing with blocks and a parent steps in and says “Can I help you build that house?” just imagine how frustrating it would be if the child was making a car, not a house – it could snap them out of the play they are engaged in.
“It’s important we give children the freedom to play independently, intervening only when they need us or seek our help.”
Letting children lead play may feel uncomfortable for those of us who think we must interact with or entertain children all the time – a now well-established consequence of pressure to engage in intensive parenting. But it’s important we give children the freedom to play independently, intervening only when they need us or seek our help. It is natural that parents want to show how something works, or help guide play, but there can be unintended negative consequences if we find ourselves regularly demonstrating or suggesting how children should play. I’ve certainly found that my children play much more creatively and for longer periods of time with very simple toys or objects, when there’s little else around to distract them, and when I let them take the lead.
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