Evidence is mounting that unsupervised play is critical for children's development. Despite this, many Americans believe that any parent who allows their child to do so, should be charged as a criminal.

The ability to do things like throw, run, catch and jump to a decent level is something that many of us will take for granted. These skills are discussed in the literature under the moniker of 'Fundamental Movement Skills', and children's competencies in performing them have been steadily declining over the past three decades. In this article, I'm going to outline how this is happening, and what the growing consequences of this are.

If you were allowed to play outside as a kid, then these are things that we did with our friends, and often would practice as an incidental part of playing as would naturally, for fun. Some of us would also practice these skills as an incidental consequence of a desire to participate in sport. Those that would play outside a lot as children would tend to be the ones best at sports, and those would train well for sport, would end up being the very best at performing these skills.

While some might think that it's not that big of a deal and that most kids are never going to be the next Lebron or Messi anyway, the repercussions of a population that never learned to move well goes much deeper than not being able to compete in a sport.

It has been shown that children that do not possess good levels of skill in these skills are less likely to maintain good health, less likely to engage in any physical activity, and are subsequently more likely to have poor fitness in their adult years.

Poor physical fitness and lower levels of physical activity have been linked with a whole host of negative health outcomes including not just the obvious ones such as heart disease, obesity and diabetes, but also a whole host of mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, poor self-image and general cognitive decline.

So why is this happening? Well, children, these days are much more protected. We're much more inclined wrap our offspring up in cotton wool. We tell Timmy to not climb the tree, it's too dangerous. Previous generations may have encouraged him to climb it, and if he falls and breaks his arm, then the bone will heal back stronger. Comment below if you remember that it was cool to have a cast on a broken bone when you were a child!

As kids spend more and more time indoors, playing video games and being safeguarded from potential danger, we are putting them in real, proven danger. That is, raising children to be more likely to be last picked for the team, suffer with obesity and be more likely to be diagnosed with a myriad of negative health outcomes.

To sum it up- not only allowing but encouraging kids to play outdoors will help them to develop the movement skills that will enable them to enjoy a continued participation in physical activity, whether that through sport or recreation. This, in turn, would help to stem the increasing levels of a myriad of negative health outcomes for both children and the adults that they grow to be.

Let the children play.

This post was written by me, @MarkCullen. I am in my final year of a B.Sc. (Hons) in Strength and Conditioning and write mainly about interventions and research in the areas of human and athletic development. I encourage you to check out my profile and give me a follow if you enjoy this type of content.