Attention holiday shoppers! New documents reveal that Santa Claus recently obtained his Ph.D. in child psychology. Disguised as a scruffy graduate student in worn-out jeans, he managed to conceal his identity despite his foot-long white beard and obsession with red velvet jackets.
His dissertation, titled, "Whence Play?: Why Children Need More," offered an eyewitness report on the decline of play in the last quarter- century. Playtime has dropped from 40 percent of children's time in 1987 to a mere 25 percent by 1997. In the last decade alone, children have lost eight hours of playtime per week, and many schools have dropped recess. The American Academy of Pediatrics issued a dire report urging families to allow their children to play with real toys -- blocks, dolls, and jump ropes. Dr. Santa and other experts in child development understand that real educational toys like board games (an easy way to learn math), construction toys (grist for learning about space and physics), and art supplies (a boon to creative thinking and problem solving) are being passed over for toys imprinted with the words "educational" and "electronic." "There is little evidence that toys claiming to be educational really are," Dr. Santa asserted as he cited a report by the Kaiser Foundation as well as a study by researchers at the University of Washington indicating that toddlers who watch so-called "educational" videos have a poorer vocabulary than their peers. "The demise of playtime in children's lives is equivalent to the crisis in global warming," they wrote.
To read the full, original article click on this link: A Christmas wish: simple toys and more time to play with them | The News Journal | delawareonline.com
