A four-year-old brings you a cardboard box and says: “It’s a ship. Will you play with me?” How many times, between one chore and the next, is the answer “later”? It happens to everyone, and it is not a fault. But play, which we often treat as a pastime, has a surprisingly serious place in research on child development.
In 2018 the American Academy of Pediatrics published in the journal Pediatrics the clinical report “The Power of Play”, signed by Michael Yogman, Andrew Garner, Jeffrey Hutchinson, Kathy Hirsh-Pasek and Roberta Golinkoff and reaffirmed in January 2025. It is a synthesis document: it gathers the scientific literature on play in young children and draws guidance for paediatricians and families.
Its central thesis is that age-appropriate play, with parents and with other children, is a unique opportunity to build social, emotional, cognitive, language and self-regulation skills. These are the foundations of what is called executive function, the ability to pursue a goal and ignore distractions. Play, the authors write, “is not frivolous”, and it also supports safe, stable relationships with the people who care for the child.
The report adds a point about stress: the shared joy and attunement of play, that “serve and return” between adult and child, help regulate the body’s stress response, and when there is adversity play matters even more. That is why paediatricians are encouraged to “prescribe” play at check-ups.
To be honest: it is a synthesis of the research, not a single experiment. It does not promise guaranteed results and does not say that playing is enough to solve every difficulty.
So what do we do with it? A suggestion of our own, not the report’s: try to set aside ten minutes a day of play chosen by the child, without phones. Follow their idea instead of proposing yours, ask questions and let them lead. No special toys are needed: a box, a few cushions or a deck of cards will do. And when that “will you play with me?” arrives, saying yes is, according to the AAP, one of the best things a parent can do.
And you, what game does your child ask for most often? Tell us in the comments: I am curious to know which ships and castles you are building.
Sources
- Yogman M., Garner A., Hutchinson J., Hirsh-Pasek K., Golinkoff R.M. (2018). The Power of Play: A Pediatric Role in Enhancing Development in Young Children. Pediatrics, September 2018, DOI 10.1542/peds.2018-2058 (reaffirmed January 2025).
- American Academy of Pediatrics (2018). Press release on the report “The Power of Play”, aap.org.
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