Study: Too Many Structured Activities May Hinder Children’s Executive Functioning
Research in Brief
(Education Week)
A recent report in the journal Frontiers in Psychology
found “that the kids who spent more time in less-structured
activities had more highly-developed self-directed executive
function.” However, the children who spent more time in
structured activity showed a decrease in ability to set goals,
make decisions and self-regulation.
Self-directed executive function develops during childhood and
involves the ability to plan, make decisions, manipulate
information, task switching, and inhibit unwanted thoughts and
feelings.
The report states, “The researchers define structured activities
as anything organized and supervised by adults—like music
lessons or community service. For an activity to be
less-structured, the child must be in charge of deciding what to
do and figuring out how to do it. All forms of free play counted
as less-structured activities.”
The report stated that “the more time that children spent in
less-structured activities, the better their self-directed
executive functioning. The opposite was true of structured
activities, which predicted poorer self-directed executive
functioning.”
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