-In Britain and throughout the world there is a huge debate about Children’s Play or lack of it at the moment and how during the last two decades this has effected this generation of children and young people.
All the main child authorities now recognise that due to our interference in what is and has been a natural activity childhood has been grossly effected. Because of laws like Health and Safety legislations the fear of Stranger dangers etc. Fear has made a huge impact on our children’s lives, so much so that children have become insular, spending very little time in physical activity outside of their homes, not mixing with their peers and enjoying all the benefits of fresh air. exercise and community life which they should.
Thus we have generations of young people obese and fearful of life’s challenges. Play of children was at one time recognised as being paramount, the child needed to take risks, to stretch themselves, to seek adventure.
They played games on the streets and alleyways, school playgrounds, climbed trees, built dens on wastelands or in secret places. They had a huge repertoire of games, verse and rhymes, many handed down from generation to generation. Thus they had traditions and customs or roots. They grew up healthy and strong, fit and agile. Play was and is a natural instinct; children can’t help but do for it’s in their nature.
However due to FEAR as GEORGE ORWELL and folks like William Barnes warned us, we now have real problems of unhealthy overweight children who are fearful of community life and all its challenges.
More than one in three of British children say they feel unsafe playing in the nation's parks because they fear gangs and drunken youths, a survey has revealed.
Three-quarters of youngsters said they would feel safer if parks were properly staffed with park keepers.
The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (Cabe), which commissioned the survey, is calling for every urban park in England to have dedicated staff present on site during daylight hours. They believe only a quarter of English parks are currently staffed throughout the day.
Chief executive Richard Simmons said: "We need to make sure that parents everywhere are happy to let their children enjoy the huge benefits that playing in parks can bring, and that means every significant park having staff on site in daylight hours."
Even though most children have easy access to parks, evidence suggests children and their parents are worried about safety outside the home. Gangs, bullies and drunken youths were among the reasons given by children for feeling unsafe.
Recent research by Mori for the Greater London Authority showed that 67 per cent of mothers would never allow their children to play in parks unsupervised.
Cabe surveyed 211 children between the ages of 10 and 16 by telephone between June 26 and 29, 2006. Research was conducted by Carrick James Market Research - specialists in children and youth.
Concerns over children's fitness Updated on 22 December 2009 Source PA News
Children's fitness levels in the UK are falling at twice the global average rate, regardless of obesity, research has showed. While around the world fitness is falling at about 4% a decade among youngsters, the UK rate is 8%, experts said. They described the fall as "large and worrying" and said there could be a need to monitor fitness levels among schoolchildren.
Half of children NEVER go out to play in the street
By Laura Clark
STREETPLAY as it used to be http://www.streetplay.com/
STOP PRESS DAILY MAIL TODAY December ist 2009
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1232207/Eat-heart-Mr-Health-Safety-images-innocent-time.html
Briiliant document written by MY FRIEND N COLLEGUE Rob Wheway for FAIR PLAY FOR CHILDREN
http://www.fairplayforchildren.org/pdf/1215649914.pdf
Britain's streets have become 'no-go areas' for children with almost half of five to ten-year-olds never playing outside their homes, a report shows today. Two generations ago, it was rare for youngsters not to play in the street, with many doing so every day, a survey found.
Now, fast-moving traffic and parents' worries over paedophiles have destroyed neighbourhood relations and robbed areas of their community spirit, research by the Living Streets charity claims.
Its report, No ball games here (or shopping, playing or talking to the neighbours), shows how communities have changed as car use mushroomed and planning decisions failed to promote walking.
The survey of more than 1,000 parents and pensioners found that childhood was increasingly marked by shrinking freedom and greater adult supervision with 49 per cent of youngsters now never playing in the street.
In contrast, just 12 per cent of over-65s said they had never played outside their homes when they were young while 47 per cent said they did so every day. Even the percentage of today's parents playing out as children was far bigger than it is now, suggesting that changes in the past 20 years are responsible for the decline.
Youngsters are also less likely to walk to school, contributing to childhood obesity and denying them opportunities to extend their social networks.
Part of the problem is an exaggerated fear among parents their children would be abducted, when in fact youngsters are no more likely to be snatched today than 30 years ago. 'Playing freely on the street strengthens friendships, keeps children healthy and helps them to cope with risky situations, but the opportunities for children to do so have been falling rapidly,' the report said.
Meanwhile, more than a quarter of residents with young families know fewer than two neighbours well enough to have a conversation with.
This is in contrast to over-65s, who said that when they were young parents, they knew at least five neighbours well enough to have a conversation with them. Parents are also now less likely to shop locally. Two thirds drive to out-of-town stores - a reversal of the position the generation before when most went to shops within walking distance with one in five going to specialist stores such as butchers. Just two per cent of 30 to 40-year-olds use local specialist shops.
These trends had 'ripped the heart from many of our towns', the report said. Twelve per cent of pensioners and 11 per cent of parents of young children described their streets as 'dangerous', the report said.
Living Streets, formerly the Pedestrians Association, which did the research to mark its 80th anniversary, is calling for a 20mph speed limit on residential roads and an acceptance that journeys of two miles or less should be done on foot.
It also called for a bonfire of regulations to make it easier for residents to hold street parties.
Tony Armstrong, chief executive of Living Streets, said: 'Overall the research published today paints a bleak picture of how our streets have changed over the past 80 years. 'People still clearly feel affection their streets and by acting now we can make changes to ensure that feeling isn't lost.' Read more:these two links 
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A VANISHED BRITAIN
50 years ago we lived in a country where doors were left unlocked and children played in the streets and everywhere
Old-Fashioned Play Builds Serious Skills by Alix Spiegel February 21, 2008
Researchers say imaginative play allows children to make their own rules and practice self-control.
