Kids stripped of playtime suffering psychological disorders

Is playtime dying? The childhood staple of play—dressing up, lying in a field and other simple pleasures—is in retreat. Children lost an entire workday of play and 12 hours of free and outdoor time since the mid-1970s, according to a new book. Play has been swallowed by schedule-happy “helicopter” parents, standardized tests, changing family dynamics and even the No Child Left Behind education law, which together stripped kids of hours to hang out or just run around a park like frisky animals. It may seem an innocuous development, but some psychologists worry the loss of play in this era of scheduled childhoods could help explain the growing number of younger children suffering depression, anxiety and other disorders. Read more in The Seattle Post-Intelligencer.