Developing Attention

Photo by Lindsay Yost

Can free, uninterrupted play in early childhood be an antidote to later-life attention deficit? I don’t have the breadth of study and research to provide the absolute, clinical YES that we’re often looking for these days, but here’s a hypothesis that is resonating with me as I study education and child development. 

Children are naturally inclined to want to play. It is their instinct to live in their imagination and to be wholly enveloped in the worlds they create. As adults who have developed judgement and reason, it is hard for us to understand the importance of this part of childhood. As I’ve learned more about Waldorf methods, supporting what the child is naturally inclined toward, I’ve come to see many health benefits and cognitive growth benefits to allowing children time, space, and tools for free, undirected, uninterrupted, imaginative play. Of course, there’s supporting research on this topic (as on most topics surrounding child development). But here is one thought on the importance of free-play. And I’ll share a few more down the road.

I’m sure we’ve all had the experience of watching children, maybe age 4 or so, playing “house” or playing “kitties” where one takes on the role of the mom and the other the role of the baby. They have some very important business that needs attention. Along the way, a meal needs to be prepared and one of them assembles a bunch of sand in a bucket and picks dandelion leaves to put on top and delivers it to the other one. We’ve seen this unfold or even perhaps have vague memories of a scenario like this from our own childhood. 

In this sort of play, which usually is only made possible when the children have unstructured space without adults directing the parameters, the children are deeply engrossed in the story and what is needed by their role. When children have the opportunity to play imaginatively, they direct their whole attention to their play. This is an important, early experience of deep attention.

Free play is a wonderful, natural opportunity for children to have the feeling of whole body and mind attention and focus.

In undirected play, they gain a feeling for how engrossed one can become in a subject and what a joy it can be to give a project your full attention. Then, when children move into grade school and more scholastic settings where attention is a requirement, they will have familiarity with the sensation of deep attention and will be able to return to it with more ease. 

In our world today, we are led into a feeling that early numeracy and literacy by way of recitation is an important part of early childhood education. Certainly it has its place. But, I would venture to say that these will come easily and quickly to a child who can give them their full attention down the road. But for now, let’s embrace unstructured play in early childhood!