Only one in four adolescents get the recommended 60 minutes of active play per day, with the number of younger kids only slightly higher.
A study comparing mothers to their children found that 70 percent of mothers said they played outside every day when they were girls, while only 31 percent said their children did the same. And 56 percent said they played outside for three or more hours, while only 22 percent said this about their children. Moreover, 85 percent said children today play outside less often than children of a few years ago. 85 percent said the top reason for this decline was time spent watching TV and playing computer/video games.
Kids spend a lot of time in front of entertainment screens—televisions, computers, and smaller electronic devices. Even the most conservative estimates put screen time for children ages 0 to 8 at two hours per day, and a recent University of Michigan Health System study found that 26% of parents report that their children 2–5 years old have three or more hours of daily entertainment screen time. Other studies show that usage increases dramatically as children get older—as 8- to 10-year-olds are on screens for five and a half hours per day.
A 2009 study published in the journal Pediatrics found that 30 percent of children surveyed had little to no recess in their school day. That's nearly one in three kids. This is in spite of research, such as a Gallup poll revealing that elementary school principals overwhelmingly believe recess has a positive impact not only on the development of students' social skills, but also on achievement and learning in the classroom.
Play helps children adjust to the school setting, and enhances their learning readiness, behavior, and problem solving skills. Schools without recess face increased incidents of classroom behavioral problems, which detract from learning time.
Play also may increase children's capacity to store new information, as their cognitive capacity is enhanced when they are offered drastic changes in activity—switching from English to math is not enough.
The decline of time for recess, and other opportunities for active play in school, is happening across the board.
A 2008 report from the Center on Education Policy found that between 2001–2002 and 2006–07, 16 percent of schools cut art and music and 20 percent cut recess, but it disproportionately affects American children living in poverty.
In the same report, high-poverty elementary schools were four to five times more likely to go without recess (18–28 percent) than schools with the lowest percentage of children in poverty (4–5 percent).
Play is critical to knitting our communities together and helping children learn to work with others. As our world becomes ever more connected digitally, it is critical that we don't lose the unique community building that comes from interacting face-to-face. Play builds communities and teaches children how to interact with peers and adults, relieve stress, and cope with their surroundings.
In order to encourage play, it is critical that children have safe places to play within walking distance of where they live. Without it, the strength and resilience of the community is compromised.
Not all children have access to play, and the availability of playspaces is far more restricted in low-income neighborhoods.
Between 1981 and 1997, time spent playing by children age six to eight declined by 25 percent. Peter Gray, Ph.D. and Professor of Psychology at Boston College, observed that the loss of play for play's sake coincided with a dramatic increase in anxiety, depression, and suicide rates among teens and young adults.