Activity Tables: The Value of Play

Who knew that having fun was so good for you?

What does an activity table do, really? Art tables don't blink, no batteries, no video screen. Why do child psychologists think they're such a great idea?

Kids didn't always have a Daisy Hill Air Rifle, or Barbie Dream Beach House, much less a 3-D Surround Sound video game box. Play was more imaginative and interactive, less scripted. It's more common today to be presented with a list of rules to follow. According to those who study childhood behavior, kids lose important opportunities for development when they give up control of how to play.

It's the difference between being in the audience watching a theater production, and having someone offer you a rack of costumes and a stage and saying, "Have at it." Activity tables let you write the script, invent the characters, act out the story and flex your interactivity muscles.

Your kid's a natural Kids are naturals at imagining. You don't have to teach them how to do it. All you have to do is give them space and time and a spark, something like a bead table. Activity tables are the perfect instigator, focusing a group of kids to interact and create together. You'll be amazed at how cooperative kids become, and how little they fight and fuss, when they're free to daydream together around a block table. Compare that to video games which spell out the whole story, leaving nothing for participants to do but push buttons, or worse, sit around watching someone else push buttons. Kids in that environment get irritable fast. Imaginative play is fertile ground for building self-regulation, one of the most basic social skills. According to researcher Laura Berk, playing children talk to themselves about what they are going to do and how they'll do it. This "self-speech" is a predictor of good self-regulation, which develops into high executive functioning. Self-speech is highest during imaginative play, lowest when children are stuck with toys that do all the thinking for them. Never tease a child for talking to himself. He's building an important pathway to success.

Schools add activity tables

The benefits of interactive play are so strong that many big city school systems are adding more unstructured playtime to their school day, and makers of activity tables are designing for the classroom. Children are sponges for learning social skills when playing with each other and with adults. In effect, they learn how to learn.

So what can you do to help? It couldn't be easier:

• Back off a little. Let the kids create the rules
• Use activity tables to spark imagination and focus
• Give them time, space and quiet
• Feel free to join in. It's good for you too
• Observe quietly, you'll learn a lot about your child at an activity table

Not only does it help establish a caring relationship with your child, play is good for you too. So feel free to join in. Provide your children with activity tables that inspire the imagination, without substituting for it.