When W H Davies wrote these lines, he had in mind the image of a stressed out adult entangled in the daily rut. Little did he realise that one day these words would ring true for a child struggling to find time to enjoy a few moments of unstructured play in a highly structured routine comprising school, tuitions and pressures to excel in innumerable other extra curricular and enrichment activities .

For most of human history, children had the privilege of engaging in more or less unsupervised free wheeling imaginative playing. They were kings and queens, moms and dads, pirates and action heroes.

Unfortunately, during the last three decades, this has been replaced by specific toys for play and predetermined scripts, thereby, shrinking the size of children’s imaginative space. Multiple factors such as a hurried lifestyle, changes in family structures, unsafe neighbourhood and overemphasis on academics and enrichment activities like music and art tutorials, brain time videos, specialised books and toys and academic-focused classes like brain gym, and educational CDs have effectively reduced children’s ability to reap the benefits of playing.

In today’s world, playing is viewed as an unnecessary waste of time and an impediment to achieving excellence.

It has taken a back seat in the learning process with focus in schools shifting to high stakes testing and equating all learning with formal instruction and drilling facts into the young impressionable minds. Even the earliest years of schooling have become like IAS preparation with teachers using the free time for building cognitive skills. Even kindergarten children now take tests and are assigned homework. After-school tutoring and organised sports have also deeply cut into the time for spontaneous self-initiated play.

Even the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights recognises playing as the basic right of every child. A new report from the American Academy of Paediatrics (AAP) written in defence of play in response to forces threatening free play and unscheduled time has also advocated the importance of play for children. According to the report, imaginative playing offers the opportunity for the growth of cognitive, language and emotional skills of children and also helps them to manage stress and become resilient. Moreover, children learn to exert control over their emotions, behaviour, and resist impulses by interacting with other children through playing activities. Undirected play also helps children to learn skills like cooperation, sharing, negotiation, conflict resolution and decision making. In contrast to passive entertainment and stimulation offered by television and video/ computer games, play builds active healthy bodies, prevents obesity and accords children an opportunity to channelise their extra energy into constructive activities. Moreover, observing children at play or joining them in child-driven play offers parents a wonderful opportunity to develop an enduring relationship with their children.

Play is also a part of the academic environment since it helps children adjust to the school setting and enhances children’s learning readiness, learning, behaviour and problem solving skills. Even a formal structured physical education class may not offer the same benefit as free play recess.

Although organised activities have a developmental benefit for children, especially in contrast to completely unsupervised time, over scheduling a child invariably leads to anxiety and other signs of increased stress.

In a nutshell, play is a cherished part of childhood that offers children important developmental benefits and parents the opportunity to fully engage with their children.