Obesity is an environmental issue not a disease. Children growing up in the 1950s and 1960s were not obese. Virtually all people over 60 (and many younger) remember walking to infant school without an adult. Most travelled unaccompanied from the age of five after being taken for a couple of weeks by a parent. Children would also be able to run around in their own street and go on errands at this age. In other words, they had daily healthy exercise at no cost in money or time to the government and their parents.

Research has found a relationship between pretend play and a child’s social competence with peers. The studies that connect pretend play to all of those positive outcomes are correlational. In other words, a socially astute, competent child might be more interested in pretend play, rather than pretend play making a child more socially astute.

Kids learn through movement. A study from the University of Virginia found that, compared to 1998, children today are spending far less time on self-directed learning—moving freely and doing activities that they themselves chose—and measurably more time in a passive learning environment. However, research has shown time and again that children need opportunities to move in class.

In their new discussion paper, the International Play Association (IPA) highlights the critical role of play to children’s well-being, development and survival, and reflects upon the impact of environmental conditions on the realisation of the right to play in children’s everyday lives.