Encouraging schools to harness the power of play
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children six years and older participate in at least 60 minutes of physical activity per day. Besides the obvious physical health benefits, active play can also increase children’s social competence and emotional maturity.
School success largely depends on children’s ability to interact positively with their peers and adults, so the impact of play can be felt in academic performance and social wellbeing. As organizations that work closely with young people, Playworks and Rhode Island Healthy Schools Coalition (RIHSC) play a significant role in ensuring that young Rhode Islanders are taught the importance of physical, social and emotional health.
THE POWER OF PLAY
Many habits are learned when we are young, and the formation of a healthy lifestyle should not be an exception. Research has shown that playtime not only positively impacts childhood development, but also improves academic performance. Children who are more active are more attentive, process things at a greater cognitive speed, and perform better on standardized tests than children who aren’t as active.
Playtime also improves social skills and helps develop emotional maturity.
RIHSC and Playworks have chosen to partner with schools because they are the perfect environments to teach young people about health and wellness. Children and adolescents spend a significant amount of their day at school: eating meals, performing physical activities such as running around and playing sports, and learning how to get along with each other.
We also seek to help adults understand the value of healthy play and teach them to recognize the signs of unhealthy play, such as exclusion or bullying. The added value of partnering with schools is that the Playworks model provides an equitable resource across all schools, no matter their location or assets or means. The fundamentals and the concepts of the healthy play can be implemented in an urban or rural setting, for example.
PRIMROSE HILL: A SUCCESS STORY
A wonderful example of a local school harnessing the power of play is Primrose Hill School in Barrington, Rhode Island.
After experiencing a number of playground issues and frustrated adults who felt unable to help, Principal Pat Tolento’s research led her to the Recess Rocks in RI Playshop – one of Playworks’ professional development workshops designed to help educators understand how recess, play and physical activity can positively impact school climate as well as teach adults how to ease the challenge of access to healthy play. The Playshop is a three-hour high-level overview of the benefits and barriers to play in elementary schools.
Participants have the opportunity to learn new games and strategies to immediately bring back to their school to support recess. It also serves as an introduction to the full Recess Rocks in RI training program.
Primrose participated in the full Recess Rocks in Rhode RI training - creating recess plans, focusing on recess transitions and systems and learning new games for student participation.
Thanks to the training, Principal Tolento has seen an increase in the value of recess at the school. Teachers and students alike are now engaging in a new way. They are participating in new games, playing on rainy days and including new friends. Not only are more kids being physically active on the playground, there has been a measurable decrease in conflicts.
The 2016-2017 school year saw a decrease of 100 discipline incidents compared to the previous year and there have been fewer recorded incidents compared to this time last year.
We encourage other schools in the Ocean State to harness the power of play, thus ensuring a healthy future for all Rhode Islanders.