Want your children to learn? Give them time to play alone and explore the world

Next time you reach for the Play-Doh and start making models with your toddler, think again. You may be doing more harm than good by getting too involved, է Daily Mail warns.

Parents who try to boost their children’s development by regularly taking the lead with structured activities are in danger of actually stifling it, an expert warned yesterday.

Letting youngsters play alone helps them develop crucial skills which are linked to higher academic achievement and well-being, according Dr David Whitebread.

The academic said opportunities for children to play on their own are steadily declining, with youngsters nowadays leading more structured lives than generations before them.

He was responding to a survey which found parents feel pressure to play one-to-one with their children and engage them in structured activities.

Sixty-three per cent thought one-to-one play would help their children develop new skills more quickly and 66 per cent worried they didn’t play with their offspring enough.

But Dr Whitebread, senior lecturer in psychology and education at Cambridge University, warned that denying children time to explore alone could harm their development.

‘The really big concern over the last decade is the relative loss of opportunities for children to engage in child-led play,’ he said. ‘Children’s lives are much more structured than they have ever been – and there is quite a lot of evidence to suggest this can be detrimental.  Parents can certainly be given guidelines about productive ways of playing with their children, but it’s important that play is not structured all the time.’

Dr Whitebread urged parents to give children a range of experiences, both on their own, with peers and with parents.

Follow NEWS.am Medicine on Facebook and Twitter