By parents allowing their children to play with little or no monitoring, they are bound to benefit greatly, both socially and physically. Sometime back, parents used to send their kids out to play only instructing them to be back home by dinner. However, times have really changed with numerous worries about the safety of children. Parents worry about their kinds being harmed or injured by a stranger and this has resulted in less ‘free play’ and more structured activities of the kids.

Is too much caution necessary?

Experts can’t help but wonder if something like too much caution exists or not. In the new review, allowing the kids to engage in some relatively risky plays like exploring their neighborhood or climbing trees can benefit the development of the kids remarkably. Also, the study found that such kids tend to get more physical activity unlike the less adventurous children. Ideally, this makes a lot of sense. Children who spend their time outdoors more often are naturally more active. But besides the physical benefits associated with this, engaging in more adventurous play helps the children take very important steps as far as their social development is concerned.

The researchers continued to explain that when no adult is put in charge, the children are able to learn how they can awesomely negotiate with one another, get along well as they make their own rules when playing. In addition to this, ‘rough and tumble activities such as play- fighting or wrestling can help the children get along very well as found in the review. These activities at their very least turn the kids into bullies.

Why the kind of play matters

In the report, the researchers concluded that the kind of activities that children engage in matters a lot. And in any case, these kinds of plays are what we remember as adults from our childhood. They essentially include riding the bike fast, climbing trees and even roaming about the neighborhood without any direct adult supervision. The review was in overall found not to put such kids in any kind of danger. Another study also found that the risk of sustaining injuries that require medical attention was remarkably low during the free play hours of the children in comparison with the sports.

Free play is essentially very crucial for the development of the kids. Lots of good research exists showing that ‘uninterrupted play’ is very valuable. The term ‘uninterrupted’ is used to mean parents allowing their kids to get a little dirty or climbing equipment at the playground without trying to intervene immediately. For kids to be able to learn truly, they need activities which adults do not lead them and insisted a lot on the importance of peer group play for the social and physical development of the kids.