Sweets' Toy Ratio Just Dropped

I'm a listener of NPR pretty regularly. Although they're a little liberal at times for me, I actually enjoy a lot of their stories and programs. It's one of my main sources of news. Anyway, they've been doing a series of stories on the morning program about children's play. A couple days ago they shared a study that was done in the 1940s concerning age and attention spans. The study took a 3-year-old, a 5-year-old, and a 7-year-old and asked them to stand still. The 3-year-old didn't last very long (obviously), the 5-year-old did much better, and the 7-year-old stayed still until the researchers said it was okay to resume play. They repeated this study just a year or two ago. The result? All ages did much worse than the group from the 1940s. The 7-year-old of today was at about the level of the 5-year-old then.

The story continued by emphasizing that the toys of today, along with video games and television, has changed the way children play. They don't use their imagination as much anymore. Researchers also said that children aren't learning certain skills as quickly anymore.

Then today NPR did a piece about how kids who are allowed to make up games with their own rules, and then follow those rules, learn "executive skills" much quicker than those who do other types of play. There are these special preschools where kids are encouraged to use their imagination to make up games and play as opposed to given toys and the normal preschool. The kids in the special preschool, when tracked, did much better in certain skills later on than those who went to a normal preschool.

Now what does that mean to me? As a parent, it really opened my eyes. Does this mean Sweets won't get any toys or never watch TV? Probably not, but they will be a small portion of her play. I know this will take a lot of effort on my part, but I think it's time my imagination got dusted off and used again. I just don't want her sitting in front of the TV all the time or have mountains of toys. I remember when some pans and spoons were enough for me. Hopefully, they'll be enough for her.