The best kind of play costs nothing and really only has one main requirement — imagination. Better Ways to Play Self-regulation is a critical skill for kids. Unfortunately, most kids today spend a lot of time doing three things: watching television, playing video games and taking lessons. None of these activities promote self-regulation. We asked for alternatives from three researchers: Deborah Leong, professor of psychology at Metropolitan State College of Denver, Elena Bodrova, senior researcher with Mid-Continent Research for Education and Learning, and Laura Berk, professor of psychology at Illinois State University.
Here are their suggestions: Simon Says: Simon Says is a game that requires children to inhibit themselves. You have to think and not do something, which helps to build self-regulation. Complex Imaginative Play: This is play where your child plans scenarios and enacts those scenarios for a fair amount of time, a half-hour at a minimum, though longer is better. Sustained play that last for hours is best. Realistic props are good for very young children, but otherwise encourage kids to use symbolic props that they create and make through their imaginations. For example, a stick becomes a sword. Activities That Require Planning: Games with directions, patterns for construction, recipes for cooking, for instance. Joint Storybook Reading: "Reading storybooks with preschoolers promotes self-regulation, not just because it fosters language development, but because children's stories are filled with characters who model effective self-regulatory strategies," says researcher Laura Berk. She cites the classic example of Watty Piper's The Little Engine That Could, in which a little blue engine pulling a train of toys and food over a mountain breaks down and must find a way to complete its journey. The engine chants, "I think I can. I think I can. I think I can," and with persistence and effort, surmounts the challenge. Encourage Children to Talk to Themselves:
"Like adults, children spontaneously speak to themselves to guide and manage their own behavior," Berk says. "In fact, children often use self-guiding comments recently picked up from their interactions with adults, signaling that they are beginning to apply those strategies to themselves. "Permitting and encouraging children to be verbally active — to speak to themselves while engaged in challenging tasks — fosters concentration, effort, problem-solving, and task success." —
On October 3, 1955, the Mickey Mouse Club debuted on television. As we all now know, the show quickly became a cultural icon, one of those phenomena that helped define an era. What is less remembered but equally, if not more, important, is that another transformative cultural event happened that day: The Mattel toy company began advertising a gun called the "Thunder Burp." I know — who's ever heard of the Thunder Burp? Well, no one. The reason the advertisement is significant is because it marked the first time that any toy company had attempted to peddle merchandise on television outside of the Christmas season.
Until 1955, ad budgets at toy companies were minuscule, so the only time they could afford to hawk their wares on TV was during Christmas. But then came Mattel and the Thunder Burp, which, according to Howard Chudacoff, a cultural historian at Brown University, was a kind of historical watershed. Almost overnight, children's play became focused, as never before, on things — the toys themselves. "It's interesting to me that when we talk about play today, the first thing that comes to mind are toys," says Chudacoff. "Whereas when I would think of play in the 19th century, I would think of activity rather than an object."
Chudacoff's recently published history of child's play argues that for most of human history what children did when they played was roam in packs large or small, more or less unsupervised, and engage in freewheeling imaginative play. They were pirates and princesses, aristocrats and action heroes. Basically, says Chudacoff, they spent most of their time doing what looked like nothing much at all. "They improvised play, whether it was in the outdoors… or whether it was on a street corner or somebody's back yard," Chudacoff says. "They improvised their own play; they regulated their play; they made up their own rules." But during the second half of the 20th century, Chudacoff argues, play changed radically. Instead of spending their time in autonomous shifting make-believe, children were supplied with ever more specific toys for play and predetermined scripts. Essentially, instead of playing pirate with a tree branch they played Star Wars with a toy light saber. Chudacoff calls this the commercialization and co-optation of child's play — a trend which begins to shrink the size of children's imaginative space. But commercialization isn't the only reason imagination comes under siege. In the second half of the 20th century, Chudacoff says, parents became increasingly concerned about safety, and were driven to create play environments that were secure and could not be penetrated by threats of the outside world. Karate classes, gymnastics, summer camps — these create safe environments for children, Chudacoff says. And they also do something more: for middle-class parents increasingly worried about achievement, they offer to enrich a child's mind. Change in Play, Change in Kids Clearly the way that children spend their time has changed. Here's the issue: A growing number of psychologists believe that these changes in what children do has also changed kids' cognitive and emotional development. It turns out that all that time spent playing make-believe actually helped children develop a critical cognitive skill called executive function. Executive function has a number of different elements, but a central one is the ability to self-regulate. Kids with good self-regulation are able to control their emotions and behavior, resist impulses, and exert self-control and discipline. We know that children's capacity for self-regulation has diminished.
A recent study replicated a study of self-regulation first done in the late 1940s, in which psychological researchers asked kids ages 3, 5 and 7 to do a number of exercises. One of those exercises included standing perfectly still without moving. The 3-year-olds couldn't stand still at all, the 5-year-olds could do it for about three minutes, and the 7-year-olds could stand pretty much as long as the researchers asked. In 2001, researchers repeated this experiment.
But, psychologist Elena Bodrova at Mid-Continent Research for Education and Learning says, the results were very different. "Today's 5-year-olds were acting at the level of 3-year-olds 60 years ago, and today's 7-year-olds were barely approaching the level of a 5-year-old 60 years ago," Bodrova explains. "So the results were very sad." Sad because self-regulation is incredibly important. Poor executive function is associated with high dropout rates, drug use and crime. In fact, good executive function is a better predictor of success in school than a child's IQ. Children who are able to manage their feelings and pay attention are better able to learn. As executive function researcher Laura Berk explains, "Self-regulation predicts effective development in virtually every domain."
