This article in the Journal of Pediatrics — Decline in Independent Activity as a Cause of Decline in Children’s Mental Wellbeing: Summary of the Evidence — has been getting a ton of attention in the last few days, especially on Twitter, so we are updating our blog post about it. If the article’s title sounds like what we’ve been saying here forever — darn tootin’. The authors are three prominent researchers in child development: David Lancy from the Dept. of Anthropology at Utah State, David Bjorklund at the Dept. of Psychology, Fla. State, and our own Peter Gray, a professor in the Dept. of Psychology and…
Author: lskenazy
Stunned joy is what most of us felt when we learned that Charlotte Sena, the 9-year-old abducted while riding her bike in upstate New York, has been found and returned to her family — alive. The alleged perp has been seized, bringing the number of active Amber Alerts in the entire USA to…one: Keshawn Williams, a 15-year-old from Cleveland. One is one too many, obviously. But it is a far cry from the hundreds of thousands that the media mentioned in the coverage of Charlotte’s disappearance. Stats to drive any parent crazy: The Washington Post reported that “About 460,000 children in the…
What a fantastic study: Research recently published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology found that when people are prompted to talk to a stranger, surprising things happen: They start to feel less awkward after doing it a few times. They feel less likely to be rejected. They are more willing to do it in the future. They consider themselves more convivial and approachable. All of which adds up to OPTIMISM and CONFIDENCE. And aren’t those what we want for our kids? You can INSTILL confidence. The experiment was clever: Researchers at two universities — one in the U.S., one in Britain…
All hail Michaeleen Doucleff! She’s author of the incredibly great, life-hacking, eye-opening book, “Hunt, Gather, Parent.” She and her daughter Rosy traveled the world to witness the parenting practices that have been working for millennia in traditional societies. They watched kids happily hunt, gather, clean up, make food, and help their parents every which way, in three far-flung, indignous communities from Africa to Canada. And meantime, here in America, she dropped a note to the nonprofit that grew out of Free-Range Kids, Let Grow: Dear Let Grow: I saw your story about the 6-year-old being harassed at the store. It reminded…
Today’s Atlantic has a great piece called “The Very Common, Very Harmful Thing Well-Meaning Parents Do.” And what is that common thing? TRACKING. As the article’s subtitle puts it bluntly: “Surveilling your kids will only backfire.” The piece is an excerpt from the new book “Growing Up in Public,” by Devorah Heitner. We caught up with Heitner to talk about the ever-expanding adult supervision of kids. Contents have been edited for length and clarity: LS: Devorah, Is everybody tracking their kids? DH: I interviewed a professor at the University of North Carolina and she said college students’ parents are still tracking…
At the tippy-top science high school in the Philippines, kids get classes only four days a week. They’ve got every Wednesday off — to spend time at their favorite school club. Lino Salvana is a 10th grade student at the Philippine Science High School Main Campus in Quezon City. (Photo above.) He explained to us why he loves club day so much: “Drudgery and mental stress are part of the average day in school. These are magnified several-fold at the Philippine Science High School, the best and most competitive high school in the Philippines. Recognizing the tremendous stress our schoolwork…
It is not a new observation that today’s kids are increasingly in adult-run classes, clubs, sports. Or they’re inside, online, instead of riding bikes, or collecting rocks, or talking to some rando. “While there could be many reasons our kids are suffering, what if the problem was simply this: Kids are growing up so over-protected that they’re scared of the world? “If so, the solution would be simple, too: Start letting them do more things on their own.” That’s what Long Island University Psychology Prof. Camilo Ortiz and I suggest in our essay in today’s New York Times titled, “This Simple Fix Could…
The town of Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, has shut down one of its playgrounds due to an extremely serious issue: a mouse on the property. (Eek!) WTMJ-TV reports that the Imagination Station Playground was closed until further notice as the city dealt with this crisis. The municipality explained its vexing problem in a Facebook post. “The environment around the Imagination Station is wooded and typically wet,” wrote the city. “This environment, along with any food left on the ground can attract mice. Since its construction, this is the first time a burrow has been located in the playground.” Unsqueakable danger But you know what they…
Seems like there are big changes underway in about a third of Houston’s public schools. The particular change that play activist Rusty Keeler brought to our attention involves what many of us remember as the best part of the school day — and maybe our childhoods. Recess. Wait — what? When the parents who run the advocacy group “Free Play Houston” looked at the curriculum for the upcoming school year at 85 of Houston’s approximately 300 schools, they were shocked to find something missing: Recess for the 5th graders. The group campaigned to get it reinstated — and it worked!…
Over at our Raising Independent Kids Facebook group (join here), parents find a non-blaming/shaming/shrieking/freaking/911-calling environment to ask questions about all sorts of childhood independence issues. Here’s one that probably resonates. Feel free to answer below, or join the group! by Katya Syrochkina Apologies if this has been asked before…how to deal with INTENSE helicopter parents on a playground? I live outside of NYC, and the local playground is helicopter central. Basically, parents here go the extreme of micromanaging how their–and others’–kids use a slide. Yes. Children are heckled to proceed in a stately manner and God forbid anyone rushes or such.…