A Compelling Request.
Children’s Commissioner is asking for input into her work of creating a new plan for children.
Laura Walsh and Penny Wilson have written a response and share it with you.
‘Play is not only the defining characteristic of childhood, but it establishes the foundations of a future life. The ability and desire to be sociable and contribute to social cohesion, employability, good mental and physical health, emotional resilience, self-confidence, curiosity and the motivation to learn.
Freely chosen, self-directed play generates the enthusiasm to explore and learn about life, it is the foundation of understanding the world and our place in it. It is the first human language – coming before speech and formal, adult directed learning. This has been the case throughout the evolution of our species.
For a year – 18 months, which is a large proportion of the life of a child, almost all of our young citizens have been separated from their peers, unable to share freely chosen play. The effects of play deprivation are profound and last throughout a human life, unless the child is offered the chance to experience as soon and as frequently as possible the chance to compensate for this deficit. Our children need a real world experience after a year of living by proxy through screens. This is true is every demographic grouping. Child’s need for play is universal.
We urge the COVID recovery plans to acknowledge and include the urgent need for play as an essential ingredient not only for the short-term recovery but to be embedded and protected for children’s flourishing now and in their future. There is a willing and motivated workforce of Playworkers who understand through theory and practice, how to facilitate this playing. They can be easily called into action to provide this specialist child focussed provision.
We ask that the Children’s Commissioner support that the UNCRC article 31 (and general comment 17) be embraced and enshrined in law as it is now in Wales and Scotland, for our children. So that they can use the ‘super power of play at their fingertips,’ to recover from this extraordinary event and enrich their lives with this auto-therapeutic mechanism that has served our species for millennia.
After all adults in the same way as children have this need to play. No one ever said on their death bed, ‘I wish I had spent more time at my desk.’
Penny Wilson & Laura Walsh’