The Importance of Self-Regulation According to Berk, one reason make-believe is such a powerful tool for building self-discipline is because during make-believe, children engage in what's called private speech: They talk to themselves about what they are going to do and how they are going to do it. "In fact, if we compare preschoolers' activities and the amount of private speech that occurs across them, we find that this self-regulating language is highest during make-believe play," Berk says.
"And this type of self-regulating language… has been shown in many studies to be predictive of executive functions." And it's not just children who use private speech to control themselves. If we look at adult use of private speech, Berk says, "we're often using it to surmount obstacles, to master cognitive and social skills, and to manage our emotions." Unfortunately, the more structured the play, the more children's private speech declines. Essentially, because children's play is so focused on lessons and leagues, and because kids' toys increasingly inhibit imaginative play, kids aren't getting a chance to practice policing themselves. When they have that opportunity, says Berk, the results are clear: Self-regulation improves. "
One index that researchers, including myself, have used… is the extent to which a child, for example, cleans up independently after a free-choice period in preschool," Berk says. "We find that children who are most effective at complex make-believe play take on that responsibility with… greater willingness, and even will assist others in doing so without teacher prompting." Despite the evidence of the benefits of imaginative play, however, even in the context of preschool young children's play is in decline. According to Yale psychological researcher Dorothy Singer, teachers and school administrators just don't see the value. "Because of the testing, and the emphasis now that you have to really pass these tests, teachers are starting earlier and earlier to drill the kids in their basic fundamentals.
Play is viewed as unnecessary, a waste of time," Singer says. "I have so many articles that have documented the shortening of free play for children, where the teachers in these schools are using the time for cognitive skills."
It seems that in the rush to give children every advantage — to protect them, to stimulate them, to enrich them — our culture has unwittingly compromised one of the activities that helped children most. All that wasted time was not such a waste after all.
LATEST -Council bans parents from play areas october 30th .2009
Parents have been banned from supervising their children in public playgrounds, because they have not undergone criminal record checks. By Tom Whitehead, Home Affairs Editor Published: 1:04PM GMT 28 Oct 2009
Only council-vetted "play rangers" are now allowed to monitor youngsters in two adventure areas in Watford while parents must watch from outside a perimeter fence.
The Watford Borough Council policy has been attacked as insulting and a disgrace by furious relatives who say they are being labelled as potential paedophiles. .
It will further fuel concerns over a growing nanny state amid the deepening row over the Government's new national anti-paedophile database. That will see at least 11 million adults have to be vetted to work with children or vulnerable adults, including parents who give officials lifts to and from social or sports clubs.
Councillors in Watford claim they are only following Government guidelines and cannot allow adults to walk around playgrounds "unchecked". But Osfted dismissed the ban while parents branded it "a joke". The rules have been imposed at Harwoods and Harebreaks adventure recreation grounds.
Activities on the half acre sites include a skateboard half-pipe, a zip line, rope swings, den building, arts and crafts, plus a wide range of indoor and outdoor sports activities. Play rangers currently patrol both parks – which are specifically for children aged five to 15 – and are fully qualified and have been cleared by the Criminal Records Bureau.
Parents already have to 'register' their child on arrival at the free playgrounds so staff have their contact details in the event of an accident. But now only those who have been CRB vetted by the council can enter the sites, which are surrounded by six foot high steel and wooden fences.
Mother-of-five Marcella Bergin, 35, has been visiting with her three eldest children, Christy, 15, Seamus, 12, and Chloe, 11, for many years without any problems. She said: "It's like they are branding all parents potential paedophiles which is disgraceful – 99 per cent of people are great parents and certainly not child abusers. "The whole thing is just a joke and I will certainly not be adhering to the new rules which frankly are crazy." Mo Mills, 62, a retired youth worker who has six grandchildren, added: "This is typical of the nanny state and I am furious – the council should hang their head in shame at this political correctness gone mad." Mum-of-eight Jenny Abbasi, 41, said: "I find it insulting that the council are essentially branding everyone paedophiles and telling us we cannot be trusted with our own kids – it's a disgrace."
Claude Knights, the founder of children's charity Kidscape, said the council were "using a sledgehammer to crack nuts". "They are encouraging a climate where parents and children are rendered suspicious without any proof of wrong doing or guilt," she said. "Caring parents should not be viewed as a threat and if you are a bona fide parent or carer you are in a better position to look after your children than council staff."
A council notice to parents explains that: "Safeguarding the children and young people who use the site is one of our top priorities. "Due to Ofsted regulations we have a responsibility to ensure that every authorised adult who enters our site is properly vetted and given a Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) check by Watford Borough Council."
Council Mayor Dorothy Thornhill argued they are merely enforcing government policy at the play areas, in Vicarage Road and Leggatts Way. She said: "Sadly, in today's climate, you can't have adults walking around unchecked in a children's playground and the adventure playground is not a meeting place for adults. "We have reviewed our procedures, so although previously some parents have stayed with their children at the discretion of our play workers, this is not something we can continue to do. "There are other places in the town for parents with small children to go." But a spokeswoman for Ofsted said: "Ofsted would never seek to prevent parents and carers having access to their own children. "We would not insist that each parent must have a member of staff with them all times. "Many settings operate very well with parents and carers present, and indeed this can be an important part of young children settling somewhere new."
The Daily Telegraph disclosed on Tuesday how employers will come under pressure to register staff with the Government's anti-paedophile database even if they have little contact with children Sir Roger Singleton, the chairman of the Independent Safeguarding Authority, said the scope of the planned database could increase significantly because companies would fear losing business if they did not have their employees vetted.
