Your cocooned Child

Your cocooned child

Outdoor games are need of the hour for a child’s overall development.

Gautami Challagulla

Ketan, a 10 year old, class V student at present suffers from obesity. He is also diagnosed with child depression. Sriram is a 16 year-old class XII student, who was recently caught at a gaming centre trying to sell his mother’s gold ornaments. Sindhu who turned 13 this august is hardly seen in the playground, as she is busy playing with the new X Box 360 gifted by her parents.

These are not just the stories of Ketan, Sriram and Sindhu, but tales of children brought up in today’s cosmopolitan cities. However, children are not the only ones to be held responsible. While the apartment culture today restricts kids from playing outside, the corporate schools ensure the children do not get time to play outdoor games.

Sharvari Priya, a student of class XII talks about her routine. Till class VIII, she had one and a half hours of playtime per week. In classes IX and X, the time was cut to forty-five minutes and once she entered class XII, there is no playtime. She says, “My course work demands more study hours. Even when I find some time, my friends are all busy so, I do not have anyone to play with.” However, she prefers playing outdoors as the factors like shouting, running around make the outdoor games livelier.

When it comes to Tarun and Keertana, siblings from Hyderabad, they hold opposite views. While Keertana loves playing outside and at present, is part of the National basketball team, Tarun loves the virtual games and is addicted to computer. Their parents have complaints only with Tarun. “Tarun’s gaming habits have reduced his concentration levels and his grades have constantly come down, whereas Keertana has become more disciplined. She never woke up early in the morning till she joined her basketball game. Now, with or without her game practice, she wakes up at 5:00 in the morning”, says her mother.

There are several other reasons that can be attributed to these changing habits. The busier parents neither have time to spend with their kids, nor do they have time to take them to public parks. Even if few parents intend to take their children outside, well functioning public parks are a rarity. It’s under such circumstances that games like play stations and X boxes sneak into a child’s schedule. With games like these on one side and new applications like Farmville on the Face book and virtualpets.com on the other side, children today, do not realize the magnitude of the loss they are at by missing out on the outdoor “real” games.

In addition, health issues are offered as bonus. Obesity is a major problem which today’s kids face. The number of cases of child obesity have increased manifold in the last decade. According to obesitysurgeryindia.org, 30% of kids today suffer from obesity, lack of physical activity being one among other major reasons. The virtual games do not just ruin a child’s physical fitness but can also result in issues like depression, selfishness and introvert behaviour. 

World Health Organization (WHO), considering the increase in child obesity, has released recommended levels of physical activity for the age group 5-17. The physical activity for the children of this age group includes playing games, planned exercise, transportation, recreation and physical education in school. They suggest the children between age groups 5-17 to have moderate to intense physical activity for at least 60 minutes in a day. They emphasize that physical activity for more than 60 minutes provides additional health benefits and the most recommended physical activity is aerobics. Exercises that include muscle and bone strengthening should be included for at least 3 times a week.

The virtual games though appear as creative and challenging, force the users to think in only one way, usually the way in which the game is designed.  However adaptive the games are, there sets in monotony after a point. An outdoor game, as simple as playing with dry leaves can make the child think in several ways. For example, a child can play with dry leaves for a whole day, painting them, preparing a garland, or making a tiara. So, outdoor games not only ensure the kids’ engagement with the game, in the most creative manner, but also serve as a base for them to think differently in different situations and come up with best possible alternatives.

A virtual pet can never lick you like a real pet and one can never run, sweat and stay fit playing virtual games. So, parents wake up; Pull your cocooned children out of the virtual world and help them play in the reality.

Names of few children have been changed to protect identity.