Once Upon A Playtime

Once upon a time, children used to meet up with their pals and play outdoors for hours. In the streets, in the parks, on the Links, down the Dell, on any bit of local wasteland. Messing around, making dens, inventing games, playing let’s pretend…

No hang on – it wasn’t ‘once upon a time’. It was a few decades ago. Children as young as five or six playing out with their chums.

In recent years there’s been a seismic change in the way children spend their leisure hours. This transformation is so recent that we can’t yet know the long-term consequences but – if messages coming from a range of scientific and professional disciplines are correct – the prognosis is not good.

Evolutionary biologists and anthropologists tell us that ‘old-fashioned play’ – active, outdoor, exploratory, social and free from adult direction – has been children’s leisure-time activity since our species began. It’s the way young human beings, in every time and culture until our own, have discovered their own potential, achieved physical coordination and confidence, honed their social and self-regulation skills, and developed emotional resilience.

Experts in child development therefore argue that play is a biological necessity, underpinning lifelong health and well-being. They suggest a link between changes in children’s play habits and recent increases in developmental disorders and a wide variety of physical and mental health problems.

Early years specialists claim that ‘old-fashioned play’ is also an educational necessity, since young children’s embodied experiences – in real time and real space – underpin their ‘common sense’ understanding of the world, upon which formal schooling is built. Many experts in the teaching of literacy, mathematics and science now support their case.

In fact, there are so many reasons for believing that ‘old-fashioned’ play is essential for the long-term well-being of both children and society that, last year, a group of concerned Edinburgh citizens got together to launch a campaign called Upstart Scotland. “We believe that if children don’t play out when they’re young, it’s all too easy for sedentary screenplay to become their default activity as they get older. So, to reverse the trend, it’s now necessary to provide these opportunities through childcare and educational facilities”.

They are urging the Scottish government to introduce a ‘kindergarten stage’ for children between the ages of three and seven, focusing on their all-round development and opportunities for plenty of outdoor play, especially in natural surroundings.

This doesn’t mean changing children’s entitlement to education and care, merely a change of ethos in the formative years up to seven. It’s a system that works very successfully in Nordic countries, where it’s helped maintain outdoor play at the heart of childhood (and, incidentally, contributed to some excellent educational outcomes too).

City of Edinburgh Council has approved a pilot scheme which will allow residents to apply for up to five free road closures. The closures will allow children to play and residents to socialise until the end of August 2017 on streets free of vehicles.

Applications can be made via an online form where full guidance and instructions are given. The team of residents that make up Edinburgh Playing Out are urging those interested to apply as soon as possible as the application process and approval will take up to 6 weeks.

This is a fantastic opportunity for communities to come together and experience their street free of vehicles as it would have been 50 years ago!