Last month, he was asked by the Government to look again at the complex definitions of "frequent" and "intensive" contact following concerns that the scheme would lead to state supervision of all relationships between adults and children.
Parents banned from two Watford Borough Council play areas 12:56pm Tuesday 27th October 2009 Comments (60) Have your say » By Neil Skinner »
Parents have been banned from watching their own children enjoy two council-run adventure play areas because they have not been vetted by police. Mums and dads have been told they will no longer be welcome in two play areas supervised by Watford Borough Council staff, from Monday (November 2). The change in policy, at the Harwoods and Harebreaks recreation grounds, will see adults excluded from the fenced off parks, with children cared for exclusively by qualified and police vetted council staff, known as play rangers. Mayor Dorothy Thornhill argued the council is merely enforcing Government policy at the play areas, in Vicarage Road and Leggatts Way respectively.
She said: “Sadly, in today's climate, you can’t have adults walking around unchecked in a children’s playground.” Some parents, however, have lambasted the “ridiculous” and "crazy" decision which they say breaches their personal freedoms.
Mum-of-eight Jennifer Abbasi said: “I have been using the Harwoods playground for 18 years. I have every faith in the staff but there are not enough [three] on duty during a session. “It is a sad day when parents cannot be involved with the enjoyment of their children and share valuable play time when it may be the only quality time spent together.” Grandmother Mo Mills branded the decision as “crazy”. She said: “What am I supposed to do when I take my five-year-old granddaughter down there? Am I supposed to drop her off and say: ‘There you go, I’ll pick you up later?’. It’s crazy.” Rebekah Makinson, mum-of-three, added: “We have used Harwoods since I was a child and my mother stayed with me. It has always had a fantastic community atmosphere. Even with the excellent staff employed it is ridiculous to assume that three staff members can safeguard the high volume of children that currently use the playground. “Banning parents from an open access playground, I feel, is a breech of our personal freedom. “I hope the council will overturn this decision otherwise we will not be visiting the site again.”
Mayor Thornhill added: “The playgrounds are not a meeting place for adults. We have reviewed our procedures, so although previously some parents have stayed with their children at the discretion of our play-workers, this is not something we can continue to do. “There are other places in the town for parents with small children to go.”
Childhood in Britain 'ruined by lack of outdoor play and aggressive advertising'
Childhood in Britain is being ruined as young people are forced into the adult world at an increasingly early age, enduring family breakdown, celebrity culture, and the decline of outdoor play.
By Martin Beckford, Social Affairs Correspondent
Published: 9:00PM GMT 30 Jan 2009
Children have lost their freedom to play outside because of paranoia about the dangers they face
The two-year Good Childhood Inquiry is expected to warn that children have lost their freedom to play outside because of paranoia about the dangers they face and hostility from the general public.
Instead they are left to spend hours every day in front of television screens and computers, where they fall prey to aggressive marketing and turned into consumers.
Meanwhile, the breakdown of traditional families and the rise of the working mother has robbed many children of support and parents to look up to, with the result that they turn to celebrities as role models.
The report is likely to highlight the importance of male role models to the well-being of children, and claim that those who have good relationships with their fathers are far less likely to develop behavioural or emotional problems.
In addition, the report – based on interviews with more than 30,000 children, adults and professionals – is likely to claim that the physical and mental health of young people is at risk from bullying, exam stress, junk food and alcohol.
The result, it will say, is that children are growing up more confused, pressurised and lacking in real values than in previous generations.
The independent inquiry into the state of childhood today – commissioned by The Children's Society and carried out by Lord Layard, the Labour peer, and Professor Judy Dunn, a child psychologist at the Institute of Psychiatry – has collected so much evidence that it is publishing it in a 240-page paperback book .
It will include 30 "hard-hitting recommendations" for the Government on how childhood can be improved.
These are likely to centre around ways children can grow up influenced and supported by family and friends, rather than under pressure from adverts, schools and reality TV.
It will propose a complete ban on advertising for under-12s, which has been suggested both by Lord Layard and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, who is patron of the inquiry.
The commercialisation of childhood is feared to be behind rising levels of depression and anxiety among teenagers, as they try to get the latest gadgets, wear make-up at increasingly early ages and try to lose weight or work out in order to look like models or pop stars.
The report will call for better support services to cater for children who develop mental health problems or eating disorders.
Dr Williams has said: "Children should be encouraged to value themselves for who they are as people rather than what they own.
"The selling of lifestyles to children creates a culture of material competitiveness and promotes acquisitive individualism at the expense of the principles of community and co-operation."
He has argued repeatedly that British society is unfriendly to children and treats them wrongly as "little adults", and wants the age of criminal responsibility raised from 10 to 14.
The report is also likely to say companies should allow working mothers to balance their jobs with their family responsibilities, amid fears that "macho" employers only judge staff on the number of hours they put in.
Lord Layard has said: "One of the huge problems for mothers is that in order to be successful in a career, you too often have to work long hours."
The inquiry will also warn against the "cotton wool culture" and encourage parents to let their children play outdoors and make new friends rather than keeping them cooped up indoors.
