Kids Need to Have a Recess for Healthy Psychological and Physical Growth

Imagine a day where you work 8 straight hours with someone telling you exactly what to do all day without a break, now think about how that will make you feel. That is how a kid feels without recess because recess is like our break at work. Recess is a time for kids to play without a teacher telling them how to do it. Research suggests that schools keep recess because it helps students social, emotional, and cognitive development, improves health in students, and helps with students’ academic achievement.

Social and Emotional Development

Social and emotional development during recess is a way for students to independently explore social situations. Recess can be used to help kids “develop important social and emotional skills, which is essential to a well-rounded education”. During recess, kids are encouraged to play with other kids which means they have to figure out how to engage with their peers. Teachers who were asked about recess for kindergarteners said that “social skill building happens during recess for young students”. Students get the chance to be in social situations like play together and resolving conflict without the teacher telling you what to do. This social skill building can help them with their emotional development because they can feel included in games with fellow peers. This is really important for kids with autism because they have a hard time interacting with other people. Autism is a developmental disorder that impairs a person’s ability to communicate and interact which means they “are less engaged in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity than their typical peers and less engaged in social interaction with peers”. Teachers have to do things like “incorporated preferred toys and activities and prompts” for their Autism or ASD kids so they can get the same social benefits that the students get. The difference is that their social benefits have to be a little more teacher-led because of their ability disorder but they still get the chance to benefit from recess. “The ​LiiNK Project​, a school curriculum modeled after one in Finland (whose academic performance consistently ranks in the top five countries in the world—well above the United States)” which makes sure kids' emotional and social health is just as important as their academic goals. An example of the LiiNK Project working is a teacher not taking away recess from kids who aren’t paying attention in class because research has shown that students are more on task after recess”. Recess is also fun for kids so it makes them happier when they have recess. Parents have even noticed how research can benefit their child, they said that their kids “happier, more focused, alert, and refreshed”. Recess benefits kids’ emotional and social development and it also helps students cognitive development.

Cognitive Development

Cognitive development during recess is how students learn to problem solve situations on their own. Cognitive development is how children think, explore, and figure things out. Recess benefits students’ cognitive development because ”students time to learn conflict resolution, sharing, and problem-solving skills that are necessary for student success.” Problem-solving skills in students is a way for students to expand their way of thinking and improve their cognitive development. Recess is a break from the students' learning which allows students to process the information they learned so recess is necessary for cognitive development. Schools are expecting students to do more work than ever before and it starts as soon as kids start school, which can cause students to be stressed out. Recess gives students the break they need to be able to properly manage “the stresses and distractions that normally interfere with cognitive processes are diminished'. Since schools are making kids do more work than ever before then so it is important to give students breaks when they are dealing with “high cognitive loads” like when students are doing school work for hours. The mental break that recess gives students a chance to “refocus cognitively” afterward. Students have a hard time doing their best work when they are just doing work because it doesn’t give them a chance to process the information that they are given. Cognitive development in students is processed through breaks like recess which is also a physical and mental health benefit.

Mental and Physical Health

Students’ mental and physical health improves during recess because they get a mental break and their body is getting exercise. 1 in 10 young people struggle with mental health issues. Since students are dealing with more testing and schoolwork more than ever before it causes them to be more stressed. Schools in the US are trying their hardest to be the best of the best so they are focusing on students’ academic work than things like recess. Schools are shortening recess which makes it harder for students to process information without a mental break. When students are given recess it “affords the opportunity for mental change and physical release”. Students need mental breaks like recess to process information and also to reduce stress. Recess is a benefit to physical health especially in kids because of the “increases in childhood obesity rates“. Obesity rates have gone up but recess in schools is getting shorter. Recess is a physical activity and it has “many health benefits, like prevention and management of cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes, obesity, etc“. Some schools think it’s ok to take away recess because the school offers physical education once a week but kids need to be physically active every day. Recess is a free play for students and if schools don’t think students are getting enough physical activity then they can provide things for kids to be more active. Recess can help mental and physical health but the biggest benefit is an academic achievement because that is what schools thrive off of.

Academic achievement is what schools are pushing for and recess is how they can get it. “Finnish schools provide their students with a first-rate education; however, their students are provided over an hour of recess per day” and this goes with students process information during recess. “Students in Japan score high on national tests. The elementary schools in Japan provide students with up to five recesses per day that range anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes“. “Elementary students in Shanghai, China receive daily recess time that amounts to almost 40% of an entire school day. Even though these students spend more time away from academic work every day, their ability to perform well on academic tasks has not declined”. The top countries academically are countries that give their students more recess. Recess is a break that allows students to process the information so if you give students a break after they learn a lot of information then they will be able to process more information. US school officials should look into other countries’ academic achievement and their recess rates so they can see the correlation between the two. Academically students do better when they are focused, healthy, and happy. Recess gives students all of that because it gives students a mental break and gets them physically active. Be physically active allows students to get the blood circulating to their brain which needs good blood flow to work at the fullest potential. Recess is a benefit for academic achievement so if you want your school to be better then they need more recess.

Conclusion

Recess is needed for kids to grow because it helps students’ social, emotional, and cognitive development, improves health in students, and helps with students’ academic achievement. Recess can help students’ social and emotional development by getting them to interact with peers independently. Recess improves cognitive development by giving them problem-solving skills that they don’t get in a classroom. Recess improves students’ mental and physical health by providing a mental break and allowing students to be physically active. Recess helps academic achievement because the break allows students to process the information that was taught to them. Recess is an important part of young students’ education.