Imaginations More Active Despite Less Play Time, Study Shows

Valerie Rodriguez, left, lies still as a classmate outlines her body during playtime earlier this year at a Head Start program at the George Miller Children's Center in Richmond, Calif.

—Ramin Rahimian for Education Week-File

By Sarah D. Sparks

Students today may have less time for free play, but new research suggests their imaginations have actually sharpened compared with children two decades ago.

In an analysis published in May 2011 in the Creativity Research Journal and posted online last month , researchers from Case Western University in Cleveland found elementary school children in 2008 were significantly more imaginative and took greater comfort in playing make-believe than their counterparts in 1985 despite having less time either during or after school for free play.

“We did think everything was going to get worse, because if play time is going down, you’d think children wouldn’t be able to engage in play as well as they used to,” said Sandra W. Russ, a professor of psychology, who co-authored the study with Case Western doctoral...