It is a scene that epitomises childhood: young siblings racing towards a heavy oak tree, hauling themselves on to the lower branches and scrambling up as high as they can get. Yet millions of children are being deprived of such pleasure because their parents are nervous about exposing them to any risks, new research has revealed. A major study by Play England, part of the National Children's Bureau, found that half of all children have been stopped from climbing trees, 21 per cent have been banned from playing conkers and 17 per cent have been told they cannot take part in games of tag or chase. Some parents are going to such extreme lengths to protect their children from danger that they have even said no to hide-and-seek. 'Children are not being allowed many of the freedoms that were taken for granted when we were children,' said Adrian Voce, director of Play England. 'They are not enjoying the opportunities to play outside that most people would have thought of as normal when they were growing up.' Voce argued that it was becoming a 'social norm' for younger children to be allowed out only when accompanied by an adult. 'Logistically that is very difficult for parents to manage because of the time pressures on normal family life,' he said. 'If you don't want your children to play out alone and you have not got the time to take them out then they will spend more time on the computer.' Voce pointed out how irrational some of these decisions were. Last year, almost three times as many children were admitted to hospital after falling out of bed as those who had fallen from a tree. The tendency to wrap children in cotton wool has transformed how they experience childhood. According to the research, 70 per cent of adults had their biggest childhood adventures in outdoor spaces among trees, rivers and woods, compared with only 29 per cent of children today. The majority of young people questioned said that their biggest adventures took place in playgrounds. Voce said Play England was determined to spread the message that children ought to be taking risks and that it is 'not the end of the world if a child has an accident'. The latest study will be launched on Wednesday to coincide with Play Day, when hundreds of events will take place across the country to celebrate children's right to play. It will show that play providers also feel the opportunities for children to 'test and challenge themselves in play involving a level of risk' have reduced over the past decade. They blame overcautious health and safety officers and the fear of litigation if children have accidents. Andrea Quaintmere, who manages Toffee Park Adventure Playground in London, admitted there were fears that parents would sue if children were injured. But she said that should not stop workers ensuring children experienced lots of adventure. 'We need to educate parents who are worried about their kids having accidents and hurting themselves,' said Quaintmere. 'Children can learn from small accidents. Parents do get nervous and tell us "don't let them do that". I try to remind them of their own childhood.' As Quaintmere spoke, two nine-year-old girls, Chloe Bailey and Kiara Gomes, ran by. 'My favourite games are football and "it",' said Chloe, before going to build a camp with her friends. 'My mum says that climbing trees is too dangerous,' said Kiara. 'But my dad lets me. If I fall over and it hurts, I just get myself up and smile.' The Play England study quotes a number of play providers who highlight the benefits to children of taking risks. 'Risk-taking increases the resilience of children,' said one. 'It helps them make judgments,' said another. Some of those interviewed blamed the 'cotton wool' culture for the fact that today's children were playing it too safe, while others pointed to a lack of equipment or too much concrete in place of grass. The research also lists examples of risky play that should be encouraged including fire-building, den-making, watersports, paintballing, boxing and climbing trees. Justine Roberts, founder of Mumsnet.com, an online forum for mothers, said that parents only wanted to protect their children. 'It is the mums and dads that have to deal with the bruises and cuts,' she said. 'But broadly speaking I think that we will have to be brave and allow our children to take physical risk because, within reason, that is the way that they learn. 'When you see your two-and-a-half year-old on a climbing frame your heart is in your mouth and that is normal but I think most parents realise that at some point their children have to take physical risks; most recognise the benefits of learning through play. We can be overprotective but it is impossible to wrap children in cotton wool.'
Read more:
Watch this Film. 
Just as propoganda was used extensively in the 1950s see this link
Children today are also told half thruths like the greenhouse effect to sale new products and the 9/11 official story
as a means of control.
STOP PRESS
Grim conclusions from report on children's health By GRANT LaFLECHE -"Our kids are fat".
They don’t exercise enough. They don’t eat enough fruit and vegetables. And for the first time, they might not live as long as their parents.
These grim conclusions from a recent Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario report echo years of warnings from health-care professionals about the impact of lousy diets and sedentary lifestyles on children. They are no surprise to Nota Klentrou, a Brock University researcher and professor of physical education.
For years, she has been studying the health and physical activity of Niagara’s youths. Her results are very similar to those of the foundation’s report. “Oh, I believe it,” she said, pointing to her research showing that about 25 per cent of local high school students are overweight or obese. “This is information we are seeing through our own research here at Brock.”
On Wednesday, the Heart and Stroke Foundation released a study that found only about one in eight children in Ontario aged six to 12 eat the recommended daily serving of fruit and vegetables. Slightly less than half are not physically active and one quarter of Ontario kids eat some form of junk food three or more times a week. The results were bad enough that the Heart and Stroke Foundation estimated that many children will not live as long as their parents. “We cannot know this for certain until those children reach that age,” Klentrou said. “But they extrapolate from their health now, and it’s a good bet.” However, Klentrou said one also has to consider the advanced state of modern medicine that extends the lives of people — even unhealthy or unfit people. So today’s kids might live as long, or nearly as long, as their parents, but their quality of life is the real question.
“People live longer today because of real miracles of medical science,” she said. “But you have to ask what will the quality of their later years be if they are overweight now.”
Klentrou did a study in 2003 of Grade 8 students in Niagara that found an alarmingly high number of them, around 25 per cent, were overweight or obese.
Her recently published results of high school students are about the same. Moreover, she said studies on the health of the students bones turned up surprising results. Klentrou said in adults, the heavier a person gets the stronger their bones tend to get to handle the weight. But for reasons she said are not clear yet, the bones of overweight children are in poorer health than they should be. “We do not understand the mechanism yet, but we are seeing decreased bone health in these students,” she said.
Klentrou said she agrees with the Heart and Stroke Foundation that the present state of children’s health is a cause for serious concern. However, she stressed all it not lost. “Yes this is a problem, but I would be careful about saying it’s hopeless and cannot get better. I think we are starting to see positive changes.” She said years of messaging and actions by schools, such as removing junk food from vending machines, is slowly having an effect.
