As a child, I pretended to be Anne Shirley from Anne of Green Gables. I was obsessed with the story of an orphaned girl who ached desperately for a family and roamed my neighbourhood in rag dresses and bare feet. In the woods near my house, I created a home out of sticks and branches. I ate pine gum off trees, imagining it was my only food.

When I got older, I learned that pretending to be an orphan is a common theme of childhood play around the world. Unlike many other mammals, human children cannot survive without adults’ care. So they subconsciously fear the loss of that protection and are drawn to stories that help them process that fear. Children’s authors know this. Want a bestseller? Kill off the parents and watch the orphaned character not only survive but thrive—like Harry Potter, who becomes a wizard, or Superman, who can fly and rescue others.

For over 25 years, I’ve dedicated my career to understanding the power of play in child development. I started out developing and facilitating play-based programming for children, then later became a public speaker and workshop presenter in the 2010s. A few years ago, I started to notice a disturbing pattern: across the country, teachers were reporting a rise in anxiety and aggression in their classrooms.

I spoke to one kindergarten teacher whose classes were increasingly filled with aggressive, explosive students. Kids were throwing chairs. Sometimes, if they lost a game or weren’t first in line, they had meltdowns. A parent told me that her nine-year-old constantly fluctuated between clinging and whining to yelling and screaming. He was filled with worries and couldn’t fall asleep at night.

I sought out research to explain what I was hearing and found a connection: a decline in free play is coinciding with this surge in childhood anxiety. Researchers argue that this is not just a correlation. Experimental and theoretical work suggests that a lack of play directly contributes to anxiety and poor emotional regulation.

Today’s children........

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