The Science Behind Playlistening

0:02 play list me that puts the child in charge as a relationship for a limited time that allows the child to resolve difficult issues laughing about it like your toddler is just learning to walk following over themselves laughing because she tripped on something it's hilarious when someone else has the

0:33 problem and you can take it on in a good-natured way it sort of a deal because you know you could walk so you can goof around with things like that so what we're suggesting to parents is that they consciously and regularly create opportunities where there's this distinct play period where the child is given the upper hand and we take on the conflict the problem I'm sure talk all talk much more about the nuances there

1:05 but there are a couple things that are new to the research paper that you've all seen there you can look through all the science and quotes that relate to play listening but you won't see the American Academy of Pediatrics has recently released a report about the importance of play and there's this whole movement to get play back in schools and get recess back and things

1:36 like that and the American Academy of Pediatrics is calling this lack of playtime a national crisis strong language so it's interesting that that's there and what they said is play is so important to optimal child development that it's recognized by the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights as a right of every child we must

2:11 advocate her changes specific to the needs of Eve's child's social and environmental context that work to enhance their ability to play so the UN and the American Academy of Pediatrics are working together to further this cause of play and what they're saying is that like there was this big study at

2:42 Stanford that we'll see referenced a lot around play it was done in 2007 and what they really looked at was how we play that kind of goofing off and laughing stuff that you're doing with the kids maintained the cognitive physical social and emotional development and well-being of the child they're getting higher SAT

3:15 scores laughing with you they're getting better social skills and they're learning to self-regulate which is really I mean that's what we're going for as adults as we want adults that are able to hang on to whatever it is they until they get to that place that set

3:46 aside for their listing time not go off at the court memory stuff at Starbucks because they've had a bad day you know they need to regulate they need to take emotional time to the right place so there was also a fascinating study that was reported in a big British Medical Journal it was done by a woman named Susan Walker and they did a

4:18 randomized study so the holy grail of research studies and they had they had a control group they had 130 kids in their study the youngest one was 44 months old and the oldest one was nine the group that they studied had different forms of stunted development so these were children that had failed to thrive these

4:49 were children for Morphin ages of abusive homes these were children that had serious emotional deficits and they got one weekly play session with an adult for an hour and demonstrated significant long-term games they follow these kids until they were 17 years old and they could

5:20 demonstrate better psychosocial functioning less anxiety less depression and more attentional projects the kids in the group that got an hour a week with an adult that cared about children oh we're already damaged got an hour a week of playtime with a caring adult and it changed the way their brains function it changed the incidence of attention disorders it measurably changed their

5:53 neural chemistry as nearly adults they followed them till there were 17 so it gave them those emotional self-regulatory skills that were necessary for adult relationships there's a lot of great stuff that it won't cover yeah in the hand-in-hand literature review that talks about a Letha Souter's work and there are several books on our reading list I recommend that you read her police' Aletha sole turn and it's on

6:27 the reading list there are a number of really important things that she had the same research but one of the things that we're focusing on when we're talking to parents is you saying lay listening and there's the kind of environment to build that essential connection with your child in order to do well as adolescents and young adults we know kids have to have a certain kind of parent-child

6:58 connection or an adult if it's not a parent it's a stepfather if it's you know it's another figure when display is Alesso this is from the American pediatric Association the conservative a group adopters as you're ever gonna put in one room here's what another thing that they said when the play is allowed to be child driven okay they're in charge

7:32 they're the doctor you are getting the shots they're the dentist you've got the cavities they're in charge your bumbling after them they're practicing decision-making skills they're moving at their own pace discovering their own passions and areas of interests that helps them engage fully in the things that they want to pursue it teaches them to

8:04 so they're ideally this is the pediatrician stocking ideally much of this play involves adults but when the play is controlled by adults children don't get any of those benefits they have oh yes to the adult rules or the expectations they the play loses the benefits particularly in developing creative creativity leadership and group

8:37 skills it's essential for a hand in hand for organizations like ours to give parents ways that they can be efficient in their use of time with their kids because they gotta cook or there are other kids or there's a new baby or I gotta go and work life happens school starts it's like it's a busy life so we want to teach them to efficiently use their time with their children so we can teach them that special time and

9:11 playlist me let go of your agenda for a minute and demonstrate for your child the kind of cooperation flexibility and enthusiasm you'd love to see from them the other 23 and 3/4 hours in the day for them all the time it's like just show them the way with a little bit of

9:42 your time and play listening it reduces stress it reduces