Is the lack of free play hampering our children’s neurological development? Samantha Laurie talks to the founder of TimberNook, an outdoor camp designed to boost sensory experience
If you’ve ever yelled ‘Get down, you’ll hurt yourself!’ at your kids, or admonished them for spinning on the swings, launching themselves off the swing seat or hanging upside down on the monkey bars, a new camp coming to Wimbledon Common this summer could change your perspective for good.
TimberNook is based on the teachings of Angela Hanscom, a renowned US occupational therapist and author who believes that many of the problems teachers report in schools – fidgeting, short attention span, decreased stamina, poor coordination and balance – are caused by an underdeveloped sensory system.
“It’s rare to find children rolling down hills, climbing trees and spinning in circles these days,” she says. “But these are the kinds of rapid and changing movement you need to shift the fluid around the inner ear so as to develop a strong and fully functioning vestibular system – our sense of balance.
“In a clinical setting, therapists use special equipment to encourage children to go upside down, jump, roll and spin in circles to build a strong sense of body awareness, which affects all sorts of things – vision, attention, emotional regulation.”
As with our muscles, if the vestibular system is neglected, it weakens. (This is why many people cannot tolerate rollercoaster rides as adults – they aren’t moving in the variety of ways they used to.) In her research in US schools, Angela unearthed plenty of worrying evidence of this happening: teachers reporting more falls; a soaring number of occupational therapy referrals for balance and coordination issues. One school had even put duct tape down the hallway to stop kids from running into each other. In classroom studies Angela found that, when compared to kids in the 1980s, just 1 in 12 children had the same strength and balance.
The research led to a book, Balanced and Barefoot, and a nature-based play camp, TimberNook, to help children (up to 14) learn independence and develop their sensory experiences through outdoor play. The brief is simple: to get kids into nature long enough for them to slip into ‘deep’ imaginative play, as well as to encourage them to take responsible risks under their own direction, lifting, heaving, jumping, cartwheeling, climbing and running barefoot in the woods.
Each camp day starts with an experience – a story, a task, a mission – and then the adults retreat and let the kids play. If it sounds ridiculously simple, it is. But in the overly scheduled world of modern parenting, real authentic play experiences have pretty much disappeared, says Angela.
“If I ask adults how much free play they had as children, they say four to six hours a day. Now a child averages 45 minutes to an hour.”
Play is how children arrange their senses, she explains. If they are spinning in circles, it is because they need to; if they are jumping off a rock over and over, it is because they are craving that sensory input.
“They are trying to organize their senses through practice and repetition. When play is restricted, it has an impact on their sensory development.”
Angela launched her first camps in her back garden and quickly filled all the places. The following year’s camps booked out as soon as she released dates. Sensing the potential she licensed the concept, and five years on there are 30 camps around the US, with offshoots in Australia, Canada and New Zealand, while the brand has grown to include year-round play schemes, parent & child groups and, now, school partnerships.
Wimbledon, the first site in Europe, begins with three weeks of morning only camps for 4-7 year olds. Each week is themed, with all sessions outdoors, rain or shine. Shoes are optional!
The Wimbledon camps run from August 6-10, 13-17 & 20-24; timbernook.com
Angela’s Tips for Parents
1) Allow more time. It takes at least 45 minutes for children to get into the play that fully engages their senses and ignites the imagination. Invite other children over for the day, rather than the typical two-hour ‘play date’
2) Mix up the ages. Make it like neighbourhood play, with different ages working things out between them
3) Step back a bit. Let them play in the street while adults look on and chat
4) Have ‘loose parts’ to take to the park – baskets, rope, stainless steel kitchenware. In the garden planks, plywood, transparent curtains and duct tape are all great for fostering creativity
5) Aim for at least three hours a day of active free play for primary school children
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