In fact, her research this year will focus on how to better improve the health of children. “We have lots of studies now to get a good picture of the problem.
We need now to look at intervention methods and see what kind of programs will help,” she said. “We are talking about serious societal changes here and they won’t happen overnight. But they can happen.”
THE LANE.
The children will soon have no place for to play,
And if they do grow,
They will have a mushroom face,
With their bodies as simple as dough,
But a man is made of a child,
And his limbs do grow worksome by play,
And if the young child's little body is spoilt,
Why the mans will the sooner decay,
But wealth is worth now more than health is worth,
Let it all go.
If it will bring but a sovereign or two for to breed the young fox or the horse,
We can give up a whole acre of ground,
But the greens be a grudged for to rear,
Oor young children up healthy and strong,
Why there wont be a left the next age.
A green spot where their feet can go free.
WILLIAM BARNES.
Physical health, of course, was (and is) paramount in the development of the child.
The following extract is taken from an article in Delineator Magazine,1904.
" It was easier to train a child to good physical form than it was an older person:"
"The child is like wax, pliable and easily moulded into beautiful form. later the body becomes like marble and must be chiseled into shape". "With love and knowledge of what to do, the plastic form of the child can be made a thing of beauty and endowed with the most perfect health"." The limbs can be made supple and strong, the lungs developed to their perfect capacity, the heart strengthened, the muscles rounded, the carriage made erect, and all the bodily functions improved with a corresponding effect upon the mental nature of the child".
WILMA SULLIVAN-1904.
The end of playtime? By Sarah Cassidy,
Education Correspondent Monday, 4 August 2008
Boys play football on a London street in 1950, but parents seem increasingly afraid of letting their children play outside Play time is over for children, with up to half of youngsters banned from climbing trees, playing conkers or riding their bikes by over-protective parents who are terrified that they might get hurt.
ICM research for Play England shows that half of seven to 12-year-olds are banned from climbing trees. Four in 10 were banned from playing in their local park or recreational area without an adult present and one in three cannot ride a bike without parental supervision. One in five had been banned from playing conkers and one in six were not allowed to play chase because over-protective parents had ruled that it was too dangerous.
Yet parents were much less vigilant when it came to internet safety, the study found. Three-quarters of children aged seven to 12 were allowed to surf the internet without adult guidance. Professionals in child welfare warned that children's development was being damaged by parents' obsession with safety, which was depriving youngsters of adventurous play.
Adrian Voce, director of Play England, said playing was "an essential part of growing up ... Adventurous play both challenges and excites children and helps instil critical life skills. Constantly wrapping children in cotton wool can leave them ill-equipped to deal with stressful or challenging situations they might encounter later in life. Children both need and want to push their boundaries in order to explore their limits and develop their abilities."
The research also found that children were less likely to play outdoors than their parents had been when they were growing up. Of the adults surveyed, 70 per cent said they had experienced most of their play outdoors. In comparison, just 29 per cent of children broke beyond the four walls of home, or a designated playground, to experience creative "adventure" play. Only one in four children experienced most of their adventurous play in natural wild spaces or their local streets. More than three-quarters of children said that they wanted more chances to experience adventurous play arguing that it made them feel "happy", "free" and "confident".
And 80 per cent of adults agreed that children should be free to experience adventurous play even if it puts them at risk of minor injury. Bike-riding and skateboarding ranked as the top adventurous activity for both boys and girls, the poll found. However, boys cited playing computer games as their second favourite "adventurous" activity, followed by exploring new and unfamiliar places. Girls were more likely to have their adventures outdoors, citing exploring new places as their second-favourite activity, followed jointly by playing with nature and playing in a playground or park.
In his book Paranoid Parenting, the sociologist Professor Frank Furedi describes the culture of fear that has led parents to restrict their children's movements outdoors. Professor Furedi complained that in 1971, eight in every 10 eight-year-olds were allowed to walk to school alone. Today it is thought to be fewer than one in 10. There has been growing concern that health and safety fears have stifled schools, encouraging them to ban traditional playground games such as conkers, snowball fights and cartwheeling, or prohibited pupils from doing the backstroke in swimming lessons.
However, the survey's findings showed that a large proportion of children were being banned from taking risks by their parents. Josie Gleave, of Play England, argued that the low probability of accidents made playgrounds one of the safest places for children to be. The risk of a fatal playground injury is approximately one in 30 million and three-quarters of injuries sustained on the playground consist of minor cuts or bruises.
"The research shows that children need to experience challenging play in order to develop important life skills and to better manage risk and challenge in their daily lives," she said. "However, opportunities for children to take such risks are limited. This is due to our risk-averse culture and an increase in health and safety constraints. It is clear that we need to address the current 'cotton-wool culture' and to provide children with more opportunities for adventurous play."
The researchers interviewed 1,030 children and young people, aged from seven to 16, and 1,030 adults.
Being with friends / siblings / socialising / talking - 43 per cent
Playing football - 41 per cent
Playing bikes / scooters - 31 per cent
Messing around / hanging around - 12 per cent
Doing exercises - 9 per cent
Walking - 7 per cent
Playing hide and seek - 6 per cent
Playing on swings - 5 per cent
Skipping - 3 per cent
Hopscotch - less than 1 per cent
(From an ICM poll carried out for Play England)
THE CULTURE OF FEAR
Games children play:
Favourite activities for children, aged seven to 16, when playing outside near their home ( 2008:)
In his book Paranoid Parenting.
The sociologist Professor Frank Furedi describes the culture of fear that has led parents to restrict their children's movements outdoors.
