Is Your Preschooler Playing Enough at School? (continued)
by Rae Pica
There are a number of reasons for this, including the fact that children who are involved in self-initiated activities have much longer attention spans than adults typically expect them to have. Because they love learning and are fascinated by so many things, when they are allowed to choose their own projects, their absorption is a joy to behold. Although this may be a source of puzzlement to parents who are accustomed to children flitting from one thing to another, it really shouldn’t be: self-directed children are quite capable of losing themselves in what psychologist Mihaly Czikszentmihalyi calls a state of “flow!”
Rae Pica is a children’s physical activity specialist and the author of A Running Start: How Play, Physical Activity, and Free Time Create a Successful Child (Da Capo Press, 2006) and Great Games for Young Children (Gryphon House, 2006). She has shared her expertise with such clients as the Sesame Street Research Department, the Centers for Disease Control, Gymboree Play & Music, and the President’s Council on Physical Fitness & Sports. She is also co-creator and host of "Body, Mind and Child," a radio program in which she interviews experts in the fields of early childhood education, child development, the neurosciences, and more. Listen at www.bodymindandchild.com.
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