Melbourne, May 25 (ANI): Stressing on the importance of play among children, a leading international development psychologist has said that today’s kids are not playing enough, which could affect their mental development in adulthood.

Dr Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, of Temple University in Philadelphia, has warned that the trouble with the adults of tomorrow is that the children of today are not playing enough.

“It’s as serious for our culture and society as is global warming,” the Courier Mail quoted Hirsh-Pasek as saying.

She added: “And in 30 years we’re going to find out that we haven’t created explorers any more as children. We haven’t created children who know how to flexibly think because we’ve taken away their playtime . . . and supplemented it with more rigid instructional time.”

She also said that there were two types of valuable play-the first is free play in which children let their imagination define the rules.

The second is play-based learning which is “a very content-rich exploration based environment for young children that to them looks for all the world like it’s playful, and to adults can have the purpose of exposing them to different kinds of arts, social studies, psychology.”

Kathy will present a paper on the importance of play at a Brisbane conference organised by childhood education group C&K. (ANI)