Behaviour Round-up

The latest word from the academic world is: let children get bored, and let them play with guns. Conclusions from two recent studies swim against the tide of current practice in conscientious families. One, by Dr Teresa Belton of the Unversity of East Anglia suggests that children need more unsupervised, unstructured 'boredom time' when they're not being shuttled between sports and drama classes, to let their imaginations roam free. Nannies in particular may feel duty-bound to show their employers how they've been keeping the children on the go - when it seems what they should be doing is making a stand for idleness. Meanwhile research by Penny Holland, a lecturer in early years education at the University of North London, has upset the notion of 'zero tolerance' of gun play. Anyone who's ever kept toy guns and weapons away from little boys knows that sooner or later they'll aim a stick or point a finger at you and go 'Blam blam!' Ms Holland asks what such adult-imposed bans do to the self-esteem of children, who think, 'Boys like guns. You say they are bad things, so does that mean boys are bad?' She found that when playgroups lifted their ban on such play, children did not act more violently, only more imaginatively. Guns were just 'magic sticks' that had a whole range of creative uses.