Editorial: Why child's play is so important

A news report informs us that lack of play is harming our kids.

The Milo State of Play report, released yesterday, shows 46 per cent of New Zealand children aged 8 to 12 are not playing every day. It warned that a generation of Kiwi kids will remember their childhood as one of computer games and other sedentary activities, rather than afternoons spent playing outside with friends.

But are kids really spending more time plugged into game consoles, television sets and their mobile phones at the expense of outdoor activities?

I think the answer is "hell yes" and we don't need a State of Play report to tell us so.

I've raised kids into their teens and watched them morph from "normal" young ones who can't wait to get outside to kick a ball or ride a bike into teenagers who can't wait to get home for a session on PlayStation or an extended period of texting mates.

Are parents to blame? Well, I guess we are at least partly responsible but in our defence it is really hard to order a hulking 16-year-old to kick a ball in the park with you.

You can suggest it for sure. You might even try a bit of a rant about how some fresh air would do the little Emo a world of good. The end result is still likely to be a withering "get over yourself and get out of my space" look.

We all know the world has changed rapidly.

Children now have ready access to technology that simply did not exist when many parents were growing up.

In addition, it's hard not to notice that many parents are obsessed with organised activities such as sports training or ballet for their children. Nothing wrong with this sort of structure, of course, but researchers point out that unstructured play is critical to developing the prefrontal cortex, a part of the brain that helps people to understand risk and control impulses and emotion.

The good news is that kids are not born plugged in and tuned out. I have a 1-year-old son, Benjamin, and all he wants to do is play.

Some days it seems that most of his waking hours are devoted to getting dad to play games with him and I hope it stays that way for as long as possible.