The 3 travel goals that will boost your child's brain

Primary school children are “working” 46 hours per week – nine hours more than their parents – a new report has claimed.

The new research, conducted by Dr Sam Wass, the Cambridge University-based child psychology expert from Channel 4’s The Secret Life of 4, 5 & 6 Year Olds and holiday company Center Parcs, paints modern childhood in a stark light.

This “work” time for kids, which consists of school and scheduled activities, leaves just an hour and a half of “free”, or unstructured, time each day. And 65 per cent of that is spent in front of a screen, leaving half an hour each day of free-play time without TV or tablets.

“Many parents are desperate to do the right thing for their children – we shuttle them back and forth from school, to football, to an after-school club, and then get them home and sit and ensure they do their homework,” said Dr Wass.

“But in fact, research suggests that it’s much more beneficial for children if their time is not always so structured,” he said. “It’s the down-time, when there is not so much going on and the child has to entertain themselves, when they do their best learning.”

Rather than the paltry 30 minutes each day of screen-free unscheduled time modern children have, Dr Wass recommends three hours of unstructured time on each weekday and six hours on Saturdays and Sundays.

Inspired by healthy eating guidelines, he calls this the RDA – Recommended Daily Allowance for Free Time.

“There is a huge amount of research that suggests that this child-led, unstructured free play is vital for stimulating imagination and creativity, as well as helping the child to become more self-sufficient,” he said.

How can you help your child get their RDA of free time?

Practically speaking, how will this work?

1. Get outside

First, note that the majority of free time (65 per cent) is being spent on screens. When given the choice of what to do when bored, 67 per cent of children interviewed said they would watch TV over anything else. However, when asked what they actually enjoy doing the most, playing outside came top.

2. Don’t cancel everything, but do set new goals

During the week, according to Dr Wass’s recommendations, the RDA would involve scrapping all after-school activities, so young children can play freely from the time school gets out until just after teatime. For many families, where parents have rigid work schedules and rely on structured childcare for their children, this will be a challenge – or, indeed, impossible.

But while parents may enroll children in clubs, thinking it’s a good opportunity to develop social and other skills, Dr Wass warns that there is a danger of children burning out, as one in five has asked their parents not to go to a class because they are too tired to attend.

“The figures might initially look high,” Dr Wass said, “causing you to think ‘this is too much to ask!’ but the plan is designed as a goal for parents and children to work to.

“We want to encourage parents to use this as an opportunity to assess their child’s scheduled time and supplement some of the extra-curricular clubs for some of these suggestions.

“Research suggests that children’s free playtime has dropped by an estimated 25% over the past twenty years. The RDA for Free Time is similar to that for fruit and vegetables: it’s best if you don’t reach your target by eating 5 apples – variety is ideal. The same is true for free time – mixing up the types of activity is key for development. You also can’t just do all of the hours over the weekend – the key is to spread the activity out over the week and have a good amount of quality free time each day.”

3. Plan unscheduled family time at the weekends

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