Want trouble with the law?

Deny children time to play

You wake him up every week day at 5a.m. to prepare for school. By school I mean that expensive academy you send your kids to be grilled and filled with unnecessary facts and skills too weighty for their age without giving them time to be creative and explore. So, the child comes home in the evening burnt out, only for you to send him straight to the reading table for homework. Oh, and there is that tutorial centre you send him on Saturday and that skilled tutor who comes in your house for complementary lessons.

Of course you want your child to have a great start in life and be competitive in this day and age. But is that child getting enough time to play, risk, explore, learn and be imaginative? In your busy mind, you assume school is giving him enough play time, don’t you? Have you become part of the statistics of a parent who is so caught up on achievement and performance, and has overlooked the other things that help children grow into happy healthy adults? You think play time is frivolous and cannot see its role in not only learning and school readiness, but also character development? You are a human rights violator, breaking not only domestic laws but international treaties.

Play is a right of all children because it is vital for their development and wellbeing. This is recognised in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Article 31) and in the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (Article 12) as the right of children to play, recreation, leisure, art and cultural activities. Section 17 of the Kenyan Children’s Act provides that ‘a child shall be entitled to leisure, play and participation in cultural and artistic activities’ This law asserts very clearly that play is not an “optional extra” — it is essential in children’s lives.

If children are to live to the full and to grow up to be the best they can be, physically, emotionally, socially, intellectually and aesthetically, they need opportunities for play and also for leisure and rest. They need space to just “be” every day. And if you think you can get away with making that child a bookworm without play, section 20 of the Children’s Act states that you can be prosecuted and if found guilty, be liable upon summary conviction to a term of imprisonment not exceeding 12 months, or to a fine not exceeding Kshs 50,000 or to both such imprisonment and fine. The violation of this right does not have to be intentional. If you are an ignorant parent, then that is culpable negligence, which makes you equally guilty.

Both the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Children’s Act of Kenya demand that we look
holistically at children’s lives and hear their own perspectives on issues affecting them. In our fast-developing world, many elements of children’s lives have hitherto been ignored, especially elements that represent our fundamental humanity. One of these — at the heart of children’s lives everywhere — is the right to play.

Research by the International Play Association, an NGO which protects, preserves and promotes the child’s right to play as a fundamental human right indicates that play contributes to brain development, creates flexibility, enhances creativity and builds resilience to stress. Children experts argue that restricting children’s play may stifle their social and physical development and contribute to the growing levels of childhood obesity. Play allows children to relax, release energy, express themselves, and enhance their self-confidence and self-esteem. Socially, it teaches them cooperation, sharing, turn-taking, conflict resolution and leadership skill development (control of impulses and aggressive behaviour). There are also self-help skills, persistence and language development.

According to Dr. Mercy Kamau, a leading child psychologist, there is a growing culture of caution by parents who are restricting youngsters’ experience of play and stifling their social and physical development. That child play is slowly becoming boring and unadventurous, with most parents banning their children from playing the ‘traditional games’ for fear that the children will catch germs or injure themselves.

According to Dr. Kamau, ‘We need to depart from the culture of caution and work on teaching children a form of risk analysis, rather than risk avoidance. The culture of caution is increasing the number of children who cannot play with water, climb trees, ride bikes or even build a simple cart, which is not good for their creativity, abstract thinking, imagination, problem-solving, social cognition, empathy, perspective-taking and their mastering of new concepts.’

Dr. Kamau advises that play is important to children’s intellectual, social and emotional development. ‘In addition, children’s physical health is linked to having opportunities for play,’ she says, adding, ‘Attempts to remove recess and downgrade the importance of children’s play are short-sighted, discourage learning, and do not promote children’s development. Those narrowly-defined learning standards do not result in the development of life long learners.’ She advises parents that opportunities for learning through play are everywhere and do not require huge resources. ‘From the supermarket to the backyard to the doctor’s office, experiences relevant to mathematics, literacy and scientific concepts abound,’ she says.

Daniel Wakasiaka, a lawyer with CRADLE, opines that it is in the best interests of the child to play as long as the play is safe and appropriate to that child’s stage of development, and meets that child’s current needs and context. ‘While children often need to fulfil responsibilities of school— homework and family chores—before they can have the freedom to play, it is not in the best interest of children that these duties become so burdensome they preclude play,’ he says.

For all children to realise their rights, all the rights in sections five to 19 of the Children’s Act must apply to every child, equitably. For play, this means that facilitators of play must make sure that, as far as possible, there is inclusion and not discrimination on the basis of colour, class, age and gender and, in particular, that children with a disability are included. Inclusion also refers to anti-bias attitudes and a celebration of the diversity of indigenous practices in play — art, music, dance, drama and stories.

There is also need to make provision for children with special needs, including those in high-rise buildings, in informal settlements and those in children’s homes and hospitals.

For parents who like to impose on their children what to play, the latter have the right to participate in decisions that affect them (Section 4 of the Children’s Act). In play, this includes making choices about what kind of play they would like to be involved in, with whom, where, with what and for how long they would like to play. Babies too can indicate preferences for games and play things.

Before children are able to talk, information can be shared with them to assist in meaningful decision making about play choices for themselves. It is vital that parents recognise that children can be agents and creators of play. It is important that children are left to choose activities that are most meaningful to them from the options available. It may be a boy playing girlie games but that is what is meaningful to him and he should be let to be.

Generally, the children’s right to play is realised with the participation of and in partnership with adults. This can be achieved by either being part of the play, or on the sidelines while keeping a watchful eye. According to child play manuals, adults can support, stretch and develop children’s understanding, values, creativity, imagination and skills — especially when in close and interpersonal encounters. As a parent or guardian, it is important that you provide a meaningful context for children to learn concepts and skills, make learning enjoyable, encourage them to explore and discover together and on their own, allow children to extend what they are learning, encourage them to experiment and take risks, provide opportunities for collaborative learning with adults and peers and allow for the practice of skills.

We need to understand that children develop holistically, using all their senses — physical skills, mental capacity, social skills and emotions together. For example, in running, climbing and jumping, children learn mathematical skills and concepts such as judging size, shape and space.

It is therefore imperative that educational institutions, policy-makers and parents develop programmes that put play to its proper role in the development of children. Such programmes must recognise that children have the right to play, every child needs time and space to play, children should be able to play freely in their local areas, children value and benefit from provision of play staff, children need time and space to play at school (yes, pull your child out of that crowded school that has no play area), and that children sometimes need extra support to enjoy their right to play. Let them have healthy stimulating environment each day. Let us realise the rights enshrined in the Children’s Act of 2001.

END: BL 42 / 38-39