Running Free:

Outdoor play fosters imagination

The Lowell Sun. Lowell, Mass.: May 19, 2008.  

Ask the expert: Doreen Arcus, UMass Lowell psychology professor

Malls and play spaces: Do they go together?

There are times that children get taken along when adults have to run errands -- and that's a fact of life. It's not going to change. So if they're at the mall, it's nice to have a space there, a place to take a little break, run around, get some exercise. I think that's very positive. What I would worry about is if this becomes the child's playground -- if a mall becomes the destination, rather than an incidental place to visit.

What difference does outside play make?

It turns out, actually, that the amount of time children spend in free time has gone down since the 1980s by about 50 percent. They tend to do things outside that are very organized. Outside free play is really very different, from a developmental point of view, from supervised play. We learn negotiation in free play. That rough-and-tumble play, children bounding around, or imaginative play, where you're inventing what you're doing, both of those things promote brain development in children. Then there's the fresh air, the being outside. Those are important things, too.

What happens if kids don't get that rough-and-tumble play?

We don't really know. But animal models have been used. For example, if rat pups are raised in an environment where they're deprived of rough-and-tumble play, but still have social contact, it turns out that they're social relationships are less competent. They act inappropriately. If you deprive them, they don't learn. (Scientists) have seen differences in the areas of their frontal cortex, the area involved in social discrimination and social decision-making.

Why the difference?

Think about what happens in rough-and-tumble play. It's unpredictable. How much do you push and tug before it's an act of aggression? You learn to self-regulate.

So less structure, less planning can be a good thing?

It was said a long, long time ago that the work of childhood is play, but not necessarily play structured by things or the provision of props. Sociologists have studied the commercialization of play ... it's really since the mid-1950s where TV began targeting children with ads, that play became equal to things, that you played something when you had the right props for it, rather than imaginative play.

Do you think people believe that mall playgrounds are safer, cleaner places?

I think it would be a big mistake for people to believe that the mall is safer. You don't want kids on the playground alone and you don't want them in the mall alone. And one of the things kids do in the early years is build up their immune systems, and (germs at public places) are a way of building these up.

Bottom line: Is a mall playground a good thing or a bad thing?

It really depends on how it ends up being used. There's a real positive spin on this: You have to go to the mall anyway, and therefore it's nice to have a space for a child to run around in and be a child, and not worrying about being in the aisle, or staying in the cart. But to the degree that children become a captive audience -- after all, malls are there to sell things and make money -- if it becomes another way of targeting children, I think we should be wary.

Do you have a question for the expert?

E-mail Christine Phelan at cphelan@lowellsun.com.

Credit: The Lowell Sun