City's Big Read Explores Raising Kids in an 'Overabundant, Overstimulated World'

Despite the rain Tuesday evening, a large crowd gathered in the auditorium of to hear Nancy Carlsson-Paige, Professor Emerita at Lesley University, speak on the topic of raising children in an overabundant, overstimulated world. 

In keeping with the Big Read's theme "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" Carlsson-Paige discussed how Tom Sawyer's childhood was different than that of children growing up today and the impact this may have on future generations. With participation from the audience, it was decided that Tom Sawyer's childhood evolved at a natural pace, learned values from the community, was immersed in nature and formed direct relationships with adults and children. The author also indicated that children today are growing up in a rushed pace culture surrounded by academic pressure, a narrowing of curriculum, television, the Internet, violent video games, social networking and commercialism. 

"I have heard third and fourth graders discuss playing video games including Grand Theft Auto," she said. "This rapid change is destabilizing the building blocks of healthy children and the exposure to violence can result in a loss of empathy."

Carlsson-Paige also touched on the importance of unstructured play for children and explained that children are not playing as creatively and using their imagination to make up stories but instead are imitating what they see. She discussed the Federal Communications Commission deregulation in 1984 that allowed TV shows to be linked to children's toys, which resulted in popular shows serving as ads for toys. Many of those ads, she said, are marketed to children as young as three.

Unstructured Play

"Play is the primary way children learn to make sense of their environment and is a way for children to solve problems, work through emotional issues and learn self regulation," Carlsson-Paige said.

She emphasized the importance of providing open-ended toys and materials such as blocks, generic baby dolls and animals, play dough and paint that encourage creative play instead of single-purpose toys such as Star Wars and Bratz Dolls that come with a script and electronic toys and applications that provide entertainment. 

She explained that real learning comes from direct play and that minimizing play and forcing children to instead memorize color mixing and counting by tens at the kindergarten level will force generations of children to suffer.

Those changes combined with today's fast-paced, achievement-obsessed, consumer-driven society are eroding the quality of kids' lives, the author explained. She indicated that there are three attributes critical to healthy development, time and space for creative play, feeling of security and meaningful relationships with adults and children.      

How to Slow Down

What can parents do to help? Carlsson-Paige recommends limiting access to media, viewing TV shows and movies with children and discussing troubling situations with them. She also said children should have direct experiences every day including unstructured outdoor playtime and access to basic open-ended toys. She discussed that graduate students visited a museum for class and reported children playing in an area with parents texting or checking e-mail on the sidelines and explained the importance of direct access to and undivided attention from adults. 

Carlsson-Paige complimented the Big Read program and stated that the community of Attleboro is ahead of other communities for having this program to draw the community together. The Big Read program is ongoing and future events can be located online at www.attleboros1abc.org