PLAY, AUTONOMY and the MENTAL HEALTH OF CHILDREN
Many educational thinkers have pointed to the enormous toll that pressures, stresses, restrictions, monitoring, lack of outdoor time and lack of individual agency have taken on young people. They have postulated direct links between the lack of autonomy and play in childhood and the pandemics of stress, anxiety, depression, and suicide affecting schooled youth today, and noted that the one size fits all model has led to an ever-increasing number of children punished, diagnosed, or medicated because they cannot fit a narrow schoolish model of behavior.
In response to this crisis, unschoolers argue that the conventional ideal of a healthy or well-adjusted student, defined by what is mandated in a school setting, has little to do with how children learn – through active, full body engagement, open ended curiosity, play and passion.
They reject the idea that there is only one type of capable mind and point out that a diversity of intellects and beings is both enriching in a group setting and necessary from an evolutionary perspective, where varied mental and physical abilities were an advantage for communities confronting complex problems. Others note that many learning ‘disorders’ tend to be mitigated or dissolve in an SDE setting, which allows children to learn in ways that suit their dispositions.
It's difficult to choose sources on play because for centuries now educational thinkers have been lamenting the dearth of play in the lives of school children, writing written reams about the vital importance of play in intellectual, social and emotional development. The sources are endless.
I am choosing articles and spaces that focus on play mostly from an unschooling/SDE perspective; in particular, how the lack of autonomy and shortage of free and unsupervised play has negatively impacted the mental health of children, and how more play and autonomy can benefit them.
I also am inviting a discussion, in the second section below, about whether our discussions about mental health are in themselves causing problems.
Peter Gray’s substack page “Play Makes Us Human” teeming with articles and research data about the relationship between play (especially unsupervised play and risk taking) and mental health
Peter Gray: The Decline of Play and Rise in Children’s Mental Disorders
Let Grow
An organization that believes (these quotes from their website):
“Somehow our culture has become obsessed with kids’ fragility and lost sight of their innate resilience. This concern grew out of good intentions! But treating kids as fragile is making them so. In fact, kids are “anti-fragile” — built not just to withstand some challenges, but to grow stronger once they do.”
“Children who have more opportunities than others for independent activities are not only happier in the short run, because the activities engender happiness and a sense of trustworthiness and competence, but also happier in the long run, because independent activities promote the growth of mental capacities for coping effectively with life’s inevitable stressors.”
Jonathan Haidt: The Anxious Generation. A book about how we can reclaim childhood.
A blurb about the book: “As kids’ free time and free play got replaced by an adult-run childhood, their anxiety and fragility climbed. Haidt’s book’s call to action is simple: Give young people back independence, responsibility, and free play”.
The Anxious Generation Website linked to the book above, devoted to helping parents and young people navigate the negative effects of screens and loss of play for children.
Tim Gill. No Fear Growing Up In A Risk Averse Society. Richard Louv, Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder
Naomi Fisher. Fisher has written about the positive role of SDE for children who are neurodiverse, and more broadly offers very hands on information about how families can approach unschooling.
Changing Our Minds: How Children Can Take Control of Their Own Learning
and
A Different Way to Learn
The Importance of Playing Outside
Low Traffic Neighborhoods where children can play
If you really want kids to spend less time online, make space for them in the real world
Play and War Games: Dangerous or Good for Children?
Two interesting pieces on the debate about whether it’s healthy or problematic for children to play war games:
War Play: Why Risk is Beneficial
New Zealand’s Recess With No Rules: An Experiment in Freedom and Resilience
Are We Talking too much about Mental Health?
Another important set of challenges recently raised are around the question of whether our discussions about mental health themselves increase the problem of mental health.
On the one hand, we face a world in which many children who desperately need help don’t have access to mental health care workers: this was one of the inspirations behind the beautiful idea of the Friendship Bench in Zimbabwe and THRIVE NY.
On the other hand, we are living through a period where it appears that a very large number of children 6, 7, 8, and above have a therapist or believe they need a therapist. At a very young age, they are exposed to kids’ books that sometimes portray what might otherwise be interpreted as natural struggles in a young life as overwhelming and impossible to manage, labeling or diagnosing various feelings or experiences as syndromes or diseases, in need of professional intervention.
This provokes some difficult questions for me:
Have we confused natural and even healthy forms of worry, fear, unhappiness, anger, and frustration with mental health disorders that require professional intervention?
In creating a 24/7 stream of news and discussions around the vulnerabilities of children, the many hazards posed to their lives, their anxieties, have we given them the message that they are excessively fragile, incapable of managing and overcoming difficulties, or in constant danger?
Have we presented challenges as problems rather than information bubbles – experiences that tell children a great deal about their preferences, areas they might work on or try and confront, things they like or don’t like, different chances they have to be problem solvers?
In suggesting that a young person facing challenges needs professional care, have we failed to remind them of the hundreds of people in their own communities who have support and wisdom to share when they are going through a hard time?
In discussing children’s vulnerabilities, have we forgotten to remind them about their resilience and power to confront difficulty and come out stronger on the other side?
In placing so much focus on the internal struggles of individual children, have we failed to create enough opportunities for young people to discover the comfort and strength they can find in collaborative engagement?
In communicating with young people in great deal about their problems (guilty as charged…!), have we forgotten that one of the most helpful things for anyone (child or adult) in crisis is give them a sense of agency, to turn their energy outward to help others, engage in meaningful, collaborative or sometimes very physical activities and projects in their world?
A few articles below offer interesting discussions about this issue.
And one video about a school in New Zealand that took all the rules away!
Parental Anxiety and the Mental Health of Teens
“I worry that the current obsession with mental health awareness is disempowering parents from helping their adult children handle ordinary things. People are increasingly fearful that any normal emotion is a sign of something serious. But if you send your adult children to a mental health professional at the first sign of distress, you deprive yourself of the opportunity to strengthen your relationship with them. This is the beginning of their adult relationship with you. Show them the way.”
Are We Talking Too Much About Mental Health?
“Lucy Foulkes and Jack Andrews, coined the term “prevalence inflation” — driven by the reporting of mild or transient symptoms as mental health disorders — and suggested that awareness campaigns were contributing to it. ‘It’s creating this message that teenagers are vulnerable, they’re likely to have problems, and the solution is to outsource them to a professional.’
New Zealand’s Recess With No Rules
Shows how various fears about risk, social tensions and bullying were reduced when children were allowed to manage their own physical risks and social encounters.