Recent medical research suggests that sufficient playtime and recess in schools help a child’s academic experience in mathematics, science and reading. Well, this seems like a no-brainer, right? Why do we need scientists to tell us what anyone who spends time around kids has always known? The relationship between movement and cognitive performance is nothing new. The trouble is many schools happily cut playtime and recess at the slightest pretext to ‘improve’ academic performance of children.

Most schools offer some playtime, recess, time to socialize a bit, etc for children. But often, this is considered a ‘necessary evil’ or a luxury they have to put up with. At the slightest pretext, schools reduce or cancel recess breaks and playtime and absorb them into the regular ‘study’ hours dealing with mathematics, science, language and other subjects.

Children are sometimes punished by making them study or do homework during playtime. If the child faces a school-leaving board exam (10^th or 12^th) then playtime is certainly out, for the whole year.

In short, we believe in ‘brain versus brawn’. And brain takes precedence.

A study in the US published in the 2 February 2009 issue of the journal Pediatrics establishes the links between recess and classroom behavior among about 11,000 children of age 8 and 9. The children who had longer recess in a day behaved better in class than those who had short or no recess. The association between better behavior and longer recess time held up even after researchers controlled for a number of variables including sex, ethnicity, etc.

The finding of the researchers: Playtime and breaks are essential to academic performance. Children need breaks because their brains need breaks.

Studies elsewhere confirm this. A New York Times report quotes a research paper in The Journal of School Health that the more physical fitness tests children passed, the better they did on academic tests. The study, conducted on 1800 middle school students, infers that children can benefit academically from physical activity during playtime and recess. Yet another study on children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) found that nature walks helped improve their concentration.

Here goes the rather commonsensical explanation for why ‘play’ helps academics:

During lessons in classroom, children’s brains are in the phase of what is called “directed” attention, a kind of ‘forced attention’ on the brain. In contrast, when they are out playing, handling a pet or taking a nature walk, “involuntary” attention takes over. Long hours of directed attention can leave a child quite fatigued. Involuntary attention gives brain the much-needed rest from directed attention. A rejuvenated brain can get back to forced learning with lots more energy.

So far, much of our efforts has been focused on making classroom learning ‘fun’, teaching through activities and experiments, etc. Sure, these methods have their enormous merits. Yet, none converts the ‘directed’ attention of children to ‘involuntary’ attention. (Think about it: can you make a child participate in a Science class with the same attention he shows in a cricket match? Impossible!). The research findings Pediatrics provide a solution – be liberal with their playtime, while adopting an activity-based teaching method and watch their grades or marks soar.

Takeaways

• Never curtail children’s playtime or recess. Be liberal in structuring both.
• Don’t adopt a ‘sit still and keep quiet!’ attitude towards children in class. Children need to run around! You can even make them do a few exercises in the middle of a lesson to break the monotony.
• Exercise & outdoor activity are life-enriching habits that need encouragement in our tech-addicted indoor-centric world.
• Sufficient playtime and recess ensure that children’s skills as well as behaviour will improve.