GIVE YOUR CHILD ENOUGH PLAY

To ensure that your child gets the right balance of child-driven and structured play for optimal development, you should:

■ Give your child permission to play with you, other children and nature.

■ Stop feeling unstructured play is frivolous. It’s fundamental.

■ Be informed – understand your child’s development phases and needs as well as the value of free play.

■ Stop thinking of her future university results. Praise her, but beware of the pressure for achievement.

■ Stop worrying if she gets her clothes dirty or messy – it’s all part of the learning curve.

■ Take the time to meet your child in her “world” but allow her enough space to learn on her own and with other children.

■ When selecting a daycare provider or crèche, ensure they offer ample opportunities for free-play activities, but with a balance of structured enrichment activities too.

■ Get involved with the government and your community to help create more safe, child-friendly cities and playgrounds.

■ Take a critical look at the physical space your child spends time in at home, nursery- and primary school. Are these environments designed to promote participation, self-expression, exploration and choice by children (like an open-plan nursery school) or are they restrictive and confined (like a play pen or a small, walled concrete yard)?

■ Look at new ways to introduce more diverse opportunities for children to play and expand their horizons – examples are community-built play areas and gardens, adventure playgrounds, community playgroups or day outings in nature.

If we can give our children the space and appropriate support to invent and shape their own worlds in nature, and with adults and other children, they’ll also learn how to think for themselves in new and innovative ways.