Kelsie Prabawa-Sear: Play is so important for children, let’s rediscover the lost art

A few years ago, I attended a talk by our previous CEO, Griff Longley.

I remember Griff explaining to the audience that Australia had some of the highest levels of sport participation for children in the world.

I think most of us in the room felt a little smug and proud. No wonder we punch above our weight in the sporting arena!

This fleeting sense of pride dissipated as Griff explained that despite this bordering-on-obsession with competitive sports, many of our kids weren’t getting enough physical activity for good health.

The reason, he explained, was that we were enrolling them in a sport and then considering the job done as far as physical activity went.

Besides their sport, kids weren’t getting much movement throughout the day, and we were trailing most other countries by comparison.

Upon reflection, it’s easy to see how this happens. If kids aren’t riding and walking to school, aren’t getting much in the way of daily PE, and are not partaking in energetic play when at school (and in childcare), then when would they be getting their movement?

As it turns out, they’re not.

Children’s participation in sport is limited and has dropped since I first heard Griff speak about this issue.

According to last year’s National Sport and Physical Activity Participation Report, about 50 per cent of Australian children participated in sport at least once a week.

Firstly, that’s not many kids, and secondly, once a week doesn’t cut it for good health. It’s not regular enough for kids to get fit enough nor proficient enough to enjoy a long-term connection with the sport.

It’s also not regular enough to build strong social connections and friendships — some of the very best benefits of sport.

While kids’ participation in sport had been increasing since COVID where it hit a low of 37 per cent, we can expect that the cost-of-living crisis will impact on this upward trend.

The family budget might not stretch as far as registration fees, uniforms (I’m yet to meet a kid who hasn’t outgrown their shoes and uniform from one season to the next), equipment and travel costs.

Most families have more than one child, so these costs are multiplied, leaving parents to seek alternatives.

The good news is that energetic outdoor play provides all the physical and social benefits that kids need without costing a cent.

Running, climbing, crawling, jumping, skipping, cartwheels, roly-polies and handstands are all part of energetic play and are all fantastic ways of building fitness and strength in kids of all ages.

The addition of monkey bars, a boogie board, bike, scooter, skateboard, skipping rope, ball or frisbee could make for hours of high-energy play.

More creative endeavours like moving branches and building cubbies, is a good physical challenge that requires big muscle use and excellent communication and cooperation coupled with a bit of engineering ingenuity — at no cost.

It sounds so simple, doesn’t it? Just like the old days. Except it’s not like the old days. In the old days we had nothing else to do because there was only one TV and not many kids TV shows.

Our mums wisely forced us out of the house, so we weren’t under their feet, and into the street, where we met friends who were in the same situation.

Driven to the brink of boredom-induced insanity, we’d come up with adventures and games that our friends and their siblings could all play.

Our gang had to come up with a game that included me when I was on crutches. We ended up timing each other to see who could go around the block the fastest on my crutches. I didn’t win — I never did.

I was the little sister so just being included was a win. I have since had a stint on crutches as an adult and now appreciate what a brutal physical challenge that game would have been for a six-year-old.

Modern kids aren’t hanging out outside like my comrades and I did, and there are various reasons for this — after school care, parental fear, a lack of connection with neighbours, kids being busy on screens.

Unlike parents in the Seventies and Eighties, we adults need to commit to providing this time for our kids.

Imagine if we treated play with the same devotion as sports training — insisting on our kids meeting at the park at a scheduled time (4-5pm every Tuesday and Thursday regardless of the weather) but instead of heavily structured sporting drills facilitated by adults, they could be making up their own ways to energetically play.

It wouldn’t cost a cent, they’d get the physical activity they need, they’d build stronger friendships, get to know their community better and build up reserves of resilience and self-belief that they’ll need in the next phases of their lives.

If your kid isn’t playing a sport this year, I encourage you to make “play” their sport.

Dr Kelsie Prabawa-Sear is the CEO of Nature Play WA