Helping children find the right balance

While it is beneficial for children to be involved in a wide range of activities, there is increasing concern that children are being overscheduled. So how do you help your child find the right balance?

Recent studies have shown that students who participate in extra curricular activities develop added self confidence, discipline, social skills, and generally better performance at school.

Dr Sandra Hofferth, from the University of Maryland, found in her study of 331 children aged from 9 to 12 that the children who were ‘best off’ led a balanced life with involvement in one or two activities a week. Almost 60 per cent of the children fell into this category. However, the 25 per cent who were categorised as ‘overscheduled’ performed almost as well on a range of measures. The children who participated in no activities (17 per cent) were more withdrawn and socially immature and had lower self-esteem.

Dr Hofferth said she had originally believed that lots of activities were bad for children, but the data showed otherwise. ‘We just don’t find that the children who are more active are more stressed,’ she said.

However, some experts argue that in today’s ‘time poor’ and competitive society, overzealous parents are involving their children - from toddlers to teens – in too many extra curricular activities.

A study of 2000 Australian children, conducted by University of New England academics Michael Bittman and Jude Brown, found children aged four and five spend more time in structured activities, compared with unstructured play.

The results revealed that on weekdays the children spent an average of 4.2 hours in unstructured play and TV watching, compared with 5.2 hours a day visiting others, doing lessons and in child care. This includes just under an hour a day in organised lessons.

Some experts say that when three hours a day is allocated to formal lessons, children become overscheduled and can be anxious and stressed.

What is a balanced lifestyle?

A balanced lifestyle can promote overall health, including physical, mental, and social wellbeing. It is especially important for children to participate in activities that help them develop in different aspects of health and wellbeing such as sport and physical activity, academics like reading and maths, social interactions with peers and adults, music lessons, household responsibilities, as well as quiet time and rest.

The pros and cons

Michael Bittman found that children who participate in after school activities had better vocabulary skills than children who had less structured activity.

‘Just one hour a day of organised lessons is not harmful and is probably beneficial, but so is unstructured play,’ Mr Bittman said.

Michael Grose, parenting educator and director of parentingideas.com.au, said that a range of activities is important for children’s overall development.

‘Scheduled activities whether, organised classes, learning programs or sport have benefits for children in terms of vocabulary stimulation, readiness for literacy, physical development and the increased confidence that may come from mixing with others in a variety of settings,’ he said.

Sport is an excellent extra curricular activity and provides a healthy break from school work and study. It not only keeps children fit and healthy but also increases their energy levels. Team sports are a great way to improve children’s interpersonal and social skills.

Professor Bonnie Barber from Murdoch University has completed three years of research on the subject with a group of 1800 West Australian school students in Year 8 and 10. Her research focused on the benefits for adolescents who play organised sport and participate in other after school activities.

‘We want to look at the difference between sport and other things,’ she said. ‘Sport is linked to a lot of good outcomes, such as that students involved in sport complete more years of university education and gain jobs with more autonomy when they are young adults.’

A finding that emerged from the West Australian study is that students from lower socioeconomic status backgrounds seem to benefit greatly from extra curricular activities.

‘Those from disadvantaged backgrounds who are involved in activities will do much better in terms of wellbeing than if they don’t do activities,’ Professor Barber said. ‘They need a range of activities: some kids are not drawn to sport, they need a choice such as debating or choir. It is the combination of sport and non-sport activity that predicts student wellbeing overall.’

If children are over-burdened however, experts warn that children will suffer from burnout, stress, fatigue and increased health problems if they don’t have time to eat and relax properly, keep up with their studies, or have enough time to simply enjoy life.

Kathy Walker, a leading education consultant and author, says she has witnessed children arriving at school already exhausted because of their busy schedules and believes it is time to ‘reclaim childhood’.

‘Within today’s society, we need to adjust our expectations, because society is placing increasingly high demands upon both children and parents, with detrimental effects,’ she said.

Overscheduling children can also negatively affect family, friendships and social lives. Family life can also suffer as family members may not have the time to stay connected with each other. It can also be tiresome and stressful for parents having to drive their children from one activity to the next.

What is the right balance?

Michael Grose says that the amount of activities children can handle varies greatly from child to child.

‘Children like down time and will often let you know when it all becomes too much,’ Mr Grose said. ‘At the same time, some kids like to be busy, so it's not possible to say that two activities are too much because it can vary.’

‘We need to take a balanced approach and make sure kids have sufficient time in their days and weeks to just be kids,’ he said. ‘One or two activities a day may be okay, but any more and you may find you are creating a ‘stimulus junkie’.’

Kathy Walker says that parents who enrol their children in up to three, four or more extra curricular activities a week are contributing to the rapidly growing phenomena of the ‘overscheduled child’.

‘Many parents/carers feel the pressure of thinking that to give their child every opportunity, children must be enrolled into a range of extra curricular activities, sometimes up to three or four a week on top of school or early childhood programs,’ she said. ‘Children under five need one activity per week and older children only need a couple.’

Michael Grose explains that children show obvious signs when they are stressed from participating in too many activities. He said sure-fire signs of excessive child busyness include:

• Children are continually tired and irritable;
• Continual refusal to go to activities;
• Poor behaviour at transition times;
• There is no time for family mealtime; and
• Anxiety about their performance or progress in an activity or class.

They may also:

• Feel anxious or depressed;
• Complain of headaches and stomach aches, which may be due to stress, missed meals, or lack of sleep; and
• Fall behind on their schoolwork, causing their grades to drop.

Achieving balance

Michael Grose says that rest and play time are an important part of maintaining a healthy lifestyle for your child.

‘To avoid hurrying children through childhood it helps to honour their natural instincts to play and avoid continually turning their play into work or even some type of learning experience,’ he said. ‘Play fosters creativity and reduces stress and it is a life skill that many adults have forgotten about.’

He says both adults and children benefit from rest time and we don’t always need to be doing something productive.

‘It helps for children to have plenty of free time when they can just hang around and basically do nothing. In our increasingly achievement-oriented culture and the notion of free time is equated with laziness or lack of ambition,’ said Michael. ‘Adults and children can benefit from some free time when nothing productive is achieved whatsoever.’

He also suggests parents to consider the following:

• If children take on a new program or activity then consider dropping one they already do;
  

• Let kids be kids. They don’t always have to be productive;

• Help them manage their time by writing down all school, social and extra curricular activities on a calendar and display it in a highly visible area. Leave spaces in the calendar or timetable for downtime;
  

• Make sure you have time to teach children the skills of independence such as dressing, cleaning up and cooking;

• Encourage kids to swap around activities in childhood – football one season, soccer the next;
  

• Balance between down and busy time;

• Develop a healthy scepticism about latest fads etc; and
  

• Buyer beware! There is a lot of vested commercial interests in keeping kids occupied.

Sources:

‘Kids benefit from out-of-school activities’, Jill Rowbotham, The Australian, 20 January 2010

‘Busy children shown to do better’, Adele Horin, Sydney Morning Herald, 29 September 2008

‘Lesson in letting kids be kids’, Susie O’Brien, Herald Sun, 11 July 2007

Parenting Ideas: www.parentingideas.com.au

Parenting Australia: http://parentingaustralia.com.au

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