Professor Furedi complained that in 1971, eight in every 10 eight-year-olds were allowed to walk to school alone. Today it is thought to be fewer than one in 10.
There has been growing concern that health and safety fears have stifled schools, encouraging them to ban traditional playground games such as conkers, snowball fights and cartwheeling, or prohibited pupils from doing the backstroke in swimming lessons.
Last month, John F Kennedy Primary in Washington, Tyne and Wear, banned the sack race and the three-legged run from sports days – in case the pupils were hurt.
In 2005, the headmaster of Cummersdale Primary School, in Carlisle, bought six pairs of industrial safety-goggles for pupils to wear when they played conkers in the playground.
However, the survey's findings showed that a large proportion of children were being banned from taking risks by their parents.
Josie Gleave, of Play England, argued that the low probability of accidents made playgrounds one of the safest places for children to be. The risk of a fatal playground injury is approximately one in 30 million and three-quarters of injuries sustained on the playground consist of minor cuts or bruises.
"The research shows that children need to experience challenging play in order to develop important life skills and to better manage risk and challenge in their daily lives," she said.
"However, opportunities for children to take such risks are limited. This is due to our risk-averse culture and an increase in health and safety constraints. It is clear that we need to address the current 'cotton-wool culture' and to provide children with more opportunities for adventurous play."
The researchers interviewed 1,030 children and young people, aged from seven to 16, and 1,030 adults.
Tim Gill, the former Director of the Children's Play Council described children playing out in Britain as "an endangered species".
Below is a list of barriers, mostly drawn up at an initial Enfield steering group meeting.
* Traffic: fear of being run down by vehicles, and parked cars taking up space
* Stranger-Danger: fear of abduction and murder;
* Lack of Spaces and Places: the perception that there is nowhere suitable to play locally, or that play areas have been vandalised and not repaired;
* Building and Development has taken over space once used for play;
* Age/gender-suitability: there may only be a local play area for little children, or for boys;
* Parents Indifference: some parents may think play a waste of time compared to learning, homework or household chores, or they may not know how to play;
* Bullying: children may be afraid of bullies or teenaged gangs;
* Prejudice, some children and parents are afraid of racist, sexist or antidisability prejudice from others;
* Bad Company: parents may be afraid their children will be encouraged or bullied into anti-social or criminal activity by peers;
* Poverty: some parents may not be able to afford to let their children go to paid-for provision such as cinemas, bowling alleys or sports centres;
* "Grumpy Grown-ups": the Children's Play Council 2003 Playday research highlights children's fear of being told off by neighbours;
* Parental Peer Pressure, parent's fear of being seen as uncaring or colluding in the possible anti-social behaviour of their children by neighbours or friends, if their children are out unaccompanied;
* Substitution: buying activities or toys or goods such as TV or computer games;
* Keeping Clean: parents may be concerned at children spoiling expensive new clothes, and reluctant to allow them to wear old or worn ones;
* Media Stereotyping of children playing out being anti-social may result in adults selfishly demanding that children should not play near them or their flat or car.
Research for the Children's Play Council shows that fewer children have the freedom to play out than ever before, and most adults and children think this is a bad thing. LATEST FINDINGS on Childs Play- STOP PRESS
'Autism disorders increased by 57% in just four years, the CDC today reported.
By the end of 2006, one in 110 U.S. kids had an autism disorder diagnosed by age 8: one in 70 boys and one in 315 girls, reflecting a nearly fivefold higher risk for males.
"Two decades ago we were looking at a prevalence of one in 5,000 children. Now we're looking at one in 100.
That really is a staggering increase," Geraldine Dawson, PhD, chief science officer of advocacy group Autism Speaks, tells WebMD.'
Read more...
AUTISM AMONGT CHILDREN IN THE UK/ 12 FOLD INCREASE
There has been a big jump in the numbers of children with autism in this country.
A new study into autism amongst children in the uk has discovered that one child in 64 could be autistic.
The UK study based its findings on 20,000 children in Cambridgeshire. First researchers looked at those known to have special needs in the school system. But then through further surveying parents, they found more cases, previously undiagnosed.
This represented a jump from 1 percent of the population to up to 1.5 percent of the childhood population.
Now, there may be as many as 1 in 64 British kids with the condition
The cases of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have risen dramatically over the past 30 years, so much so that there may be 50 percent more cases than previously suspected.
Up to 250,000 children have autism or a related condition on the autistic spectrum, but have not been diagnosed, researchers say. They are in addition to the 500,000 children who are known to be affected.
The study, conducted by Professor Simon Baron-Cohen and colleagues of the Autism Research Centre at Cambridge University, found that the increase was due to better detection and intervention.
For most American children in the not-so-distant past, “going out to play” was the norm.
Today, according to a University of Michigan study, children spend 50 percent less time outside than they did just 20 years ago — and the 6.5 hours a day they spend with electronic media means that sitting in front of a screen has replaced going out. Through the lens of play research, we can see that there is a direct line between play deficiencies and some frightening public health and social trends: tragic statistics for obesity, 4.5 million children diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, an increase in childhood depression and classroom behavioral problems involving violence, and an inability to interact well with peers.
Just an hour a day of vigorous play — running, chasing, games like tag or dodge ball, and even dealing with or avoiding being excluded from these activities — can provide intense skill learning. Physical activity is known to lessen the symptoms of mild Related Room for Debate: The Crush of Summer Homework (Aug. 30, 2008) Taking Play Seriously (Feb. 17, 2008) .attention deficit disorder, and is associated with much lower incidences of childhood obesity.
