Skipping through life

The vital role of play in children’s daily lives and healthy development is now more widely recognised than ever, both in education and society as a whole. We know that play not only enhances children's wellbeing, but also enriches their overall quality of life. The environments we create in nurseries and schools play a crucial role in shaping their experiences and choices. I’m Ben Kingston Hughes, Managing Director of Inspired Children, and I want to explore the joy of play and its impact on children’s growth and happiness.

Why do children skip?

Why do children skip? You might be wondering why I’m starting with this question. Beyond the simple joy of skipping, this playful movement holds more significance than you might expect.

Skipping through life

We now know that brain growth is experiential. This means that experiences in childhood do more to grow the brain than any other factor. Put simply, if you use your brain, it grows! And if you don’t, it doesn’t. We also know that play uses more of the brain than almost anything else, including sitting still, listening to a grown-up, and screen time. Therefore, play is one of the key criteria for healthy brain growth. So when children skip, they are potentially growing their brains.

The Neuroscientist Jaak Panksepp proposed that the urge to play comes from our primitive mammal brain. Known as the limbic system, this is the bit of our brain that makes us hungry, and makes us really enjoy cake. This means that many of the play behaviours exhibited by children are instinctive. 

When children are babies, they are constantly trying to move and shuffle around; it is not something we have set lessons for. While we have methods to support them, crawling and stretching is something that babies instinctively do as they grow and explore. Past the stage of crawling, children begin to learn how to walk and run. Again, this is another instinctive action, and they do this as a protective measure once crawling becomes ineffective as a way to escape a threat.

So why do children skip in the first place? 

Skipping is quite an unusual behaviour because it doesn’t really provide any protection from a threat. It takes far more effort to skip than to walk, and skipping is significantly slower than running.

However, while skipping is not great for short term survival, it’s actually very beneficial for long term survival, and here’s why. Every time a child skips, the extra jump in movement massively increases the potential for bone density improvements in their lower limbs; since you cannot improve that in adult life, you can only do that in childhood. 
Therefore, skipping could actually be effective for preventing bone diseases and Osteoporisis forty years down the line.

Want to know even more benefits for skipping?

Skipping helps out with longer life expectancy by working our hearts. It can be an exhausting activity; think about how many skipping games you play in your setting and how tired everyone is after! It really does improve cardiovascular health, which is why getting out the jumping ropes or hopscotch is a brilliant activity for children.
As skipping poses so many health benefits, it takes me back to the point of Neuroscientist Jaak Panksepp, who reminds us that skipping is actually an instinctive behaviour, albeit not an obvious one.

In exactly the same way as eating keeps us alive, the urge to play extends our life by instinctively making children jump, climb, run and skip.  These are the exact behaviours that help children build strong healthy bodies. 

Play as an instinctive behaviour

Different environments will be a catalyst for different types of play, so a child in a big open field is likely to run, but if the field is sloping, they are much more likely to roll down it.

Remember, the “play” bit of the brain is instinctive, so the child is not consciously choosing these behaviours. Rather, they are going with the most obvious instruction from the brain for safety and ease. This can cause problems in schools because corridors are an ideal space for running. The awkward run/walk some children do in corridors is evidence of conflict in their brain. The limbic system is screaming at the child to run because this is a perfect opportunity to develop speed, strength and balance. However, the conscious bits of brain are telling the child to slow down because a grownup has told them not to run. I did once witness a headteacher skipping down the corridor, so it’s safe to assume skipping can perhaps be a good choice when running is not allowed!

Imaginative play is uniquely human

So far, I have looked at play as a primitive instinct shared with all mammals. Humans, however, take play to a whole new level when they start to use imagination. We now know that imaginative play lights up a child’s brain like a virtual firework display, making it incredibly neurologically- rich, and growing the child’s brain in unique ways.

This is why it is so crucial to bring imagination into our games and educational activities. I was once told by a teacher that the children were becoming bored of the ‘Traffic Light game’. She was using the very traditional ‘red means stop, amber means slow, and green means go.’ I simply suggested to bring some more colours and actions to the game to make it more engaging. 
Think about adding purple to the Traffic Light game, and for purple to mean that the child should pull a funny face. Or use blue to wave your hands in the air. Imaginative play is absolutely beautiful, so use it whenever possible!

The missing ingredient: joy

For many years I have been exploring the idea of joy in childhood. This simple concept that I see as utterly essential for our children’s wellbeing is almost completely absent from some children’s lives. The word joy is not mentioned in the EYFS, but I believe it is one of the most important experiences that every child deserves to have. Working with vulnerable children I see just how profound these moments of joy can be. 

One of the projects we support is Adoption Activity Days which help children to find their forever families. We always brief adopters before the events and give them three simple instructions: smile, get down to a child’s level, and let the child lead the play.
During one of the sessions a young girl who was initially terrified became captivated by the sight of a man with a shiny bald head. Following the simple instructions, he smiled at her, and this gave her just enough courage to have an idea. Her idea was to find a bag of multi-coloured feathers and some glue, and she then spent the next twenty minutes covering his head in feathers and glue. This wonderful moment of joy and play ultimately led to a forever family for the child. 

The takeaway

So let’s get back to why children skip.  Children skip because play is one of the most important things that a child ever does, and it’s filled with unique moments of joy. Play grows brains and builds strong healthy bodies. It should never be seen as an optional extra to childhood or less important because of its apparent silliness. Play is a fundamental building block for every single aspect of development and wellbeing, from brain growth to life expectancy. Now more than ever we need to stand up for children’s right to play and make sure they have as much joy as possible!