Using perspectives from psychology, urban design, and cognitive science, we analyze the relationships between the design of built environments, parental attitudes and beliefs, and parental decisions on allowing children to play. What are the barriers to play, and how can we mitigate them? This review examines a critical factor in play opportunities: parents as the decision-makers with regard to children’s play.
(KB)Īlthough play results in physical, social, and cognitive benefits, there is a consensus that children’s opportunities to play have been reduced, particularly for those who live in urban environments. The most significant findings cited in the study are as follows: (1) children six and under spend an average of 2 hours daily with screen media, mostly TV and videos (2) TV watching begins at very early ages, well before the medical community recommends (3) a high proportion of very young children are using new digital media, including 50 percent of 4- to 6-year-olds who have played video games and 70 percent who have used computers (4) two out of three 6-year-olds and under live in homes where the TV is left on at least half the time, even without viewers present, and one-third live in homes where the TV is on "almost all" or "most" of the time- children in the latter group appear to read less than other children and to be slower to learn to read (5) many parents see media as an important educational tool, beneficial to their children's intellectual development, and parents' attitudes on this issue appear to be related to the amount of time their children spend using each medium and (6) parents clearly perceive that their children's TV watching has a direct effect on their behavior, and are more likely to see positive rather than negative behaviors being copied. This study reports on a nationally representative telephone survey of more than 1,000 parents of children ages 6 months through 6 years, conducted in Spring 2003. Despite the plethora of new electronic media aimed at very young children, little is known about which media are available to children and whether or how children engage with them.
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