Active kids are also more facile intellectually and perform better academically in the long term. Physically engaging play is actually more fun than the virtual sort, and the enlivenment one gets from it can transcend the allure of sedentary life in a two-dimensional, electronic world. But breaking away from the draw of a well-crafted, image-laden on-screen story line requires broad cultural reinforcement.
It helps to be aware of how important play is to one’s development.
To make that happen, we need a change in public consciousness about play — to show that it is not trivial or elective — as well as focused community and parental support. Evidence from around the scientific compass — neuroscience, psychology, exercise physiology, sociology and developmental biology — has revealed the importance of play. Deprive a social mammal like a rat or monkey of its normal rough-and-tumble play and it enters adulthood emotionally fragile, unable to tell friend from foe, poor at handling stress and lacking the skills to mate properly.
Studies of young homicidal males and felony drunken drivers revealed that most had lacked normal, developmentally appropriate rough and tumble play as children and pre-adolescents, while a control population had experienced typical playground give and take during their elementary and middle school years. The differences in playfulness when adulthood arrives (I have followed more than 6,000 detailed play histories) validates the importance of lifelong play. Play-deprived adults are often rigid, humorless, inflexible and closed to trying out new options.
Playfulness enhances the capacity to innovate, adapt and master changing circumstances. It is not just an escape. It can help us integrate and reconcile difficult or contradictory circumstances. And, often, it can show us a way out of our problems. There are numerous examples of difficult, deadlocked negotiations that were broken open by a joke or humorous incident.
Many people have had the experience of coming back from vacation brimming with new ideas for work. The benefits of play come not from “rest” for the brain, as if play is just a time-out from life. Play is an active process that reshapes our rigid views of the world. True play may seem pointless — it is done for its own sake, because it’s fun — but ultimately it is also useful. From an evolutionary perspective, the smarter the animal, the more they play.
For humans, play reinvigorates us not because it is down time, but because it gets us in touch with our core selves and the joy of life.
Human Development and Social Co operation.
"Free Play' For Children and Teens Is Vital To Social Development", Reports Psychologist. "It may not be too much of a stretch," says Gray, "to suggest that the selfish actions that led to the recent economic collapse are, in part, symptoms of a society that has forgotten how to play."
A new theory about early human adaptation suggests that our ancestors capitalized on their capacities for play to enable the development of a highly cooperative way of life.
Boston College developmental psychologist Peter Gray suggests that use of play helped early humans to overcome the innate tendencies toward aggression and dominance which would have made a cooperative society impossible.
"Play and humor were not just means of adding fun to their lives," according to Gray. "They were means of maintaining the band's existence - means of promoting actively the egalitarian attitude, intense sharing, and relative peacefulness for which hunter-gatherers are justly famous and upon which they depended for survival."
This theory has implications for human development in today's world, said Gray, who explains that social play counteracts tendencies toward greed and arrogance, and promotes concern for the feelings and wellbeing of others.
"It may not be too much of a stretch," says Gray, "to suggest that the selfish actions that led to the recent economic collapse are, in part, symptoms of a society that has forgotten how to play."
Interest in play is very much on the upswing among psychologists, educators, and the general public, according to Gray.
"People are beginning to realize that we have gone too far in the direction of teaching children to compete," he said. "We have been depriving children of the normal, noncompetitive forms of social play that are essential for developing a sense of equality, connectedness, and concern for others."
Gray stressed that the kind of "play" that helped hunter-gatherer children develop into cooperative adults is similar to the sort of play that at one time characterized American children's summers and after-school hours in contemporary culture.
This play is freely chosen, age-mixed, and, because it is not adult-organized, non-competitive, he said. This "free play" is distinct from leisure pursuits such as video games, watching TV, or structured extracurricular activities and sports.
"Even when children are playing nominally competitive games, such as pickup baseball or card games, there is usually relatively little concern for winning," said Gray.
"Striving to do well, as individuals or teams, and helping others do well, is all part of the fun".
" It is the presence of adult supervisors and observers that pushes play in a competitive direction--and if it gets pushed too far in that direction it is no longer truly play."
"The most important skill for social life", Gray said," is how to please other people while still fulfilling one's own needs and desires.
In self-organized play, he contends, children learn to get along with diverse others, to compromise, and to anticipate and meet others' needs".
"To play well," he said, "and to keep others interested in continuing to play with you, you must be able to see the world from the other players' points of view.
"Children and teenagers in hunter-gatherer cultures played in this way more or less constantly," he said, "and they developed into extraordinarily cooperative, egalitarian adults.
"
My observations - published in previous articles - indicate that age-mixed free play in our culture, in those places where it can still be found, has all of these qualities."
Gray's article addresses not just children's play, but also play as a fundamental component of adult human nature, which allowed humans to develop as intensely social and cooperative beings.
Through the course of his research, he said,
"it became increasingly apparent that play and humor lay at the core of hunter-gatherer social structures and mores".
"Hunter-gatherers used humor, deliberately, to maintain equality and stop quarrels", according to Gray, "and their means of sharing had game-like qualities".
"Their religious beliefs and ceremonies were playful, founded on assumptions of equality, humor, and capriciousness among the deities".
"They maintained playful attitudes in their hunting, gathering, and other sustenance activities, partly by allowing each person to choose when, how, and how much they would engage in such activities".
Professor Gray's novel insight sheds new light on the question of how such societies can maintain social harmony and cooperation while emphasizing the autonomy of individuals, said Kirk M. Endicott, a leading anthropologist and hunter-gatherer expert at Dartmouth College. Conversely, his demonstration of the wide-ranging role of play in hunter-gatherer societies focuses attention on the importance of play in the evolutionary success of the human species
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